19th c. Shell Frame

The Houston Museum of Natural Science is celebrating its 100th year in 2009. To commemorate this, the museum's curators have chosen 100 pieces from its collections, which serve to highlight the different areas of the Museum.

As a huge fan of vintage shellwork pieces, I love to study the tedious placement of smaller shells as shown in this beautiful frame. Made in the second half of the 1800s at the same time that sailors to the West Indies were bringing back shellwork souvenirs for their loved ones, what impresses me most about this piece is its dramatic effect achieved by a miniature photo in the center of a much larger shield frame, allowing a proportionately large amount of open space to create a beautifully intricate design with so many tiny shells.

Thanks to Steven, who blogs for the Museum, for his ongoing coverage of each selection throughout the rest of the year.

Sparkle Studio Cone Incense Burner

Another item that will be available in very limited quantities on the upcoming DavidandKeith.com site will be these cone incense burners as part of the Sparkle Studio brand of products. Each has been handmade entirely of shells, incorporating scallops, umboniums, clams and cockles, and embellished with glittered sand, gilding, ceramic tile and vintage rhinestones. Each burner stands between 5 and 6 inches, and holds one 1" incense cone which sits on the tile square. The first series will include: The Virgin of Guadalupe, The Red Buddha, Jesus, and Botticelli's Venus, and will come with a mix/match selection of 12 cones, which are just as easy to find as the incense sticks.

Les Souvenirs de Mer & Memories of Childhood Shell Collecting

Inkwell Souvenir, French ca. 1900

Souvenirs de Mer were very popular travel mementos in the early 1900s, especially in France. When visiting a coastal town one would be able to purchase these small handmade items which would have the name of the town inscribed somewhere on it. These could be purchased reasonably and took the shape of inkwells, salt and pepper holders, napkin rings and small jewelry boxes.

It seems to me in the sense of travelling souvenirs somewhat of a continuation of the Victorian Sailor Valentine (pictured below) that were purchased on long sea trips and brought back to their loved ones. The octagonal shape is representational of the Valentines of the time, this one is from Barbados ca. 1865 which would have been made by a local artist. These of course were much more intricate, but would have certainly brought something "exotic" back from abroad.


I know that my deep connection with shells started when I was very young. Growing up in Hawaii my sister and I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandparents on Maui. Their house a stone's throw away from the ocean, and my grandfather being a fisherman, I developed an almost focused obsession with combing the beaches for shells, broken glass and driftwood. My grandfather collected shells as well as glass balls in rope nets used as fishing flotation by the Japanese boats. My grandmother also picked shells with my sister and I, and my mom's younger brother had an affinity for driftwood and unusually shaped rocks. As you can imagine this created quite the collection of objects at their house! My collection is still there and probably needs a bit of sorting through after years of storage.

I am currently very busy working on shell projects so I am still amongst them, and I have my own collection of shell mirrors and boxes too. I also have a very charming example of Souvenir de Mer: a wonderful pair of small handpainted conch shell lamps from the Italian Coastal town of Rivazzurra, ca. 1940...love them!

Lightbox Construction

I venture into photographers' territory in this post to discuss the topic of the lightbox, which is a necessary and much used tool. These days anyone who posts multiple auction listings online or works on website construction in which good clear quality images are important knows the lightbox well. Most online tutorials on building one at home involve PVC pipe, white fabric, clip on lamps, and various colored solid fabrics for backdrops. The light is filtered by the white fabric and results in no shadow being cast.
I have been making adjustments to the lightbox that I put together this week, and realized that I did good in buying all the right pieces and just enough PVC pipe...waste not, want not. To give proper credit where credit is due I must direct readers to Bill Huber's site (http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent)which had, after browsing several different construction layouts on other sites, the most "user-friendly." My only adjustments to these instructions were that I did not install any screws or use any glue. The pipe lengths fit snugly enough into the joint parts, and I will be able to collapse and fold my lightbox frame so that I can hang it from the ceiling when it's not in use.






Pictured below is one of a line of cone incense burners that will be sold on our site, measuring approximately 4 inches in height and 5 inches across. I had to make an adjustment to the backkdrop, but the photo comes out quite well with the three clip-on lamps on the outside of the frame and no flash on the camera.