Each of us at one time or another has collected seashells and those of us who have kids usually wind up with colorful plastic buckets of them brought back to us and dumped in our laps. These must always be brought home at least according to the kids. Seashells create and maintain memories of perhaps a special vacation or a time of a child's life that must be remembered.
For those of us who are gardeners we can create some really neat things with them either by ourselves or with our kids.
You will need some terracotta pots, some tile cement (from your home center) your collection of shells, pieces of old costume jewelry if you have it, an old kitchen knife, some bits of colored glass gems or whatever is handy. You need some newspaper to spread out and work on or a large piece of plastic.
Make sure your shells are clean by scrubbing and rinsing them and laying them out to dry.
Clean your pot and then thickly spread the tile cement over a section of your pot. It is easier to work in section than to cover the whole pot. According to how you want to arrange your design start adding your shells, colored glass gems, pieces of old jewelry or whatever.
Lay the pot on its side and let the cemented side dry before you work on the next section.
One can get very creative by filling in all parts of the terracotta pot with many interesting pieces or just by putting a few shells on the pot with the tile cement and letting some of the terracotta show through.
Should you be working with kids you may be putting them on the path to becoming young gardeners because they will be very proud of their pot and I would suggest that you give them a permanent magic marker to put their name and the date and perhaps the vacation spot on the bottom of the pot.
Then I suggest you take them to the gardening center to buy an inexpensive plant to put in the pot making them the total custodian of this plant. You may well be surprised what they will learn. This may eventually become a school "show and tell" item for youngsters.
For those of us who have the space, time and really want to get involved in a large project why not consider using your stash of shells and other goodies to create a grotto in your garden or against the wall of your patio.
"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime May your day be filled with
Peace, Light and Love,
Author's note: This article was originally written for GreenThumbArticles.com
