Name: Vicki Verbanic – Ocean Life Designs
Website Link: http://www.oceanlifedesigns.com
Where are you located? Florida, USA
Heart Ornament
Tell us a bit about yourself: I first became fascinated with shell work when a close friend of mine was moving back to Switzerland and left me her craft shell collection. I started playing around with them and have been hooked every since. It is amazing the different type of works that can be created with these gems from the ocean!
When did you start designing this type of jewelry/art? I have been crafting since I was 10 years old and my mother taught me to knit. I love all sorts of crafts. I spent many years making jewelry, and still love working with wire and metalsmithing, but that has taken a wayside to the shell art.
What do you make? Shell art of all types! I love vintage shell jewelry, but there are some obstacles in recreating a lot of these designs – besides locating the components, many of the shells used in bygone days are no longer being harvested, and when they are available many times are cost prohibitive.
Florida Scallops
What materials and methods do you use? Shells of all types. My flowers are done using hot glue. When I work on smaller “valentine” type items, I use Bond 527, it allows movement of the shells.
Where do your design inspirations come from? Gosh, not sure how to answer this. Sometimes it is just a lot of trial and error when working with the shells!
Lucine cups
Where can your products be seen? http://www.oceanlifedesigns.com
Who are you a fan of? A fan of? I am jealous of people that live near the water and can shell any opportunity they get – does that qualify?
Tell us a little about one of your favorite creations: My favorite work to date has to be the pocket watch pendant that I did as a gift. I have seen other shell artists do these, and wanted to try one. It was a challenge and I am looking forward to attempting more of these!
Pocket watch
Anything else you wish to add? Thank you for giving me this opportunity – I will be watching with anticipation and hoping that you have much success with your site!
Thank you for your interview and we will anxiously await your possible future attempts at vintage-style shell jewelry!
2 Comments
August 24, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Wow,
That’s really amazing and very good work. These are very good designs and she is really putting good efforts to make them so nice and beautiful to be presented here. That’s a real nice job. It is amazing to know the different type of works that can be created with these gems from the ocean!
That’s great work.
October 21, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I got a beautiful bunch of roses from Ocean Life Designs and they look so real. I love them!