I have had so many compliments on this, I decided to share it with you.I have never seen this done, but if you have I would like to know. We were camping on Edisto Beach SC last spring. I went on my usual mission of collecting shells and other treasures.I must have been on this little inlet for hours searching, when what to my wondering eyes should appear? I hit the mother load!( in my eyes anyway) I found at least 2 dozen starfish up towards the drier part of the inlet, as well as sea urchins. Whoo hoo!!!Understand, I have never seen a sea urchin in it's natural state so I was so excited, and hadn't seen a starfish in years!
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| The Sea Urchins were either, pink, green, or purple. Some had the quills on them and some didn't. |
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| These particular star fish are very gray in color and some what smooth. |
I rinsed the urchins and the starfish in fresh water, then added just a little bleach to some more fresh water. I wasn't sure what bleach would do to to Them so I was being very careful.I let them dry in the sun for several days. The colors were still beautiful on the urchins, and the starfish was just a bit lighter. I hardened them both the same way I do a sand dollar. Equal parts water and Elmer's glue. The starfish became very flimsy when wet.. and still didn't seem hard enough, so I got out some enamel paint and painted it a very light color.I had no idea what I was going to do with the starfish, but had plenty of uses for the urchins
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| I figured it was good and hard with the paint on it, so I decided to wrap it in sisal.I used my glue gun and glued the sisal to the starfish as i wrapped it.I got all the legs done and hmmmm....what now? The sea urchins were just the right size to fit in the center of the starfish. I had painted the starfish light enough that you couldn't tell there is a little bare spot where the sisal ends. |
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| I added an urchin to the other side of the starfish, and adorned it with some old pearls from some old earrings, at the end of each leg and in the center of the urchin. On the top I used part of the earring ,opened up a hook and now it can be hung . I am going to make several in different sizes and place them in a bowl or make a garland. |
2 comments:
Very pretty. I just recently found some urchins for the first time - in Captiva. They were really interesting looking. They are now dried out and the needles have fallen off.
They are so cool aren't they? I wasn't sure if they were called needles or quills, LOL. I dried some out with the needles on also and used them on my seashell wreath.
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