Community Chat

[SilleeMee]

There are no real beaches here in Colorado. But there are some very beautiful lakes that I visit occasionally and I like to collect rocks. I have used them for various crafts and decorative items. I'm a rock hound.

[FastDogWalker2]

I look for sea glass and shells.  I don't craft with them but like to display them in the summer.  We live in a beach community and although I don't do any full on beach decor, I do like a few nods to the beach-shells and sea glass come in handy.  We like to display them in glass jars marked with the date so we can tell which year they were collected.

[Yahooey]

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@shoptilyadropagain wrote:

I go shelling at the beach (or rather I used to) but I'm not into crafts and don't use them for that.  I buy glass vases  and fill them with my favorite shell (usually Olives) and keep them in my bathroom and I have one at work.  I also have a lamp in my bedroom that is hollow and glass that can be filled and It is also full of Olive shells.  

I rarely look for them anymore.  I have hundreds and have throw hundreds away and I've even sold bags of them at garage sales.  I don't have any more room for another vase or bowl of shells.

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@shoptilyadropagain

I looked up Olives and what do you know, I collect them too when I see them at St Pete Beach in Fl. I favor certains shells but never know the name of them. I usally have a lot in the hotel room and will only take a few home. My largest Olive is about 3 inches long. My last visit I was looking for these, do you know the name of them? 

Funny story, I always find empty shells and the live ones are are super tiny along the shore line. When it was low tide, I ventured out and got a few of the ones pictured. As I was rinsing them, there was a stubbor shell that was stuck and I cound't get it out. IT MOVED - obvious not a stuck shell but a door lol. I threw them all back but it made me smile.

[Lucky Charm]

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@Yahooey wrote:

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@shoptilyadropagain wrote:

I go shelling at the beach (or rather I used to) but I'm not into crafts and don't use them for that.  I buy glass vases  and fill them with my favorite shell (usually Olives) and keep them in my bathroom and I have one at work.  I also have a lamp in my bedroom that is hollow and glass that can be filled and It is also full of Olive shells.  

I rarely look for them anymore.  I have hundreds and have throw hundreds away and I've even sold bags of them at garage sales.  I don't have any more room for another vase or bowl of shells.

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@shoptilyadropagain

I looked up Olives and what do you know, I collect them too when I see them at St Pete Beach in Fl. I favor certains shells but never know the name of them. I usally have a lot in the hotel room and will only take a few home. My largest Olive is about 3 inches long. My last visit I was looking for these, do you know the name of them? 

Funny story, I always find empty shells and the live ones are are super tiny along the shore line. When it was low tide, I ventured out and got a few of the ones pictured. As I was rinsing them, there was a stubbor shell that was stuck and I cound't get it out. IT MOVED - obvious not a stuck shell but a door lol. I threw them all back but it made me smile.

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Those are conch shells.  They have *creatures* in them that look like large tongues....lol.  They get much bigger than that.  You hold them to your ear and you can hear the sea.

[chrystaltree]

Not now, I'm not a crafter.  When I was a kid, right through my teen years, I collected interesting shells and sea glass. 

[shoptilyadropagain]

@Yahooey,

@Lucky Charm is correct, those are small conch shells.  I have a couple large ones and several about the size in the picture.  

[Puzzle Piece]

Depends.  I have to really like the shell and there are so many people that go to the beaches here, you are fortunate to find any. 

I do have a shell collection of sort.  Found out it's very 'Victorian' of a female to collect them.  That's okay with me.  I like many of the object of nature and would rather have them than a lot of junk that passes itself off as art or home decor.  I care for my shells. 

[Yahooey]

@Lucky Charm@shoptilyadropagain

ewww large tongue - I'm glad it shut its door on me than coming out to say hello. Since I'm only thigh deep (5'1") and at low tide, these are the sizes available to me. I was just excited to fine something alive. 

To find large ones that you can hear the ocean, you must be a diver.

[Wannabeincali]

@qualitygal

Past:

Years ago, when I was a young teen, we knew an elderly lady at the beach, who made jewelry using beach pebbles she collected. She used this loud, incredibly noisy machine called simply a ROCK TUMBLER. I see that they still make them. It was similar to this one:

It would whirl around for hours...maybe days? and produce the most stunningly beautiful, smooth, polished rocks! I do not remember if she also shaped them, nor how.

....too late to ask, as this sweet lady passed on many many years ago....

I loved looking at the before and afters of these little beach pebbles. I wish I had been older when I knew her, so that I may have had the sense and wisdom to truly appreciate, watch, and learn her craft. But as with most silly young girls my age, all I cared about back then, was to bake in the sun for hours (oh gosh!!! No spf, either, back then!!), and meet and flirt with older boys on the beach. sigh lol.

She truly made some masterpieces.

Present:

I love the beach. The glorious sights of the sun beating down on the shore and glistening the ocean;  the sounds of the crashing waves, the briney smell of sea spray --- I love it all. Whether in the sunny heat of summer, a rainy spring day, or a windy Fall, the beach is where I long to be as much as possible. I do collect (and wash!!) seashells and rocks. I love putting them in bowls to decorate around the beach house. I used to make seashell shadow boxes, similar to this one (NOT my photo -- this one is from an e-store):

Michaels Crafts has loads of frames. I used burlap as the backdrop. I hot glued the shells on. I prefer shadowboxes because there is no glass to worry about. HOWEVER, I learned the hard way to make sure you use a glass front frame IF ypu plan to hang your work up in a hot, STEAMY bathroom! Ugh. Lol. Since then, I use the shadowboxes in rooms other than shower areas.  I did eventually find some boxes with glass fronts, used those in the bath area, and disaster averted!

[Moonchilde]

I'm not a "beach" person, as in putting a blanket on the sand and hanging out all day. I have fair skin, and in the days before decent sunscreens I had my share of 1st and 2nd degree burns. Plus now, "orthopedically" I can't do a lot of stairs, inclines, or getting up and down from the sand.

But - I am an ocean person, and love to just sit on a bench somewhere and inhale the sea air and the sights and sounds, and I do so fairly frequently.

If I was able to be a beachcomber and lived near a beach which was known for having it, I'd search for sea glass. I discovered sea glass last year. So unique!