Each Shell is a Bend!!!
All my life I've been fascinated with nature. As a child growing up in Canada I spent a lot of time in the outdoors and never returned home without a souvenir...usually flowers and plants that I would identify, press and keep in books. Prior to opening this store I sold antique and vintage floral items on Ebay and Etsy for 20 years.
When I moved to Florida 30 years ago I fell in love with the beaches and quickly became a passionate seashell collector. A few years later I married my husband Todd and he joined in the fun and we have a healthy competitive edge between us. Every weekend will find us on our local islands walking miles and hunting treasures. All of our vacations are to Caribbean islands and dates are chosen around low tides. In addition to our local beaches we also frequent the Florida Keys and the 10,000 Islands several times a year.
Sometimes potential customers question my shell pricing and it is ever changing with availability and demand. It is not as simple as walking a beach and taking a photo to sell a shell. Each shell represents a bend as it is rare to pick up more than one per stoop. Every beachcombing day we walk 5-8 miles and bend over hundreds of times. And yes, that is the fun part! After that comes the not so fun part...
Horse conchs collected after hurricanes and storms often have remaining portions of the expired mollusk deep inside and you don't want to smell that if you don't have to! They have a dark brown to black periostracum (skin) coating the shell that can only be removed with bleach. In addition, most are encrusted with barnacles and oysters that are difficult to remove. Each shell is bleached first and then the "hitchhikers" are removed for a second bleach bath to remove the periostracum that was under the barnacles and finally is ready for its photo-op.
Every single shell is given a bleach bath. After that comes the sorting, grading and sniffing. Yes, every single gastropod is sniffed to ensure you don't receive one that will ruin your day! Once sorted into their appropriate species they are oiled, photographed and finally listed. It is a long process for each shell that isn't always fun but I love being able to share our finds with other passionate shell collectors/addicts!
Unless otherwise noted in the listing description, all beachcombed items for sale are collected by my husband and I and you receive exactly what is pictured. I do not offer bulk shells unless specifically requested. We are passionate about our Florida beaches and only collect empty shells and always walk stranded mollusks back to the water. Each trip we also fill a couple of buckets of trash. I hope you'll enjoy our finds as much as we cherish the hours spent walking the beach to find them!
