Lets Play With Seashells

and by play,I mean identify, because who doesn't love knowing all of the names!?

Hey there! I’m still trying to find my groove on here these days. I really love the idea of sharing my passion for the ocean + my sketchbook + coastal life on here but every time I’ve sat down to share something I’ve had this weird need for it to sound super professional. (My own problem, I know)

But when I think about the Substacks I enjoy reading, they literally read as if I’m having a conversation with the writer and that I love. So going to work on that here!

~Ok enough about that!~

I think by the name of this corner of the internet you can probably tell I love shells.

I love finding them, I love identifying them, learning about the, doodling them, sketching them and just all of the things.

Needless to say they fascinate me!

So since you will be seeing many photos of shells from me over time, I thought it would be fun to grab a few and identify them.

All of these are pretty common finds in North East Florida and can be found up and down the East Coast, and Gulf Coast.

I feel like the most common ones here are the Coquina, Calicos, and the Shark Eyes.

Now finding them perfectly whole isn’t always super common but when you do its always extra fun!

Calicos are so fun to find in my opinion since they all look so different. Like for instance the other weekend I found a pure cream colored one, and then a white one with like one spot of burgundy. They are just all so different and fun to find.

Shark Eyes are neat, but I’ve not found as much variety among them.

Next up Coquina! Ah, the little butterfly shells, that I love so much. I rarely ever keep coquina shells as they usually break in the process of bringing them home. But I love seeing them at the beach and looking at all of the color varieties. From bold oranges to purples, and light blues they are just so neat to see just there laying in the sand, but you know my favorite way to see them?

Alive at the shore line!

If you’ve ever been to the beach and been right where the water kisses the sand and noticed little “holes” in the sand as they water is going our you’ve probably witnessed coquinas burrowing down into the sand.

If you time it just right, and the water is clear enough you can see them all come in and burrow down. Its so fun and special to watch.

Now on to some of the more unique things above!

Jackknife Clams are indeed clam shells, and technically bivalve shells which means when they are alive there are 2 shells. I actually just posted a video about these and showed some examples!

Acorn Barnacles are so cool to find because they are often striped with pink/purply tones. As you can imagine these guys can live on various things, but you can indeed find them on East Coast beaches in Florida.

Next up, the Atlantic slipper! Which looks neat, but doesn’t seem to vary much in color variations on the East coast of Florida. They do feel a bit more rare to find, but there are a few beaches near me that I find them at regularly.

Lastly, the most unique one above is a fossilized piece of a Northern Cup Coral!

The details of this, I mean need I say more?!

Now I think many probably associate coral with Coral Reefs, which is totally valid.

However the Northern Cup Coral, grows in clumps on hard surfaces, like rocks, piers, and oyster shells, but does not form reefs. ( https://www.mbl.edu/research/research-organisms/northern-star-coral )

Have you found any of these beach finds before?

A Lil Something Extra

If you are like me and love being able to identify your beach finds you might be interested in my seashell guide that I made a few summers ago.

Now I don’t often talk about the “products” I make on here, just because I want this to be a super fun community space all inspired by sketching and the ocean. But I can’t write about shells and not tell you about this….

So as an avid sheller for years, I’ve enjoyed illustrating shells, and painting them and just learning about all of them.

I would always go to the beach and find shells and want to know more! If I didn't know the name of a shell I found, I would search through books as soon as I got home to find out the shells name.

So a few summers ago I distinctly remember being on the beach one morning and it was a particularly good shell day and my mom and I were talking about the names and just having a great time, and suddenly the confidence to make a beach guide arrived.

I’d always loved the idea of making a beach guide but I didn't feel like I was qualified, so I’d never fully entertained the idea. My mom was always encouraging me to do it to but I just didn’t feel like “I” could do it.

But this one particular morning something just came over me and I decided I was going to do it. I was going to make a beach guide to help other beach goers ID their beach finds.

I went home, too one of those fabulous post beach showers and then got busy!

I think I worked on it daily for about 2ish weeks, and made it come to life!

It was so fun to create and to this day it’s just my favorite thing, and the fact I get to ship them all over the US weekly is just like a dream come true!

So since we’ve been identifying shells today I have to show you the guide!

Here is a look and I’ve circled the ones we looked at today!

There are 60+ beach finds on the guide (front and back), its splash safe, and has a lil key ring to make it easy to attach inside your beach bag.

Literally my favorite product I’ve ever made from start to finish with the honorable mention to the Shark Tooth Guide.

So if you are also obsessed with shells, or want to know the names of all of your beach finds this summer you can check out the Seashell Beach Guide Here, and if you are into Shark Teeth I have a Shark Tooth Guide too!

Also should we have a fun lil shell lovers chat on here? I think that would be fun! Now what has been your most exciting shell find, or like what is a shell that if you found it your day would be made!?

Well thanks for joining me today and I’ll sea ya next time!

~Sarah