Product Description

SHELL CHIC brings the design and imagination of today's shell enthusiasts and artisans to the home. This is a book to be savored for its eccentric decorative flair, its lavish sense of fun, and its practical instructions for shell projects and design ideas that will work in any home decor. Frames, chandeliers, unusual boxes, mirrors, a child-size claw-foot tub - all are fabulous possibilities for shell encrustation. Memories of peaceful beach vacations become ravishing decorative items when glued to lampshades and screens.

In all, 14 step-by-step illustrated projects and 20 design ideas cover everything readers need to know to create richly marvelous objects. To lend inspiration, there are profiles of contemporary shell artists photographed with their creations. One profile features Marian McEvoy, editor of House Beautiful, who has embellished her Manhattan apartment with an estimated 15,000 shells. While most shell enthusiasts will not be working on quite this scale, there are ideas, photographs, profiles, and inspiration for all!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95068 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

From Library Journal
The fashion for seashells as decorative material has taken a variety of forms over time, from baroque garden grottoes encrusted with shells to Victorian bric-a-brac displayed under glass. This well-illustrated book by Marshall and Vollmer von Falken (who coauthored Making Bits & Pieces Mosaics) contains step-by-step projects for traditional items of shell art such as flower arrangements and shell-encrusted boxes, all interspersed with a colorful running narrative describing decorative uses of shells by contemporary designers. Highly recommended for public libraries.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Not a guide to shell games, exactly, but to marvelously creative ways to use the fruits of the sea in and outside the home. In fact, Marshall has produced one of the most unusual crafts-home decor books yet--unusual in the more than 15 projects offered, in the elegant photography by Sabine Vollmer von Falken, and in the wealth of information on collectors, artists, history, and shell life. A profile of painter Ann Getsinger, who specializes in shells, nestles near the sidebar on the Sanibel Shell Fair, a juried show held during the first week of March. Recipes form the author's "Shell Buffet," in which she thanks all contributors to the book, and are featured in the same chapter as a profile of Elegant Cheesecakes, a pastry firm majoring in shell-ornamented cakes. Though well designed and aesthetically pleasing, projects detailed here wouldn't quite fit in the run-of-the-mill home, for these are inventive, imaginative, and almost 100 percent fantasy. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"This well-illustrated book by Marshall and Vollmer von Falken contains step-by-step projects...interspersed with a colorful running narrative..."  ―Library Journal

"Learn new ways to display summer's curvaceous souvenirs from Marlene Hurley Marshall." ―Coastal Living

"Marshall has produced one of the most unusual crafts-home decor books yet ― unusual in the more than 15 projects offered, in the elegant photography by Sabine Vollmer von Falken, and in the wealth of information on collectors, artists, history, and shell life."  ―Booklist

“Shell Chic awash in color photos of shell-shellacked interiors, has no shortage of ideas.  It includes 14 step-by-step projects that also incorporate sand dollars, sea biscuits, starfish and even buttons.”  – Palm Beach Post

“Looking at sea shells as elegance, Marlene Hurley Marshall in Shell Chic pictures shells as stylish home decorations for walls, ceilings and furniture.  Photos profusely illustrate the lavish designs from art works to dress wear.”  - Newsday

“Learn new ways to display summer’s curvaceous souvenirs from Marlene Hurley Marshall.”

- Coastal Living

“These beach souvenirs are the rage – from shell chandeliers and shell encrusted claw-foot bathtubs to Christmas trees adorned with shell garland.”  - USA Today

“From the marvelous to the bizarre, there’s a project in it for anyone – with complete instructions.” –The Times-Picayune

Customer Reviews

Practical methods for decorating with shells
Packed cover to cover with full-color photographs, Shell Chic: The Ultimate Guide To Decorating Your Home With Seashells by painter and artist Marlene Hurley Marshall is a practical and inspirational guide to using seashells for vibrant and dramatic visual effect in one's home. From eye-catching table centerpieces to dazzling furniture enhancement, the text describes the practical methods for decorating with shells and the wondrous photographs by Sabine Vollmer von Falken portray the opulent results in both historic and modern creations. Also very highly recommended for the do-it-yourself enthusiast is Marlene Marshall and Sabine von Falken's earlier work, Making Bits & Pieces Mosaics: Creative Projects For Home & Garden (1580170153; $$$$$)

absolutely beautiful!
This is the most beautiful book I've ever seen. Whether you like making things with shells or just love the beach, you'll be inspired by page after page of unique and even elaborate uses for shells in the home. It will leave you craving the ocean and inspired to do beautiful things.

Shellatious
Whether you craft or only crave shells, this book will do it for you. This book provides inspiration whether you are a do-it-yourselfer or merely an admirer of shelled creations. The range is from the extraordinary to the amusing to the out of this world.