Product Description

SHELL CHIC brings the design and imagination of today's shell enthusiasts and artisans to the home. This is a book to be savored for its eccentric decorative flair, its lavish sense of fun, and its practical instructions for shell projects and design ideas that will work in any home decor. Frames, chandeliers, unusual boxes, mirrors, a child-size claw-foot tub - all are fabulous possibilities for shell encrustation. Memories of peaceful beach vacations become ravishing decorative items when glued to lampshades and screens. In all, 14 step-by-step illustrated projects and 20 design ideas cover everything readers need to know to create richly marvelous objects. To lend inspiration, there are profiles of contemporary shell artists photographed with their creations. One profile features Marian McEvoy, editor of House Beautiful, who has embellished her Manhattan apartment with an estimated 15,000 shells. While most shell enthusiasts will not be working on quite this scale, there are ideas, photographs, profiles, and inspiration for all!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #456862 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

From Library Journal
The fashion for seashells as decorative material has taken a variety of forms over time, from baroque garden grottoes encrusted with shells to Victorian bric-a-brac displayed under glass. This well-illustrated book by Marshall and Vollmer von Falken (who coauthored Making Bits & Pieces Mosaics) contains step-by-step projects for traditional items of shell art such as flower arrangements and shell-encrusted boxes, all interspersed with a colorful running narrative describing decorative uses of shells by contemporary designers. Highly recommended for public libraries.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Not a guide to shell games, exactly, but to marvelously creative ways to use the fruits of the sea in and outside the home. In fact, Marshall has produced one of the most unusual crafts-home decor books yet--unusual in the more than 15 projects offered, in the elegant photography by Sabine Vollmer von Falken, and in the wealth of information on collectors, artists, history, and shell life. A profile of painter Ann Getsinger, who specializes in shells, nestles near the sidebar on the Sanibel Shell Fair, a juried show held during the first week of March. Recipes form the author's "Shell Buffet," in which she thanks all contributors to the book, and are featured in the same chapter as a profile of Elegant Cheesecakes, a pastry firm majoring in shell-ornamented cakes. Though well designed and aesthetically pleasing, projects detailed here wouldn't quite fit in the run-of-the-mill home, for these are inventive, imaginative, and almost 100 percent fantasy. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"This well-illustrated book by Marshall and Vollmer von Falken contains step-by-step projects...interspersed with a colorful running narrative..." Library Journal "Learn new ways to display summer's curvaceous souvenirs from Marlene Hurley Marshall." Coastal Living "Marshall has produced one of the most unusual crafts-home decor books yet unusual in the more than 15 projects offered, in the elegant photography by Sabine Vollmer von Falken, and in the wealth of information on collectors, artists, history, and shell life." Booklist Shell Chic awash in color photos of shell-shellacked interiors, has no shortage of ideas. It includes 14 step-by-step projects that also incorporate sand dollars, sea biscuits, starfish and even buttons. Palm Beach Post Looking at sea shells as elegance, Marlene Hurley Marshall in Shell Chic pictures shells as stylish home decorations for walls, ceilings and furniture. Photos profusely illustrate the lavish designs from art works to dress wear. - Newsday Learn new ways to display summer s curvaceous souvenirs from Marlene Hurley Marshall. - Coastal Living These beach souvenirs are the rage from shell chandeliers and shell encrusted claw-foot bathtubs to Christmas trees adorned with shell garland. - USA Today From the marvelous to the bizarre, there s a project in it for anyone with complete instructions. The Times-Picayune

Customer Reviews

The best seashell decor book I've seen!
I cannot express enough how wonderful this book is. I absolutely love seashells. This book is full of great ideas of how to decorate with them. It is not just sticking a few shells on a flower pot or making a stepping stone with them, these ideas are unique. Yes some of them need a lot of shells to complete a project but its worth it to make something that beautiful. Even if you just love seashells and don't want to use them for decor, this book is so lovely to look at. Thank you so much Marlene.

absolutely beautiful!
This is the most beautiful book I've ever seen. Whether you like making things with shells or just love the beach, you'll be inspired by page after page of unique and even elaborate uses for shells in the home. It will leave you craving the ocean and inspired to do beautiful things.

Look through it in person first.....
I looked through this book at a craft store the other day, and as a person who loves the ocean and seashells, I found maybe one project in here that I would consider making. Just about every project uses a ridiculous amount of shells so imagine the cost would be prohibitive and for this reason projects look overly ornate. Unless that is the look you are seeking to accomplish, I wouldn't recommend this book. Try to find "Decorating with Seashells" by Anita Louise Crane