Collection Of Shells Used For Handicraft

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28983, 26 August 1959, Page 2

Collection Of Shells Used For Handicraft

Collecting sea shells is a pleasant pastime most New Zealanders remember as part of their childhoods. The fragile prettiness of shells appeals to everyone. Combined with an inventive turn of mind, interest in shells can become a means of livelihood. Miss Dorothy Kay. of Diamond Harbour, has been making seashell novelties and trinkets for the last 18 months.

A collection of her handicraft includes small cockle-shell mice, swans with pure white scallopshell wings, olive-shell penguins, ornamental paua-shell bird baths and brooches or earrings of select shells arranged in geometrical design. It was in the Norfolk town of Hunstanton on the Wash that Miss Kay first thought of making such things. She still has the little mouse bought there which was her first and only model. After returning from England three years ago. Miss Kay began working on her own shell novelties.

Shell necklaces or embossed trinket boxes do not attract Miss Kay: she prefers to make up her own models and construct objects

with individuality. Her hobby is now her absorbing occupation and throughout the year, but especially in the winter, Miss Kay roams the bays of Lyttelton Harbour hunting for shells. “Once you begin collecting shells you can never walk on beaches and just enjoy the seashore,” said Miss Kay in Christchurch yesterday. A collector is always on the lookout for new specimens or particular shells. Although the waterline left by a high tide was the best hunting ground, the sandy reaches exposed at low tide had shells not often washed up. Apart from local beaches. Miss Kay has alsp collected shells on the Coromandel peninsula and at Mount Maunganui which she said was a popular haunt of conchologists. Shell collectors were friendly people and interesting acquaintances were made on beach walks. Home Enterprise Miss Kay does all work in her own home. The shells are washed, dried on newspaper in the sun, sorted and stored in cardboard boxes In constructing objects Miss Kay works in stages, not on each Individually. Tails are attached to dozens of mice, then pairs of tiny cockle shells stuck on as ears and so on.

Most of the finished articles are coated with clear varnish. Miss Kay uses paint sparingly, preferring to bring out the natural

markings and opalescent lustre of the shells. Such details as a puppy's tongue or a hens comb will be painted red. but restraint from unnecessary artifice is her policy. Equal to the number of different shells Miss Kay uses is the range of different creatures she makes. A tortoise pulls his wheeled cart —a shield shell with circular slipper shell wheels; a kiwi stands on his oyster-shell base which is decorated with a single fern leaf: a complete farmyard could be stocked with hens, turkeys—striking with their delicately marked fan scallop tails, pigs, cats, dogs and mice. There is even an owl with minute ears of turret shells.

Trumpet shells make odd little elephants, and penguins, starkly black and white, are based on streamlined olive shells. Among the figurines are two little ladies with bonnets and hoods of mussel shells. They even carry small handbags of pairs of shells still hinged together.

Trinkets include brooches and earrings on flat bases. It is hard to find enough small shells delicate enough, although pretty earrings are made from translucent scallop shells found at Mount Maunganui. Usually Miss Kay uses island shells for such articles.