{"id":22037,"date":"2015-02-08T19:37:44","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T00:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iloveshelling.com\/blog\/?p=22037"},"modified":"2018-11-21T13:11:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T18:11:45","slug":"how-to-clean-sea-urchins-video-tutorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iloveshelling.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/08\/how-to-clean-sea-urchins-video-tutorial\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Clean Sea Urchins Video Tutorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dried<\/a><\/p>\n

“How do you clean SEA URCHINS?”<\/p>\n

I was asked this question countless time last week after posting photos of Masses Of Sea Urchins On Sanibel Island<\/strong><\/a> last week (to see the article\u00a0CLICK HERE)<\/strong><\/a>. So now Im going to do better than tell you… Im going to show you!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>I only collect SEA URCHINS that are in the high and dry wrack line on the beach – they\u00a0are never damp so I know for sure they aren’t alive. I love\u00a0the ones that have already lost their spines and have a big empty hole in the center since most of the cleaning has already done by Mother Nature. But if Mother Nature hasn’t had time to do our cleaning for us, we have a couple of options.<\/p>\n

First option- leave your SEA URCHINS outside in the sun for several\u00a0weeks and let the spines fall off and shake the “crumbs” from the inside. Easy peazy but it takes a while.<\/p>\n

Second option:<\/p>\n

If the spines of your dry URCHINS don’t come off by gently rubbing your fingers against the test (body), place your SEA URCHINS in a bucket of water for a couple of hours. Take one out at a time and pinch and rub the spines off. Use a brush if you want or wear rubber gloves if you have tender skin.<\/p>\n

\"cleaning<\/a><\/p>\n

While handling your URCHINS, sometimes you will hear the ARISTOTLE’S LANTERN (the mouth) inside the URCHIN so if you remove all of the “skin” or fleshy parts around the center mouth with a dental pick, you can usually pull or shake the dried pieces of mouth (or jaw) out of the URCHIN. If you are lucky, the whole piece will come out in tact. If the ARISTOTLE’S LANTERN comes out in one piece, I save it – don’t ask me why, I just think they are cool (? heehee).<\/p>\n

\"aristotle's<\/a><\/p>\n

Once the SEA URCHINS are spineless and hollow, place them in a bleach water solution. I used about 1\/8 bleach to water. In this plastic shoebox size container, I used 3 capfuls of beach.<\/p>\n

\"Gulf<\/a><\/p>\n

After an hour or so, rinse them in fresh water then leave them out in the sun to dry. The URCHINS get even more brittle if you leave them in the bleach solution for too long but I do leave some in a little longer so that they will be a lighter shade that the others. I like the different colors!<\/p>\n

\"drying<\/a><\/p>\n

Once they are clean and dry, you will probably want to harden and preserve your SEA URCHINS. Mix a solution of Elmer’s glue with water. I guesstimate about 50\/50 but I don’t worry too much if I have more glue than water- it always seems to work out. You can either be neat and paint the glue solution on your URCHINS or you can dunk. I prefer pouring the glue solution inside the URCHIN then dunking the whole thing in the glue cup then spreading it with my hands (I’m messy like that!). I place a piece of parchment or waxed paper on my tray then let the glue covered SEA URCHIN dry.<\/p>\n

\"Hardening<\/a><\/p>\n

Still have questions? Check out the\u00a0video tutorial I made to show you each step of the process. CLICK HERE<\/strong><\/a> to see it on my YouTube Channel or click on the next image.<\/p>\n