Tuesday 22 April 2008

The Beginning

We should have posted this blogpost at the beginning of all this, but we will just see this post as a flashback.


We started collecting sea urchins about 10 years ago. We found them amazing and where sure that we could make some amazing stuff with them...
Only problem was, they are very fragile, so the only thing we made was this home decoration, to hang on the walls. It has been hanging now for 10 years... all the other urchins we found in all those years where in a big glass bowl, getting dusty and now and then we undusted them.



When we started on Etsy, the amazing place to buy and sell handmade goods. We finally found the inspiration again to create more. And we found the tric to make the urchins not fragile anymore. We started selling them as beads at the supply shop... still not so sure what to do with them ourselves. The beads where selling like hot cakes and soon we needed to go to the beach to collect more. While we where collecting them I had a small one in my hand and put it on my finger, it looked amazing: the first (yet not made) sea urchin ring! Suddenly we got all kind of ideas with the urchins, there at that moment on the beach we finally found our niche... a great niche.



In dutch (probebly also in many other languages) is a saying: 'Money is lying on the street'.
In this case it should be 'Money is lying on the beach'.
I've been looking at Etsy to find more artist who use urchins as inspiration, here are some of them.

AliciaBock-Urchin



barbles-sea urchin


BellaBella-Antique Urchin Billford Notecard



bridgmanpottery-sea urchin vase



dlkdesigns-Vintage Dictionary Word Pendant- Sea Urchin Illustration



eggmanstudios-Urchin Collection Original Mini painting



happygoatsoap-Sea Urchin Shaped Soap



irenesuchocki-Of the blue, blue sea



lanternlitestudio-Sea Urchin Art Tile



pixelimpress-Sea Urchin Invitations set



Shandles-Mollusk Tealight Candle Holder



srussart-Woven Wire Sculpture-Sea Urchin

14 comments:

  1. What an absolutely amazing collection of urchins! I am flabbergasted there are so many variations on the theme, it is indeed a very beautiful shape to work with.

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  2. Merhaba.

    Ben vaak in Marmaris geweest, en had ik vóór die tijd jullie blog gelezen, dan had ik zeker een poging gedaan ze te vinden. Zijn zo decoratief en mooi!
    En jullie maken er inderdaad optimaal gebruik van. Erg mooi allemaal.

    Gr. Irene

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  3. I absolutely love your jewelry. when I am at my beach here is Florida collecting sea glass, I always think of your design :)

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  4. woww I couldn't imagine so many Etsy Urchin... a great shape for great ideas!!!

    I love all your urchin jewelry... really wonderful!

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  5. so beautiful to read and see!!

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  6. What a WONDERFUL post. Sea urchins are beautiful by nature, and you make them even more beautiful.

    Silvia

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  7. Great story and great finds!

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  8. Great story! And all these beautiful things ...

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  10. fredcat can't spell :(

    Ok, try two WITH some coffee...
    Thanks for including my soap with the sea urchins in all of their myriad forms.
    Patty
    Happy Goats Soap

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  11. Lovely finds and I love the home deco you've made.

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  12. I love this story, Star. To know how you and your mom came upon this idea for amazing jewelry is somehow touching :)

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  13. Great post, fantastic jewelry!
    Love love love your urchins! :)

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