In my last post, I had polished up a plain This was the original shellbleached shell to prepare it for painting.

First, I made sure there was sufficient varnish before I put any paint on the shell. Acrylic paints work well, but there can be some visible cracking sometimes as the paint dries. 

My paint pens seemed to do a better job keeping the coat opaque and crack free. I had decided to choose two bright, fun beach colors to paint the shell. I chose bright green for the outside, with a sky blue on the inside. I tipped the outer edge of the shell with a metallic silver paint pen just to give it some detail. The metallic helps to “class it up” a touch, in my opinion.

Next, I used some FIMO clay large hole beads I made in fun swirls of color to make a cluster of pearls/barnacles/use your imagination/whatevs.

I measured off some lengths of Linhasita cord, then braided the middle section to make a loop for the Pendant, then tied a simple overhand knot to secure it under the shell’s hole at the top.  
Next, I strung each bead on a couple of strands of cords at different lengths in the shell’s cup and knotted them off. I slightly melted the knots using a lighter (outdoors, of course).

Using Kumihimo braiding, I made a matching cord for the necklace with the Linhasita cord, with a small toggle also made from the same batch of FIMO clay.

A funky, freshy, beachy necklace from a simple local bleached out shell. 

This could have been a worse craft. I could have been like Lisa Simpson’s friends and bedazzled the surfmobile with shells. Yikes.