Mi historia de fabricación de conchas
My Shell-Making Story
Mi amiga y yo decidimos vivir en la playa el verano pasado (2025), y como ambas somos tan creativas, empezamos a coleccionar y pintar conchas. Una vez que teníamos unas 15 conchas pintadas a mano entre las dos, decidimos que no hacía falta quedárnoslas todas y que las pondríamos delante de casa para que otros las disfrutaran. Pusimos un cartel con un código QR vinculado a nuestro Venmo que decía "paga lo que creas justo" y mencionamos que estábamos ahorrando para un apartamento. Pensamos que quizá consiguiéramos algunas ventas y que era un pasatiempo divertido para el verano, pero no esperábamos que tuvieran tanta demanda entre la gente que pasaba por nuestra mesita llena de conchas. Tanto, que no pudimos seguir pintando a mano cada una (tardamos varias horas en terminar cada una), así que decidimos probar el decoupage, que consiste en sellar impresiones de servilletas sobre las conchas. Compramos unas servilletas con motivos playeros y nos pusimos manos a la obra, lo que resultó ser una forma mucho más rápida de hacer estas conchas sin perder calidad. Por supuesto, siguieron siendo un éxito, así que nuestro trabajo durante el verano se limitó a pasear por la playa buscando conchas y sentarnos cada pocos días para preparar una nueva tanda.
La dueña de la tiendita junto al paseo marítimo vio nuestras conchas y compró algunas para venderlas en su tienda, lo cual nos entusiasmó muchísimo. Para finales de verano, planeábamos un viaje a Europa y teníamos suficiente "dinero para conchas" (así lo llamábamos) para pagar todos nuestros vuelos y parte del alojamiento. Así que ahora he decidido abrir una tienda en Etsy dedicada a hacer conchas personalizadas para que todos las disfruten.
My friend and I decided to live at the beach this past summer (2025), and us both being the crafty people we are, we began collecting and painting shells. Once we had about 15 hand-painted shells between the two of us, we decided we didn't need to keep all of them and that we would set them out in front of the house for others to enjoy. We put up a sign with a QR code linked to our Venmo that said "pay what you think is fair" and mentioned we are saving up for an apartment. We thought maybe we would get a few sales and it was a fun hobby for the summer, but we did not expect them to be in such high demand for the people visiting who happened to walk by our little table full of shells. So much so, that we could not keep up while hand-painting each one (they took a few hours each to complete) and so we decided to try decoupage, which involves sealing prints from napkins onto the shells. We bought some beach-themed napkins and got to work, which proved to be a much quicker way to make these shells while still being good quality. Of course they were still a hit, so our job for the summer became taking beach walks to search for shells and sitting down every few days to make a new batch.
The owner of little store by the boardwalk ended up seeing our shells and purchased some to sell at her shop, which we were so excited about. By the end of the summer, we were planning a trip to Europe and had enough 'shell money' (is what we called it) to pay for all of our flights and some of our accommodations! So now, I have decided to open an Etsy shop dedicated to making custom shells for everyone to enjoy!