Archive for Decorate with shells
Melinda Graham’s Seashell Wedding Dress
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This wedding gown embellished with seashells would be any bride’s dream come true.
Artist and interior designer Melinda Graham made this stunning dress for the 2012 Shellabration fashion show celebrating the 75th Sanibel Shell Fair and Show earlier this month.
She painstakingly sewed and glued shells, beads and pearls for an extraordinarily elegant silhouette.
Her artistry in every detail is phenomenal.
I’m in awe of how beautiful she and the dress are in this back drop of Sanibel and Captiva.
Breathtaking!
Melinda made flower girl dresses embellished with seashells to complete her bridal collection.
Heavenly.
Laura and Valya were seashell princesses of the beach.
I was tickled to tag along on a photo shoot at Captiva’s Blind Pass beach with friend and producer Ilene Safron of Main Sail Video Productions as she and her team filmed Melinda for a national television segment. I have no idea what this shoot will be for or when it will air but I’m sure Nancy will let us know when she has details (fingers crossed!).
It was a day to remember with Nancy from Lee County VCB, Melinda, photographer Doug, Tracy (from Main Sail Video as well) and Ilene.
These talented folks have a lot of fun!
It was a beautiful day for Melinda to share with her mom as well.
melinda graham with her mom
To see her dress on display on Sanibel, stop by Melinda’s beautiful retail shop inspired by the sea called Surroundings.
Happy Seashells St Patrick’s Day
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Sending you Good Luck O The Irish with a seashell four leaf clover!
PS- Thank you Robert for making more beach art for us!
2012 Sanibel Shell Fair Sailors Valentines
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The Sanibel Shell Fair had a very special SAILORS VALENTINE exhibited this year. Hatsue Iimuro flew all the way from Japan with her husband Noriko and best friend Yasuyuki to enter her work at the Sanibel show.
Hatsue said she is the first one to introduce Sailors Valentines to the japanese people in her town near Mt Fuji. Good for Hatsue! What a treat for her japanese neighbors to see such intricate seashell masterpieces. Believe it or not, the airlines almost lost their precious cargo! Thank goodness they found it so we could enjoy this beautiful piece of art and she could be rewarded by a Blue Ribbon and the Best Miscellaneous Exhibit.
There were so many other winners and gorgeous Valentines using such creative designs with seashells. Really….they are unbelievable!
I think my favorite one was Rachel Fields’ Sailors Valentine. She was beaming from ear to ear and proud as a peacock (as she should be!) to enter her beautiful piece of art for the first time as a hobbyist.
Sanibel Has My Heart …
Shellabrating Seashells In Fashion
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Sanibel and Captiva fashion divas strutted the runway yesterday in gorgeous gowns, dazzling dresses, stunning scarfs and sassy shoes all embellished with our favorite accent…. SEASHELLS!
It took two months for Melinda Graham of home decor boutique Surroundings to make this wedding dress adorned with JINGLES, BUTTON SHELLS and white land shells. I would have loved to have gotten married in this dress (especially if I could have ever fit into the tiny size)! It is so incredibly lovely. She even designed flower girl dresses…
She embellished the flower girls’ flip flops as well!
And the flower girl head pieces are laced with shells!
Melinda won first place for this seashell couture gown as you can imagine. Look one more time at the details…
Second place winner went to Marianne Kanzius in a dress she made from complete scratch then added seaglass beads and shells…
Look at these delicate details. So sweet…
There were more than a dozen other dresses adorned with our beloved seashells to Shellabrate the 75th Annual Sanibel Shell Fair and Show this week. Susan Berg opened the show with a shellacious start…
Long time shell enthusiast Ethel Sinow wore a vintage Lily Pulitzer dress and jacket accented with a seashell handbag…
The Shell Island Garden Club made this beautiful shell scarf to match the rest of Edie’s shell lined dress…
Check out all of the other shelltastic stunners…
Oh! I almost forgot to mention that my dear friend Jane donated one of her fabulous shell mirrors to start the show with an auction item. She too is amazing, isn’t she?
Thank you to the models/designers Susen Berg, Ethel Sinow, Karen Tempority, Mary Buck, Harriet Witt, Barb Kapinus, Mary Bates, Canstance Mara, Kerry Trapp, Marianne Kanzius, Floral Artistry, Shell Island Garder Club, Ding Darling and Melinda Graham for sharing your love of shells. Peace, love and seashells!
Bicycle Built For Seashells
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This is what a Sanibel bicycle should look like!
Martine (Quebec) loves to ride her bike to the beach to collect shells on Sanibel as a sort of therapy. She says when she is on the beach she gets into a ZEN type feeling that clears her mind like cultivating a bonsai tree. That’s so true, isn’t it? After she returns to her little piece of paradise in Periwinkle Park, she cleans up her treasures to add them to her bike with clear silicone. There’s even a JUNONIA on there!
And to her planters…
And to her “welcome” sign (heehee)…
She organizes some her shells in the trays you get for veggies and party platters. Great idea!
Martine also introduced me to her Canadian friend Lucienne (Ottawa) who loves shelling. Shelling Sistahs!
I will show you some of the FREAK shells that Lucienne and her husband Ron found on my next post so stay tuned! Until then, I’m thinking I need to add shells to my bike basket too. Thank you, Martine, for a lovely morning in the park.
i Heart Captiva Island
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I love Captiva Island. I love that an artist made shell beach art like this piece at the entrance to Blind Pass beach. Beach artist, Robert from NJ, made it for his wife for Valentine’s Day. So sweet! Obviously, I haven’t been there in over a week so I missed it. Shame on me! But thankfully he has been grooming it to keep it clean and neat for a whole week for her.. and for us so we get to enjoy it as well.
I have another reason why “i Heart Captiva Island”….
Roma (MI) found a JUNONA!
She said it was one of the first shells she found this morning near the jetty rocks. It wasn’t completely whole but it is perfect to wrap for a JUNONIA necklace.
And that’s not it! Sara W found two (!) JUNONIAS at Blind Pass in the last week at Blind Pass as well. It’s so weird they are broken at the same exact spots but then again… perfect for necklaces! She posted this on iLoveShelling facebook page…
Jessica (NY) found a piece of JUONIA too. Maybe part of Roma’s or Sara’s?
Here’s Jessica with Steven and Kathryn this morning on the shell mound this morning…
John (NY) was working the pass side of the jetty and filled his shell bag full of FIGHTING CONCHS.
I had no idea the huge shell pile was back (and has been there for several days) and full of goodies! How did that happen and I didn’t hear a thing about it?? Mother Nature loves to play hide and seek with the seashells!
I found an assortment of treasures right away…
And a FLAT SCALLOP!
While I was checking out everybody’s finds and the big shell mound, Robert was collecting more PEN SHELLS for another shell art project. We look forward to your next master piece!
