Seashell and coral paperweight

As promised in my last blog post I said I would show off another paperweight that I made last week, well here it is. This was a custom order for a paperweight and the customer sent me a selection of seashells and coral to encase within the resin paperweight.

Seashell and coral paperweight

This paperweight was a lot trickier to complete than it looks, mainly due to the possibility of having trapped air within the shells and coral escaping out into the resin as it cures. I had to pre-coat each shell and the piece of coral with layers of resin before encasing them within the paperweight. The other possible problem I had to contend with was the irregular shapes of the shells and preventing trapped bubbles underneath them as they are embedded. Thankfully the paperweight was perfect, it takes about a week to make the paperweight during which time I cannot see what is happening underneath, so the moment when it popped out of the mould was quite exciting!

These sea shells hold an important sentimental significance to the customer and what better way to present them as a gift. Many of us take a few shells home with us when we go away on holiday and if anybody else is like me, they just end up put away into a box. Having a paperweight is a lovely way to display the shells and a reminder of a happy holiday!

Mick