She Sells Sea Shells

My mother wasn't big on giving my sister, Erva and I allowances, at least not for doing regular everyday chores. The way she explained it is that these were chores we'd always have to do to make our lives more comfortable.  We all know those everyday chores: washing the dishes, sweeping, making the bed, doing laundry and putting the clean clothes away. If we wanted to earn money we had to do something that wasn't so tied to daily living. Like deep cleaning the kitchen cupboards, weeding in the yard, polishing the silver, or sweeping the driveway.

There were other ways I earned money as well. Besides having the monopoly on baby-sitting, I made things from seeds, beads and shells and sold my handy-work in several local shops. I made necklaces and earrings and glued shells to the ends of plastic hor d'oeuvres picks bundling them into lots of a dozen.

I used shells to make pictures, like this one which I made with a ten-year-old girl whom I was teaching to make the flowers.

I think for a first attempt she did a wonderful job. Can you tell my flowers from hers?

I also made shell dolls, like these. 

The skirt is made from sea urchin skeletons. The body is a dove shell, the head a small cowry called a coffee bean. Her hat is a limpet. Her arms are made with the skeletal remains of a sea plant called a sea whip. She has bits of coral to represent a ruffled cape with a rose at her waist.

This one is made entirely of cockles. She has the same kind of arms as the one above and she carries a bouquet. The coral growing on the shells of her skirt add a nice lacy touch.
















She's kind of plain from the back.






















Now, to give you an idea of their size.

Do you make things, have any hobbies?