Easy Seashell Decorative Bowl - Bring the Beach into Your Home!

I love this idea - it's so simple, yet so beautiful.

What you need:
- Large glass bowl
- Sand
- Seashells of various sizes

Instructions:
1. Pour out some sand into your glass bowl and arrange it so that it's covering the entire bottom of the bowl.
2. Pour sand into any shell that you can fit it. This is to weigh the shell down a bit so that it stays in place better.
3. Arrange shells however you wish in the sand in your bowl and you're done!

I have my own seashell bowl sitting on the coffee table, but this would be a great center piece for a dining room table or in your bathroom. You can also put some votive candles in the sand to give it a little romantic flair!

What are the Best Spots for Collecting Seashells?

So, you want to start collecting seashells? Great! Sea shell collecting is a fun and rewarding hobby. But, where do you start? Obviously, the first place you'll want to check is the sandy beach. Empty shells are washed up onto the beach by the tides all the time so this is a great place to start. Unfortunately, this is also where you'll find the fewest intact shells. Often the shells found in the sand have been tossed around underwater by storms and have been cracked, broken or otherwise damaged. To find the best and most complete shells you will have to check some less obvious places.


Scuba diving is a great way to find high quality shells (to learn more about the ins and outs of it, I highly recommend the books located here). Get some snorkeling gear and goggles that will allow you to see well underwater and check the sea floor near the shoreline. This is where you might find some shells that have recently been abandoned. You will need to be able to see clearly underwater to see these shells since they will most likely be camouflaged. Also, since they're so recently abandoned, they should have little to no damage. I would recommend reading up on the shell creatures that you're most likely to find at your local beach so you know where they typically hang out. This will give you a good starting place on where to look for these recently discarded sea shells. You might even find a few other interesting things... like shark teeth!

A few places underwater that typically have a lot of shells are near octopus homes (you will see a lot of broken, discarded shells near an octopus home). You will probably also have a lot of luck near places where the shoreline makes a crevasse like a 'V' or 'U'. Again, you will find a lot of broken shells and pieces of shells here. Search through the rubble and you will probably find a nice treasure.

At low tide, you might have some luck digging around in the mud flats. Follow the trails left by mollusks and you will probably find their discarded shells. A small shovel or rake will help you dig.

Another great place to look is on a rocky coastline a few days after a big storm. When a storm comes along, the little shell creatures get tossed around and they are sometimes tossed on the rocky areas. There, they get themselves stuck in between a few rocks. Wait a few days to allow nature to take it's course then go pick up the beautiful, fresh shells for your collection.

A good general tip for seashell hunting is to hunt on beaches that have few people. There will be less people picking up and/or stepping on the shells and you will be more likely to find a great shell. Try to locate the spot where waves crash before rolling up onto the shore. This is where the waves will be depositing the most shells before eventually washing them up onto the shore.

Hope these tips help! Good luck and happy hunting!

Why are Seashells Different Colors?

Seashells are some of the most beautiful, mysterious and interesting products of ocean life (at least in my humble opinion). They have been incorporated into human societies for thousands of years as tools, art, jewelry, and money. Sometimes even as religious icons or symbols.

The colorful shells that we pick up in the sand on beaches are created by marine mollusks which are generally defined as soft-bodied invertebrates that create calcified shells for protection, camouflage and/or a place to live. Typically we're referring to snails, sea slugs and even squids and octopi (which do not have hard shells, but are still part of the mollusk family). The shells are composed mostly of CaCO3, or calcium carbonate, which is also found in rock, eggshells, and pearls and is the main cause of hard water. But, CaCO3 is white in color. The colors we see in seashells are often caused by impurities and waste from the organism captured in the shell when it is formed. Coloration is dictated mostly by diet and the water environment the creature lives in. For example, cowries that live and feed on coral, have shells that take on the same hues as the coral. This natural chemical reaction also helps to protect them from predators by allowing them to blend in with their environment.

What about all those iridescent shells that are multicolored and shiny? There's a different process that creates that effect. This iridescence is called mother-of-pearl and is caused by a coating of nacre on the shells. The nacre is secreted by oysters and some other mollusks to protect their bodies from parasites and disease. The nacre coating is very thin, in the range of several hundred nanometers thick, but is very strong and resilient. This nacre is also the same substance that composes pearls.