Sunday, January 18, 2009

Framing Sea Life

I have been asked, "How do I frame sea life?" I shall tell you..................

These are the things you will need:
White glue
Sponge brush
Craft sand
Picture matting(the number of mats you will need will depend on the depth of whatever you are framing)
Heavy cardboard
Tray(or pie plate) Mark the inner most part of the heavy cardboard,which will tell you where you want to spread the glue.You don't want to go all the way to the outer edge.If you do,the mat won't stick to the cardboard.Using the sponge brush,Paint inside the lines with a heavy coat of the white glue.
Press the cardboard into the sand.You will need to really press the sand into the glue.

You may have to repeat this process,to get a good coating of sand.But be sure to let each layer dry thoroughly, first.Or else you will end up with gluey,sandy mess.I know-I did that the first time I tried this.

While the sand is still wet,lay the sand dollar on it(you may want to glue the back of the sand dollar first),and gently press it into the sand.I learned on that one,too.

Let it dry thoroughly.Then give it a coat or two of matte spray urethane.This will keep the sand from working it's way loose,after it is framed.Learned on that,too.Sand drifting down onto the matting doesn't look very good.
(This one doesn't look good,but,then it's just for demonstration purposes.)

This is a miniature whelk I did.I also put footprints in the sand,with the foot of a doll.

Some thoughts on this project:
You could use the sand from whatever beach you collected the shell,sea life,etc. on.I use craft sand,because it is finer.It just seems to work better.
The number of mats you will need will depend on the thickness of the sea life.
You can do this with a shell.If you do that,you will need to use a shadow-box frame,or a frame that has some depth. Or a ton of mattes!
My recommendation: stay with the shadow box frame.






11 comments:

gpc said...

A few years ago, I couldn't figure out how to frame a shell nicely like you do, so I used sandpaper as the background. The result was actually not too bad -- okay, not great, but really not too bad!

Unknown said...

I never thought of sand paper.Good idea,tho!

Gayle said...

This would be a tough project for me as I'm not so patient. Waiting for the glue to dry would be so hard...

Little Black Scrap Cat said...

I can work with this idea! I like it!! And I have Sanibel sand and Sanibel shells..... hmmmmmm.....
Thanks!

Craig Glenn said...

Very nice I love it!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. I hope to see you again soon. I also look forward to checking out all of your blogs.

Craig

Reader Wil said...

How beautiful! Some of them look like the fossils of seaurchins I got from a Danish farmer.

Janie said...

I really like the whelk with doll footprints. Cute idea!

Dani said...

I have a few shells that would look great done up like this. Thanks for the idea!

Baruch said...

That is awesome - you are so creative!

ninja said...

That's some pretty interesting stuff. I'm not really crafty but like to do it anyway. maybe with those good tips I'll get better.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

This is a pretty project which also older children could achieve, (with some help) A good idea to use the shells which have found their way into the suitcases.