DIY Golden Oyster Shells
Crafting with gorgeous oyster shells is a great way to bring simple, elegant pieces of nature into your hygge home. These can serve as jewelry dishes, soap trays, salt and pepper bowls, center pieces or even as Christmas tree ornaments (they reflect great off of lights). Being born and raised in South Carolina meant seeing these pieces in many elements of southern decor.
Every year our family has an oyster roast the evening before Thanksgiving. Lucky for us, my father has kept literally bushels of oyster shells from this annual event (most likely hoping they’d make a great fire pit instead of jewelry bowls) but my sisters and I grabbed a few for Thanksgiving day crafting this year.
With the larger oysters we made the jewelry, salt and soap bowls. With the longer shells we wrote each family member’s name with a gold paint pen. We will be drilling a small hole in the hinge of the oyster shell to create ornaments for our Christmas tree.
So if you are preparing an oyster roast or have some of these beautiful shells already in your house, then follow these steps to create gorgeous pieces for your hygge home.
Supplies needed
Oyster shells (long for ornaments, round and deep for dishes)
20mm - 25mm buttons and/or plastic pearls
Metallic gold paint (I used Folk Art)
Gold paint pen (if making decorations)
1. Clean your shells
Wash your shells in clean water, brushing away any remaining dirt or oyster residue. If they were freshly used then you might need an oyster knife to remove any remaining pieces.
They may also have a fishy smell to them. Follow the steps here for how to clean them with bleach or white vinegar.
Leave the shells out to air dry before continuing on to the next steps.
2. Paint the backs gold
Using a flat brush, paint the backs of the shells with your metallic gold paint. Leave them to dry for a few hours.
3. Paint the front edges gold
Using your brush paint 1cm of the edges of the front of the oysters with your metallic gold paint.
I find the best approach isn’t with strokes but with dotting the gold paint on the edge. It makes a thicker line and more character with the edges. Feel free to experiment to find the paint style that you prefer.
Leave out to dry.
4. If you’re making ornaments, it’s time to monogram
Once the gold edges are dry, use your gold paint pen to write the desired names across the oyster. I find a cursive text looks best.
We made one for each family member, their partners and even our pets
5. Coat with Mod Podge
Once the golden edges and monogrammed names have dried, it’s time for the final glossy coat.
Using a clean flat brush, paint a thin later of Mod Podge on the top, shiny part of the oyster. Caution Don’t put too thick of a layer or it will pool in certain areas and dry into a white, matte area.
6. Glue on supports for bowls
If you’re making your oyster into a decorative bowl for soap, slat or jewelry, it will need to rest flat on the desired surface.
The easiest approach is to paint the front and backs of your buttons gold. Once they are dry you should glue a flat button to the highest edge fo the back. Most shells will have a rock, uneven surface so place it on the table to see which area hits the table first. Once you’ve find that point, use your super glue to attach a flat button.
You can also experiment with placing pearls around the base so that the shell is stable. I personally did a mix of both.
7. Enjoy
Please let us know if you give this DIY craft a try, enjoy!
