A grapevine base might work better. Grapevine wreaths are very natural & you can decide as you go if you want any of it to show. It will take an awful lot of shells tho. I made a yarn covered 7 in. metal ring(Joanne's or Michael's) with textured blue, turquoise & sand colored yarns with about 1 ft of yarns hanging down(at the bottom, in different lengths). Then I hot glued on shells of different types on lower 1/3 of ring & it took many more than I thought. I gave it to DIL for their seashell themed bathroom. She loved it. The yarns I chose were to represent the Pacific ocean which she loves, blues & turquoise & tan to represent the sand on the shore she likes to walk in. I picked shells with some pink, blues, plum,cream & tan with fan shaped, snail type, long cone shaped,etc. Even a small starfish. So you could go that way also. The blue yarn was loopy with strands of white in with the light blue & knotted & very textured so reminded me of waves.First I covered entire ring with a cream rope(nautical look-about 1/8 in wide) gluing as I wound it around & round in a few spots to hold it, then at left side about 3 in. from center top of ring I attached double strand of yarn(like starting a macrame project) so it was smooth all around ring up there then attaching each strand at bottom leaving a foot or so to hang down. The ring had some open space on the sides ,I did not cram the yarns on so wall would show through some. Thought it looked more airy & fresh. I did glue a few smaller shells on top of the larger shells, to add dimension,shells were uneven at center of piece for a natural look, hope this makes sense,(kind of like making a painting in a hoop, except using shells) pic didn't turn out & it's half way across the country now. Have Fun! Jan

Thank you for your reply, your wreath sounds lovely. Would love to have seen a picture. I do have a lot of shells so think I can cover the whole wreath.... will lay them out first.

Hi --

A sea shell wreath sounds like a great idea! I'd try to create a wreath base that "belongs" with sea shells... something with either sand or seaweed (or both). :) Could you coat a styrofoam wreath with glue and course sand, or attach some moss that looks like seaweed -- perhaps with wire? Then glue your shells onto that?! I can picture it. lol!

It has been many years, but I think my grandmother used a styrofoam wreath ring. I do remember her covering styrofoam cones with shells, and she would cut the top off of a dish soap bottle, use pinking shears for a pretty edge, then glue on shells to cover the bottle. Made a very pretty vase that way. I don't know for sure, but she probably used Elmer's glue! This was in the 60's, at the latest, the early 70's. Grandpa died in 1966, so it was around then. They had only gone to Florida a couple of winters before then, and that was where she got all her shells. Grandpa would cut plaques from wood and glue shark teeth to those. Very nice!

You might try E6000 glue, if you can stand the smell of burnt plastic until it dries! I have to use it outside with a good breeze, but that's me.

Tami

I think starting off with styrofoam is a good idea because the wreath will get very heavy as you add seashells. I can't find artificial seaweed, and I think real seaweed would be very smelly. But I agree that something that looks like seaweed would be really nice! Anybody have ideas on where to find artificial seaweed?

Green or brown raffia would look like seaweed,too !

i made mine from a grapevine wreath, used hot glue to glue clumps of spanish moss all over it first, then starfish and straw flowers, i love it :D
kudzu

I painted it beige (to look like sand) then glued shells and beach glass to it.

Phish, sounds nice, can you post a pic! How big was your Styrofoam ring & about how many shells did it take, I'm sure others want to know! Did you use several sizes of shells or mostly about the same? Thanks! Jan

Just remember its gonna have some weight to it when done.I made one years ago,I used a piece of fish netting over it pretty,you could if some one is handy make a wooden frame.