Natural handpainted shells and pearls in a frame

Make your interiors stand out with the stunning beauty of real sea shells! The addition of my handmade art will add a touch of luxury to your interiors and remain a timeless decoration.

This piece is a natural St. Jacob’s scallop shell , showing the beauty of nature, hand-painted in a modern minimalistic style and decorated with faux gold leaf and metallic wax paste. Installed in a deep dispaly box with a plexi-glass (plastic) in front. The background is made with black sea sand texture paste that adds interesting surroundings. In addition to that, I installed inside each shell natural (sweet water) pearls. What a subtle energy combination!

This unique shell can be an eye-catching decoration not only at home but also at the reception desk of a hotel, restaurant or cafe. It will be perfect as a wedding, anniversary or birthday gift, as a vessel for wedding rings and jewelry, or simply as an independent, one-of-a-kind interior decoration.

Materials used: St. Jacob’s scallop shell, deep display box, acrylic paints, gold leaf, wax paste, sweet water pearls, sand, mounting glue, final varnish.

If you want to dust off this artwork; clean it gently with a dry cotton or microfiber cloth. Do not use any cleaning agents. The front frame is plexi-glass. I don’t recommend cleaning it with paper towel as they scatch the surface of the plexi.

More about my process of painting these shells is as follows:

1. They were collected on the beaches of Zeeland in the Netherlands. The exception are St Jacob scallops, which I usually buy in a fish shop.
2. Later they were cleaned and ozonated to remove any unwanted odor.
3. Then they were covered with a layer of gesso primer.
4. Once the primer had dried, they were ready to be painted using high quality acrylic paints, often requiring 2-4 coats.
5. The acrylic layers were covered with metallic wax paste.
6. I often use gold leaf (gold flakes) at this stage.
7. Finally, they were varnished to protect the colors for many decades.