Monday, June 10, 2013

Shell your soul for rock and roll.

     Yeah, I think I'm just gonna keep on with the "labored puns as post titles" bit forever and ever. Cool? Cool. 

     You know how when you're at the beach and you find a cool shell you're like "Oh my Glob, this needs to come home with me, it must happen," but then when you take it out at home you wonder what the hell you're supposed to do with it? Well here's an idea for you! 

     I "found" this shell whilst at the beach last week (meaning someone else found it and left it in the beach grass, presumably when they realized it had a hole in it and tossed it aside, saying "Bah, to a grassy grave with thee, besmirched shell!") and instantly knew what I wanted to do with it, in true "creative vision" fashion. The Lord hath spoken, and he said unto me, "You are gonna make something Pinterest-y as hell with this."


     So when I got it home, the first step I took to fulfill it's destiny was to coat it in high gloss lacquer. Shells are always prettiest when they're wet, but short of keeping shells in the shower (probably dangerous), a coat of lacquer is the next best thing. 

     
     Then to complete the transformation, I grabbed a couple things...


     Namely, a short string of white lights and a pack of the little sticky feet you put on various things to keep them from moving around/scratching things up. 

     I stuck the feet onto the shell to make it sit at the angle I wanted without falling over...



     And threaded the lights through the hole in the back of the shell. If you happen to find a perfect shell that doesn't have a gaping hole in the back, you could still do this project, just buy a string of battery-operated lights instead of the plug-in variety. Then plug it in/switch it on, and you've got a beachy accent light that doubles as a souvenir!


     I love the way the lacquered interior of the shell reflects the little lights. It almost looks like mercury glass at times! And of course, there are a lot of options here. You could paint your shell white for a ceramic look, metallic gold or silver to up the shine factor, or even a bright neon if "1980s surrealist hip-hop mermaid" is more your aesthetic (I can dig that). If you really want to go all out, you could also use colored lights inside the shell. I went for white because sometimes I like to try my hand at restraint, but different colors would create a really cool effect too. 


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