In this area in Virginia I have seen these cone trees made with Oyster shells. I made one, and then one with mussel shells. The one on the right in the back is made by Liz and shown at http://www.tropicdesignsinc.com/
In this area in Virginia I have seen these cone trees made with Oyster shells. I made one, and then one with mussel shells. The one on the right in the back is made by Liz and shown at http://www.tropicdesignsinc.com/ 
2 comments:
I love that you used a pearl on each shell. Is it a styrofoam cone and did you have to drill holes in each shell to attach them? Kay aka Luvstocraft
In this area where I live (Virginia), there are a lot of oyster fishermen (Chesapeake Bay area). Oysters show up at every event! So, when I saw one of these trees at a Christmas party, I ran to find out how it was made! It is an old art around here. Not my creation, nevertheless, it is still awesome in real life to see.
The styrofoam cone is covered with hot glue or if you use white glue, you will have to wrap it up to hold the spanish moss to the cone till it drys. I, then, give it a hair cut (cut off all wild protruding tendrils from the moss). I drilled holes in each shell where I wanted the 'pearls'. This I did with my Ryobi hand held tool (have to let tool do the work, go slowly). Then, I used (as the lady who made the original tree told me) the kinds of long stick pins that have pearls on the end, I think they are used to hold corsages. I found packages at the craft store with 20 plus in each package inexpensively.
Then, I dipped the sharp end of the pin either in hot glue or white glue and inserted it into the shell hole and hung the shell on the cone tree this way. Because you dip the tip in glue, it won't slide back out if you tip the tree to pack it away (if you use it for a seasonal decoration).
If you make one, Kay, would love to see a picture of how it comes out!
Thanks for visiting and commenting!
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