Coastal Crafts: Seashell Covered Wood Seahorse Wall Art

I’ve been collecting seashells for 35+ years. When I say collecting, I’m talking about seashells that I’ve personally picked up off of a beach somewhere during our travels. I have 6 boxes of labeled shells that are for my collection and then I have 8-10 plastic storage crates full of shells that I use in crafting projects or home decorating projects. Yes, I have thousands of them in my collection.

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A few months ago I saw a photograph over on Pinterest where someone covered a wooden seahorse with hundreds of seashells. I fell in-love with that project and knew that I wanted to make one someday. Well, that time has come and I’ve completed my first one!

Hubby and I did a search through Google images for the perfect FREE seahorse template. We resized it to our specific needs and then printed it out. We had to print it onto multiple sheets of paper and then tape them together. We used scissors to cut around the shape. We now had our paper template-pattern.

We use a lot of pine wood in our projects because hubby gets a slew of free wooden pallets at work. He brings them home, tears them a part and we use the wood to make our projects. He had to put together several pieces of the wooden pallet with nails, screws and wood glue until we had a rectangular shaped piece that was big enough for our paper template.

Taped down the paper template onto the wood and he used his saw to cut around it. He used his sander to smooth down the edges and just like that we had our wooden seahorse! I would estimate that its about 2 foot to 2 1/2 foot tall in size.

You’ll need a slew of tiny, small and medium sized seashells to make this project. I like neutral colors so I primarily stuck with my white, ivory, pale peach and pale pink shells. Sort the shells by type and size. Then you’ll want to work in sections. Lay out a pattern with your shells that you like. It doesn’t have to be exact and use it as guidance.

I found that it was easier to do my outline pieces first. If you look at my seahorse you will see that I used a lot of scallop shells for the outline. After your outline is done place some of your medium-sized shells in the center of the body and then fill around everything with your tiny and small shells. You’ll want to over-lap and stack some on top of others to add depth and interest. Try to cover as many of the nooks and crannies that you can.

Let’s talk about glue and adhesives. I found that using E6000 adhesive glue worked fantastic for this project, especially when putting on the outline shells and the medium-sized shells. I’m not a fan of hot glue for this type of project as I find that over time they will fall off. E6000 is a very strong adhesive glue so you do need to be careful to not get it onto your skin. If you do, use a dab of fingernail polish remove to get it off and then wash your hands with soapy water.

You can find hundreds of different marine animal templates and patterns online that you can print off and use. Resize them to suit your own needs. I’m working on a few more at this time. A dolphin, tropical fish, whale, crab, lobster, mermaid tail, etc. I have a lot of people asking me to make them one, so I’ve been busy working on them. Luckily we live 3 1/2 hours from the coast and spend a lot of time down at the beach!

Don’t live near a beach? You can purchase shells at your local craft supply store, from Amazon, Dollar-Type of stores, at Yard Sales, etc. You can also ask friends & family members to pick them up for you when they’re traveling to the beach on vacation.
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