The story of The Shell Mirror...

In my last post, I promised you a closer look at (and the story behind) the shell mirror that now sits in its new home on the refinished mantle on our porch. As you can see, the mirror is made up of hundreds of shells; shells my dearest friends and I have collected over the past 10-15 years.
My friends and I all love the beach and we love combing the beach for shells while we talk and walk for miles. Many of these shells are from beaches along the Carolina coast, along with a few from the Jersey shore and the beaches of California.
The Shell Mirror was the brainchild of one of my dearest friends. Right before I moved to California, she decided I needed a visual reminder of all the good times we had spent on Edisto Island off the South Carolina coast, so she bought a mirror with a plain wooden frame and we culled our shell collections to create this mirror, simply arranging and hot gluing the shells as we went. Once completed, the mirror was extremely heavy and very delicate ~ not exactly the easiest thing to transport from one coast to another and back again.
But I did.
My husband thought I was a little nuts, but he went along with it because I loved the mirror. It was unusual, yes, and not normally my style, but it was full of memories and love, and it became one of those things I simply couldn’t live without. The mirror made it to California in one piece but over the course of several moves, it started to show a bit of wear and tear. The final trip back East left it in need of repair, as you can see below.

Once I got our house mostly put back together, the same friend who helped me build what is now known by everyone as The Shell Mirror, came over to help me repair it. While originally it only had shells from the East Coast, this time we added in a few from California, as it seemed only fitting. 

The mirror is one of those things that is far more beautiful in person, but the photo below helps show its beauty. This close up shows just how much detail the mirror contains ~ and gives you an idea of the number of shells it took to create.

The shells in my collection not on the mirror now line the same mantle the mirror sits on.

One of the best things about redoing this old mantle for out here on the porch is that The Shell Mirror has a permanent home.

It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?

I am linking to:
Before and After Wednesday at The Dedicated House
Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life
Thursday Favorite Things at Katherines Corner

Photos by The Art of Living Beautifully