Create Your Own Gorgeous Seashell Wall Hanging

 

 

 

When I was a child I would go to “summer camp” at my Gram and Gramp’s house (my Mom’s adopted parents) and we would paint walking sticks, build bridges over streams, walk to the railroad tracks to look for rail spikes, and make seashell wall hangings. My grandparents traveled to Florida regularly so my Gram had a large seashell collection that we could pull from for our arts and crafts activities. Last summer I decided to make a seashell wall hanging for our new house – it was super fun and I absolutely love the end result. Here are step by step instructions if you want to make one yourself – and if this is just too complicated for you consider making a seashell lamp instead.

Supplies:

• Piece of driftwood
• Seashells – I like to use a wide variety for more visual interest- if you don’t have any on hand make sure you buy them from a sustainable source
• Waxed cord- I used 0.020″ – Natural – Polyester from the Thread Exchange (Waxed Thread – Size 207 (0.02″) – Natural – Polyester – 70 Yards – TubeWAX207BEI201P
• Electric Drill with a 1/16″ bit
• Small thick block of wood

Step One: Lay out all of your seashells and wall hanging supplies on a large table (see above photo). Put the piece of driftwood at the top of your working space and start laying out the seashells in the order you plan to hang them. I created five rows and had the middle row be the longest.

Step Two: Once you have the rows and seashell order finalized you need to drill a hole in each seashell. To do this, put the seashell on the small thick block of wood and carefully drill one hole through the top of the shell. Don’t place too much weight on the seashell as you are drilling down, this can cause the seashell to crack and break. You also need to drill a hole for each row through the driftwood and two holes on either end for hanging it up.

Step Three: Take a long length (~ 60 inches) of waxed cord and starting at the bottom of your first row of seashells run the cord through the hole of the bottom seashell. Tie a small knot (using the end of the cord) very close to the back of the seashell and then take the remaining length of cord and run it through the second seashell from the bottom, tie a knot, and so on until you reach the top seashell in the row. Then insert the top of the remaining cord through the bottom of the driftwood hole and make a knot to secure the row of seashells to the top of the driftwood. I used a small seashell on the top of my driftwood to cover up the knot – you can do the same if you would like.

Step Four: Repeat step three for each row of your wall hanging.

Step Five: Cut a long length of cord and insert it into the underside of the hole on the right end of the driftwood and tie a knot (on the underside of the driftwood), create a triangular shape with the cord and insert the other end in the top of the left end of the driftwood and tie a knot (on the underside).

Step Six: Hang and enjoy!