When I was a little girl I was a girl scout. It seemed a magical thing when I was 5 and first learned of it. I had to wait until I was seven to join. At the time it seemed the longest 2 years of my life. I actually wondered I'd I would live long enough to be one. (I was a very melodramatic child)
And then, I was old enough. Success! Our first project was a "potato stamp" the less said about that project the better. Our second project was much more to my liking however.
The troop leader took us girls to the ocean (to be honest I don't know if it was a bay, an inlet, or an ocean. ..it was salt water...but beyond that I have no clue.) There were tons of shells. Sand dollars, swirly shells, flat shells, calm shells, oyster shells, muscles shells, razor clam shells, pieces of crabs, and barnacles. Varied sizes, colors, level of completeness, and cleanliness. I felt like a pirate who had crash landed on shores covered in gems...everywhere I looked there was a unique treasure to see!
And then the troop leader passed out bags and said we could take as many items as we could fit in our paper sacks! We could even take rocks!! (This was a huge deal to me as my parents had strict rules about taking rocks from other places and bringing them home) I was suddenly a pirate who had successfully brought my ship, intact, to shores covered in treasure that was now mine for the taking! I will admit I stood staring around at the bounty of shells in sheer frozen delight for at least 10 minutes...unable to decide what to choose.
Of course there was not an unlimited amount of time so eventually I had to get moving. I tried to choose interesting shells. Shells that stood out even amongst the mass of other similar shells. I wanted ones with personality.
Once the time was up our troop leader rounded us up and took us back to our normal meeting place where we cleaned our shells and were told our project. We would be making wind chimes with our shells and other items the troop leader had brought to use. But first we could decorate the shells. Some of my friends chose to glue cotton to their shells. I chose to paint part of my shells with different fingernail polish colors. Mainly gold and red.
I chose several shiny silver fish, some brass bells, a silver fish skeleton to hang stuff off of, and dark purple string. The troop leader showed me how to tie the shells into the string so that they would not fall out and helped me put a string across the top from which to hang it. And once that was finished we got.to wrap them in tissue paper to give to someone. I gave mine to my dad. Who hung it on the porch where everyone who visited could see it.
After over twenty years this is what my wind chime had become: the string had faded to a dirty grayish shade and the whole thing looked bedraggled and disorganized. But my dad still loved it...and then the string it was hung from broke....and my dad asked me if I could fix it. And I took the opportunity to restring the entire chime...slightly restructuring it and breathing new life into the wind chime.
This time I took the opportunity to put bees wax on the string first so that it had a bit of protection from the rain we have so frequently in the Pacific Northwest. It turned out lovely and i fully expect it to be adding lovely sounds to my life every time the wind is up.
Now, as an adult I realize that in my state it is illegal to remove oyster shells from nature. And I am pretty sure that I brought home a few live barnacles. So...this isn't a project I would suggest that anyone goes out and does--at least not before checking local laws.
Happy crafting, sincerely, seckmea.
