DIY Mussel Shell That Looks Like a Protea Flower

I’ve finally finished another easy summer craft and I’m excited to share it with you. I’ve mentioned many times that my favorite thing to do is walk for hours along the ocean, especially the beaches of the Jersey Shore, searching for treasures.

When the tide is right, I sometimes find lots of live mussels. I like to cook them up for a nice dinner. Some may object to finding these shellfish and then cooking them, but we haven’t gotten sick yet. They taste delicious and are very healthy.

This time I decided to make a oyster shell craft using the shells after dinner instead of throwing them away (read more about Jersey Shore mussels and their health benefits). So I made a oyster shell flower or oyster artichoke that I sometimes see in my Pinterest feed. I couldn’t find any tutorials so I decided to make one for you.

I love the shape of the shell flower, and this shell craft is so easy to make. I’ve made several of them. They make great gifts and cost next to nothing.

DIY Mussel Shell That Looks Like a Protea Flower

This is a really fun seashell project and a great way to use up all those mussel shells!

Supplies needed

Mussel shells of various sizes, bleach and bleach-proof bowl, water filter, seashell glue or hot glue gun and glue (I’ve tested both and prefer hot glue), tweezers, wooden stick or driftwood (I found sticks in my garden and they’re about the size of my little finger), clear varnish like polycrylic (optional)

educational video

It’s always helpful to watch the video tutorial to see what my hands were doing and get more explanation and details. If it’s not uploaded here on my blog, you can also head over to my YouTube channel to watch it instead.

Step by step instructions for this oyster shell craft.

For this oyster shell craft, you can leave the oyster shells intact as you find them on the beach where they are usually dark in color, or you can reveal the blue color at different stages. Let’s get to it and I’ll show you what I did.

Step 1: How to highlight the blue color of the oyster shells (optional)

The first thing you need to decide is whether you want to highlight the blue color of the shells.

Most seashells and mussel shells have a thin brown-black layer called the periosteum. This is a protective layer that also hides the beautiful blue-gray color of the mussel shells. You can remove this layer, which is a bit tricky. I first tried my Dremel tool with the fine polishing/sanding attachment. It was very tedious and broke the shells very easily.

Next, I tried a 50/50 bleach bath over several days, and the results were much better. However, it left the shells more brittle than before. After bleaching the shells, I poured the solution into a colander in my sink and rinsed the shells well.

Always be careful of bleach fumes so you don’t get splashed on yourself! It’s definitely a good idea to do this outside.

I have tried several different stages of bleaching and there is a huge difference in the results. Below is a picture of oyster shells that I bleached for several days until the brown protective layer was completely removed.

Below is a large tray full of mussel shells that I’ve blanched for only a day and a half. There are still patches of the protective brown coating, but the mussel shells are much more robust this way.

Step 2: Sort the oyster shells by size.

I found it helpful to sort the mussel shells by size before starting to glue and shape the flower.

Step 3: Start gluing the oysters onto the stick.

Start by choosing two of the smallest oyster shells and sticking them together on the stick as if they were still closed oysters. Then work your way outward with larger single shells.

Here you have to play a little with the shells and their sizes. This will help you to continue looking at the shape of the flower bud from above.

As I mentioned before, I tried shell glue and it was great, but I didn’t like waiting for the glue to dry, which is why I liked using hot glue better. It can be a bit tricky though, and I burned my fingers a few times. So be careful!

Tip: Every now and then, you should take a break to let the hot glue cool down.

Step 4: Continue gluing the shells to the stick down.

As you continue to form the flower, you will need to continue moving downward with the larger mussel shells attached to the stick.

Sometimes, if the gaps are too large, you can glue and insert smaller shells into the gaps.

Step 5: Use tweezers to remove the glue threads.

Finally, I used small tweezers or my fingers to remove all of the fine glue hairs from the shell flower. Hot glue tends to leave a lot of those fine hairs behind.

Here is a close up of the seashells stuck together where you can see some of the tiny glue hairs I’m talking about. They are almost impossible to remove all of them. If they bother you, I suggest using seashell glue instead.

Related: Here’s another great idea for crafting with seashells. How about some seashell tassels using various seashells or small seashell candles or shell candles? Both are so pretty and easy to make using all of your seashell treasures.

Pictures of Protea flower made from oyster shell

Just look how beautiful the pale blue shades are with the sand and ocean as a backdrop. I can’t wait to use them as home decor.

In the following image, you can see that I didn’t bleach the scales of the left flower as much as the scales of the right flower because they still have a brown color. Which version do you prefer?

You can put a clear coat on them like polycrylic. I’ve tried that but you don’t have to. Some people put an oil like mineral oil on the oyster shells (don’t use edible oils) to bring out the blue but that can be a big problem when trying to glue them on so I didn’t do that.

I had a lot of fun photographing them. You could tell I loved how they turned out.

I asked my husband to take my picture. That doesn’t happen very often these days. We also took some nice family pictures.

Choos,