i make a point to collect sea shells whenever i'm at a beach. my faves are scallops, welks, and sand dollars. of course, the sand dollars are always broken up so i call them fifty cent or quarter pieces! the larger shells are in my curio cabinet. i recently made a wreath with a bunch of smaller shells. used a grapevine wreath with spanish moss covering 3/4's of it and then hot glued shells onto it. left it that way and hung it up. note: shells are heavy so use a heavy type glue and a strong hanger. i glued a piece of coat hangar onto the back. it turned out really nice for its simplicity.

another note: it is important to remove any remaining parts of the critter that lived in the shell (esp. welks) as they will stink very badly! i used a q-tip because i could bend it to fit into the spirals. also, soaking them in bleach will kill any remaining bacteria and the smell. i mix bleach with water (kinda like when doing the wash). let them soak for a few days, then rinse, and let them dry. you can take some varnish (clear, matte or glossy) and coat your favorites if you like. i leave mine in their natural st te but out of the sun (due to bleaching). there are lots of books out there for quick identification but i haven't actually purchased one yet. will get some links to post here as soon as i can.

OOoh, Wolf, May I link this to Geo as well? I ama malacologist from way back and have an extensive collection which are kept is several plastic cases with clear drawers (which crafters use and in which men keep their screws and other widgets) Mine are all catalogued and labelled and the log kept in a book. I have lovely spider whelks from Kwajalein Island in the Solomons and fun things like that which students used to bring back to butter up the professor via his wife. It worked for me!!! I put a wir cage of hardware cloth over my shells to be cleaned and our carnivorous ants pick them clean. Then I soak them in a dilution of bleach ( no stronger than 1/3 bleach to 2/3 water or your will etch the calcium of the shell.) Then dry them in the sun and that is it!

I have lots of field guides to shells - one of the best being in the Peterson series. I highly recommend it.

Ah Wolfie, I couldn't wait - so we are linked for our third time ...yippee!

And Marcia is a malawhat?

Was es das?

Malacologist - seashell studier rather than just a collector.

cool! i like being linked. so i have a question, ms malacologist: are shells of a certain type all marked the same (i.e., rusty stripes against a white background) or are they individualized? and exactly what kinda critter can squeeze into a sand dollar?

Just as plants have family, genus and species, so do shells. The gastropods include the whelks and conches, and under these are individual species which differ quite widely. Bivalves are the clams, musssel and oyster families and there are many genera under each classification. Snd so on...*grin*

Links are cool and edgy. I like'um! Sand dollars (of which I have no specimen in my collection since I have never been where they live) are related to sea urchins, and the critter who lives in it is pretty simple and very flat. They have mouth parts extending out of the central aperture of the flat side of the "shell" and when they are live, there is varying amounts of "felt" covering it depending on the species.

cool! i found various sites for shells and all of theirs were shiny and pretty. mine are rather dull. i'm afraid to take anything to them (like my drummel buffer bit)....have learned that i own 4 sundials! i have a ton of scallops with varying patterns. and have a couple of really ugly shells that i think are oysters. is there a way for me to buff it up to find the beauty?

Aha! No, get the cheapest colorless nail polish you can find and thin it to about 1/2. Lacquer your shells and they will be lovely and shiney, too! Works for beach pebbles as well, if you like the "wet" look!

Oysters can be wire-brushed if you are talking about the outside. Otherwise, try them wet and see if that improves the color. If so, lacquer them as well. I have some wee teeny sundials and one about the size of a nickel. Flattened gastropods and Really pretty!

what do i thin it with? (ok, i'll hush and go now *grin*)

and about the oysters, are they supposed to be pretty underneath all that dark stuff?

Don't go...I forgot to tell you acetone or the cheapest polish remover you can find. Make that dilution 1/3 acetone and 2/3 polish for shells. For stones use 1/2 to 1/2.

Nah - Oyster shells are only pretty inside if they are pretty at all, and after they have been cooked, forget it! The insides of oyster shells are what the animal secretes to make pearls so it is pretty soft. If it has been in the surf it is almost beyond salvaging except as an example of an oyster shell.

Yummy! oh, eh...sorry!

Malaco-, eh, cool! I only knew "mala-djusted"... ;=}

i think mine were in the water awhile so they must be hopeless. i'll try scrubbing them and see what happens!

Next time AM takes you for seafood, save one of the raw shells - the prettiest one inside (the outsides are a total loss anyway!)

he doesn't do oysters, at least that i know of. the AM is into clams! and those shells aren't very pretty (and have been cooked!).... (and look at that forget button *grin*!!!)

Bummer - someone is Looziana must eat'um raw... Isn't it Purty?! *smiling broadly* We dood it!!! Mahalo plenty, Dear!

not a problem!! sorry about the white border...will keep at it though. i shall go and dream of shells and rocks! maybe this weekend i'll scan a few more rocks and start on some shells. it'd be neat to have some eye candy! (but i promise, terry, i'll keep em small, or post them somewhere else to save space *smile*)

Keep 'um small or send them as files and we can discuss them. Those you have done so far don't amount to much at all - bet there is junk email in boxes unread and undeleted amounting to far more than that! It is surprising how much I could tell about that glass pebble from your descriptions and analysis when I could see it. The boot remains unknown to me. Cannot find anything like it. Does it feel heavy enough to be stone?

Yaknow, even with the white borders, now that Visto is red, and my horzibars are white, it looks very nice...with the complete set up there. I am all happy and content with the elegant new look along with the most endearing original look...

here's an interesting link: http://www.ma.iup.edu/MathDept/Projects/CalcDEMma/SeaShellCode.html and here's another: http://www.susqu.edu/facstaff/b/brakke/complexity/LAVELLA/seashell.htm

Susquehanna University?! Near Penn State (relatively, that is) for the second one. Thanks, Wolfie, and more *hugs* for using the Geo link...it looks better if there is traffic in here. And, you can admire your buttons *grin*

and another link: http://www.seashellworld.com/seashells.htm

Ooooh, Splendid. I can ID shells as well as rocks. Have you found one you cannot identify?

they do rocks there too? didn't notice that. clicked on sundials but only one kind was shown. will do more looking though!

No, but I do *grin*

i finally got a shell identification book. it's one of those eyewitness handbooks and it has lots of info. there's are all shiny and pretty and mine are, well, they're glued to a grapevine wreath *grin* (which fell down and still hasn't been fixed).....

Hey, there's a good excuse to go back to the seashore to look for goodies. Winter throws the best ones up on the beaches - I miss beach combing...! I know how to make your old matte-finished finds look all shiney, too!

we've talked about the nail polish and stuff, but how do they polish it?

It dries shiny. Not all that different from what the snail secretes - at least in the old days before plastics and epoxies. There is no other way that I know of to bring back the polish from an sand-abraded sea shell.

well, you could wax them or oil them but they get sticky with oil....

i dunno....maybe i'll just leave them alone for now.....

That or flock them up one side and down the other - if we're still talking wreath, here! (Where is that Crafts conference?!)

...or paint 'um green for St Patrick's Day or red, white and blue for just about any reason... Or, of course, just leave 'um alone for now...

i know, right! gotta run, have that big test in the am.....*HUGS*

*Hugs* wolfie - knock 'um dead!!!