5.31.2010

What to do with 30lbs of shells?

I love shells, but a lot of times when ever I see shell art or things that are done with all shells they tend to get gaudy, fast. While on vacation, in shellers paradise I might add, I thought to myself, yeah these are pretty but what am I really going to do with these things once I bring them home, thats not tacky, or too beachy. I live in Chicago, my furniture is of the dark variety, it doesn't lend itself to the "beachy" theme.

So my plan was to bring shells that I can group into categories and display somehow in a clean way. This is what I came up with, let me know if anyone has any other suggestions because literally I have about 10 more lbs. of different shells.


My first grouping was a plethora of pink shells that I put around my snake plant in a white ikea planter. They seem to contrast nicely with the variegated green spikes and the white geometric planter. I also added the white shells to a dark planter that my ficus is in, I won't show that one since the planter is not to my liking and am currently searching for something more modern. I'll keep you posted once I find something else.

The other thing that I put together was a bunch of these pearlescent shells, almost capiz like but they aren't capiz and grouped them with a few of the white shells in a round short vase. On top was one of the air plants that I grabbed off of a tree that grew all over the area. I checked, I wasn't stealing, I was actually, come to think of it, propagating. 



These air plants grew in clusters all over trees, and they would attach themselves to the trunk and just grow all over. There were a couple of the larger bromeliads on the tree that I think these spawned from.  You can't see on this pic but they have these tentacles that grow and at the ends are seed pods that when the wind blows it carries and "seeds" itself on a different part of the tree.  

I wish I grabbed more but I wasn't too sure if I would have a hard time bringing these babies home. I was able to wet a paper towel and stick them into a plastic baggie filled with air. Wouldn't you know it, they survived the trip home and are doing pretty well. Every few days I just mist them with some water and a bit of fertilizer.

My biggest coup from the trip was a bunch of barnacles, that I thought I might display on my media stand between the stand and the top shelf that the plasma rests on. I don't know what I was thinking, I thought the space was much bigger than it actually was.  When I brought the two barnacles home, they wouldn't fit in the space so I had to figure an alternative. 


Oh and that beauty sitting next to it is a FARM raised coral from Indonesia, that I purchased in Florida. I have been looking to buy some coral for a long time but they all are very fragile and the bigger they get the more unlikely a place will ship. Most of the ones that I looked at before are pickup only.  I know the coral was farm raised, they were too perfect to be something that was found in the ocean, and I paid about the same amount I would have paid for synthetic coral i.e. plaster. Anywho, the barnacle, those things I was told are a nuisance and grow on most anything. I know this to be true since a ton of shells that I picked up from the beach had tiny clusters of barnacles already forming (you can actually see a barnacle growing on the seashell picture of the potted snake plant).

So for now these specimens are on my console table, hopefully curious little fingers won't go trolling while my back is turned. If you notice I have a clear plastic stand to prop the coral on and the barnacles have these felt stickers on them, both of these are really sharp and will scratch up the wood mighty easily.  



As for whats on the media stand between the shelves, well that's a work in progress yet again. I'm hoping to fill it with some objects that are bright that will stand out amongst all that dark wood. Back to the drawing board for now.







1 comment:

  1. Beautiful photographs. I just came across your site and find it very unique...thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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