Seashells

Next, I wanted to make some seashells for my series of Under the Sea themed paper sculptures. I have a lot of seashells that I can use as my reference material in order to make shells out of paper.

After creating lots of sea-grasses, sea plants, and seaweed out of paper, I was ready to start making three-dimensional paper seashells. I’ve made other seashells out of paper in the past and always enjoyed if. Her is one of my photo realistic paper shell pictures.

One of the best things about making paper seashells (besides the fact that I think seashells are so pretty), is that it was very easy to find reference material for this part of the project.

Before diving in to make any shells, first, I had to look through my seashell collection. Well, it isn’t really a collection, I don’t seek out to find seashells to add to the ones I already have, but I must admit, I do have a lot of shells that I’ve somehow accumulated over the years. I am not even certain where they all came from.

I have some very pretty, dark magenta scallop shells and tan and ivory scallop shells. These are some of my favorite-colored shells and some of my favorite type of seashells to make. Can you spot the real scallop seashell in the photo below? I made a bunch of paper sculpted scallop seashells.The magenta colored scallop shells are my favorites of this variety. What colored scallop shell is your favorite?

It did take me quite a few tries to figure out how to make the scallop shells. I wasn’t happy with the first couple of scallop shells that I made, but I kept working at it and discovered a way to make them so they looked realistic. 

I liked the challenge of trying to make the seashells out of paper and making them look so realistic that you can’t even tell which is the real seashell and which seashells are made out of paper.

Below are photos of my paper sculpted photos. Some of the photos include the real photo alongside of the paper sculpted seashell.