#seashell mirror

Strawberries and Yellow Littorina Finish the Sunrise Mirror

After giving my yellow seashell mirror and myself a good night’s rest, I woke the next morning excited to receive a couple small orders of seashells. I had placed orders with two esty seashell suppliers, Seashell Mart and Live Coastal. It was my first time ordering from both of them, and I will happily order from both again. Both companies sent beautiful seashells, very nicely packed. They arrived very quickly and I am very happy to have found new seashell resources, particularly ones on etsy.  I love the experience of selling on etsy, and I love supporting the many other wonderful etsy sellers.

One of the orders included a small baggie of strawberry cone shells. The warm orange of these shells would compliment the yellow of the mirror, and add a little more interest. I sorted through the beautiful, clean strawberry cone shells, and found ones that were all the same size.  I settled them in between the cockle shells. They bridged the size gap between the tiny nassa and littorina shells and the larger cockle shells, and they added another color from the same warm palette. I thought that they mellowed the mirror. I fussed a little with their exact angle and placement, and then glued them into place. With the addition of the orange strawberries, the mirror looked less like a sun and more like a sunrise. The slight pink hues in the cockle shells were brought out a little, with the addition of the strawberries, and the whole piece felt softer.

With the strawberries in place, my final task was to fill the gap between the cockle shells and the outer row of littorina. On any seashell project, the last area to fill is always the hardest for me. The area is slightly irregular. While the other shells were approximately the same size, there was some natural variation, and this was the space that adjusts to allow for any differences. On this mirror, this last area was not a straight row, since the shells that filled it would need to spread around the cockle and strawberry shells, as well as beside the outer littorina. I generally really like clean lines, and it would be nearly impossible when filling this last space.

I tried a few different arrangements. My first instinct was to fill the area with yellow littorina. This created a vibrant color and some low texture, and allowed the detail of the inner ring to stand out. I filled in a bit of the area, but didn’t glue it. I liked it, but I wasn’t convinced that it was the best option. I wondered if simply adding more yellow littorina would be too plain. The inner ring was so interesting, and I didn’t want the final part of the mirror to be boring in comparison.

I experimented with some more complex configurations. If I was going to add other shells, my instinct was to add more nassas, since they would pull together the inner and outer parts of the mirror frame. A entirely new shell might be too jarring in a piece that already had so much interest.

The main issue with the nassa shells was figuring out how they could fill in an irregular area while looking intentional. They did vary in size, but not enough for them to fill the area and face the same direction. I could vary their direction to fill in the space, but that looked random and clumsy. I then tried to pattern their placement, so that their direction varied, but with in an organized manner. This, too, looked awkward.

I then tried placing a couple nassa accents surrounded by littorina. This would give me both a strong yellow and more detail. I added two nassas, angled outward from the strawberry shells. I wasn’t sure that I liked the effect. The nassas seemed like they were just interrupting the stream of littorina shells, rather than complementing each other. As I looked at the mirror as a whole, all the nassa shells and yellow littorina faded together, both on the inner ring of shells and the outer ring. There was no focal point, and while there was some variation and texture, the details were lost.

I still felt hesitant committing to a pattern. I was drawn most strongly toward the simple littorina, but not sure of my instincts. For 3 days I stalled indecisively. Over and over again I came back to the mirror, changing a part of it, them changing it back. Not wanting to rush into a design that I would regret, I tried to be patient. I didn’t want to add detail merely for the sake of adding more detail.

Finally, I realized that if I felt that simpler was better for this piece, I should follow my instinct. It was very hard to trust myself. What this piece needed was balance, not more detail. After 3 days of staring and fussing and taking the shells off and putting them on again, I made my final design choice for my sunrise mirror, and pulled out the glue.

In the end, the simple yellow littorina allowed the rest of the piece to shine, and made the bright sunrise a promising one. Filling the mirror with its final burst of yellow littorina, I smiled at the effect. This strong, sunny presence smoothed out the sunrise, and the simplicity of the yellow allowed the other detail to shine. The tiny seashells had the effect of beads, carefully settled in together as a sunrise mosaic. It was a happy little mirror, and I was happy with my work.

See the Sunrise Seashell Mirror on Etsy

Bright Sunshine Mirror is Nearly Finished!

I again sat down with my round, sunshine mirror, feeling down right giddy. I really liked the way the nassa and littorina seashell ring turned out, and I was excited to continue. To begin, I had two tasks. The first was to add tiny yellow littorina on top of the nassa shells, where they met each other. The extra yellow dots made the mirror feel playful, and added a bit more depth and texture.

My second task was to enclose the outside of the ring. On the inside (next to the mirror), it had bright yellow littorina dots, and it needed a strong color to balance on the other side of the nassa shells. I played with a few ideas, but decided to match the outer side and the inner side of the ring. I sorted yet more yellow littorina shells, and lined them up, gluing them around the nassas. When this yellow ring was complete, I again added tiny littorinas on top of the meeting point of the nassas.

It was a very clean and detailed circle of shells. I felt that the outer portion of the mirror frame should have larger shells to contrast the detail of this inner portion. I wanted seashells that were uniform in shape and size, and that fit perfectly together. I pulled out a couple large baskets that housed medium sized shells, all sorted into ziplock bags. As I sifted through the bags, two possibilities caught my eye. One was a large collection of calico scallops covered in barnacles, and the other was a smaller collection of soft orange-yellow cockle shells.

Both collections belonged to my great-grandmother, Ann. She and my great-grandfather, Elmo, traveled the world collecting seashells and rocks, and I was blessed to inherit a great number of the seashells. I played with the calicos a bit. I liked them, and often used them when I wanted a large pop of color. When I first received the collection of scallops, there were easily more than a hundred shells. They were an inch or two, and a lovely speckled purple. Over the years, I’ve used up a great many, and the ones that I have left are rather rough looking. Many have barnacles, which can look very cool if they are intact. These particular shells that were left, though, had gray, broken barnacles, as well as a fair amount of calcium build up. A few of the calicos were nice, but there were not enough to encircle the mirror, so I decided they were not the right option for this project. 

The yellow cockle shells I had never used. They had struck me as a very simple shell, and I had always passed over them, but they seemed a great fit for this sunny mirror. I wanted simple and clean, and their soft orange and yellow with hints of pinks was perfect for this theme and color palette. I lined them up on the mirror frame, seeing firstly if there were enough to use, and how they fit around the mirror. There were more than enough, and plenty of the right size. I pulled them off and gave them a good wash, soaking them for about half an hour in a weak beach and water solution. After rinsing them and drying them thoroughly, I brought them back to the mirror to see exactly where and how they should be placed.

At first, I tried the cockles on the outer edge of the frame. They were the big, bulging sunshine rays radiating outwards. This offered me the challenge of filling the little gaps on the edge where the shells curved. I played around with nassa shells in the gaps, but they looked like flies to me, and I didn’t want flies buzzing around my sun. I tried more yellow littorina in the gaps, but that seemed rather awkward and forced. I rotated the cockles, trying them in different directions. When I turned the shells upside down like bowls, the pink color was displayed brightest, but they looked very odd floating so tall above everything else. I tried to think of ways to fill in the remaining part of the frame to bridge the height difference. Nothing occurred to me that wasn’t awkward next to the clean and intricate inner row of tiny shells, so I flipped the cockles back over.

Finally, I moved the cockle shells farther inside the frame, touching the yellow littorina. This looked much better. I made sure that I could find a nice way to fill the gaps between them and the littorina, using more nassa shells (in a way that did not look like flies). I glued them all into place. I thought that the shells seemed to flow into one another, and I loved the large cockle shells surrounded by tiny nassas. I wasn’t entirely sure how I wanted to finish the piece, but I knew that I wanted a clean and simple outer edge. I didn’t want any shells hanging over the side. The inner ring had such clean lines, and I wanted the outer edge to match. I added a single row of yellow littorina shells to create an orderly outside edge.

I was once again feeling very pleased with the sunshine mirror, and also at a loss as to how to continue. I was nearly finished. All that remained was the small area between the cockle shells and the outer row of littorina. I put the piece aside for the night, and let it settle in my mind. Often a little distance allows space for a solution to come to me. The sun would sleep for the night, and so would I.

Yesterday evening I came back to work on the round mirror that had given me a bit of trouble. I elected to keep the yellow littorina seashell row. I still couldn't see how it would look as I continued to make it, but I decided to embrace it, and see where it would go. Over the last couple days, I have often stared at the mirror's frame, trying to envision what it would look like with various seashell layouts. I became drawn to the idea of a ring of nassa shells, though it's not a look that I often use. I sat down and sorted a little collection of large nassa shells, and lined them up on the mirror, radiating out from the center. The circle and the yellow shells reminded me of the sun, and I let that inspiration lead me for a while. They looked strong and purposeful. Very energetic. I still couldn't envision what I would do next, but I pulled out my 527 glue and committed to the nassa rays. 

As I attached the shells, I thought of adding a second row of nassas, just behind the first. Also radiating outward, they would strengthen the sun's rays, and help create a focal point. I finished the first row happily, and began to line up the second row. Unfortunately, they didn't fit well. If I had planned the design of the mirror, I would have laid out the shells at the start, and I would have seen that I should have used small nassas for the inner row, and larger ones for the second row, so they fit together snugly. As it was, I hadn't know my next step, and the large nassas didn't fit well behind nassas of the same size. Since I couldn't think of nice skinny seashell to fit between them in the gaps, I abandoned the idea and moved on. 

I tried adding a narrow apple blossom path, but it looked unfinished and a bit crude. I often put seashell flowers on top of seashell ground covering like apple blossoms, but I didn't think I wanted seashell flowers on this piece. I tried another row of yellow littorina, so that they would encircle the nassas on both sides. They didn't fit well either. 

Feeling a little lost, I poured some nassa shells back on the frame. I really liked the idea of widening the nassa ring, but I still couldn't see how it could work. I tried angling the second row of nassas sideways, which didn't fit and didn't look very good. Finally, I flipped the nassa shells around, and I was delighted to see that they fit snugly between the first row, like gates locking closed. It was an interesting design. Not one that I had used before. As I began gluing the shells into position, I felt very elated. A new design! I'm sure that I'm not the first one to come up with this layout, but it felt invigorating finding something new to use in my work. It not sure if it's a still a sun, but it feels strong, and is a nice wreath to bring the eye toward the center. 

Now, if only I knew what to do next...

larkonthesand.com