It never fails that when we take the rare trip to the beach our family comes home with bags upon bags of seashells. The question is what to do with them once these Treasures are brought home.

The simple answer? We decided at the beach that some of our seashell collection but stay with the kids but we would specifically look for seashells that we could transform into necklaces for our jewelry making loving girls.

Armed with a Pringles can filled with small oyster and other seashells, we began our experiment to see if we could in fact make a seashell pendant for a necklace.

While my Girl Scouts love jewelry making, we don’t have a significant budget for expensive tools or other implements. Our goal was to find a way to create a seashell pendant that they could wear on an existing cord or necklace.

Even better, we were tying this in as one of our indoor activities for a mythology themed campout. The rationale? Not only is Poseidon the Greek god of the sea, but also one legend of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, states that she sprang from the ocean.

After a little investigating on how to do wire wrapping around a stone or sea glass, I learned it’s a very simple principle to apply the ideas to oyster shells or seashells.

To make a seashell wire wrapped pendant you truly don’t need much for supplies. You will need round nosed jewelry pliers and 20-gauge wire.

What’s great for tweens is that jewelery wire does not have to be a traditional Silver, bronze or gold medal color. I’ve seen jewelry wire in a number of colors including teal, green, purple and pink.

To make the pendant itself, you’ll need to use the pliers to cut off a length of the wire, about 1 to 2 feet depending on the intricacy of your design. Remember this cord will be used for the hook as well as to hold your seashell and any additional design elements.

Make a small hoop in the middle of your wire and place it so it sticks out of the back of your seashell. Use the remaining wire to wrap around the top of the shell, holding the hoop to the back of the shell, and the rest can be wrapped in various designs across or around that the piece.

To bend curls into the wire, you’ll need to use the rounded portion of your jewelry pliers and wrap the wire around it tightly.

If you like detailed instructions I like these general instructions, these for younger children, these for a triangle shape, and these for more complicated designs.

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