How To Make Beautiful Oyster Shell Wood Blessing Beads

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Learn how to make your own trendy DIY wood blessing beads with a beautiful oyster shell accent piece. Plus, see how to decorate with them!

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What Are Wood Blessing Beads?

Blessing beads are not only a beautiful accent piece, but they also have significant meaning.

• They are used to bring good wishes, healing, and luck.
• Given as a baby gift to signify what a blessing a new baby is. They even sell baby blessing beads with chewable beads!
• A thoughtful wedding gift to bless the start of the couple’s new life together.

Where To Find Oyster Shells

For the blessing beads I am sharing today, I added beautiful oyster shells.

Growing up in Rhode Island, collecting seashells was something we did each summer.

We would make it a competition to see who could find the prettiest seashells!

Oyster shells have such a gorgeous iridescent sheen to them, so we were always on the hunt for those.

Some of my fondest memories with my children were of taking them to Cape Cod each summer.

They would each have their own bucket and would scour the beach for seashells.

If you don’t have a beach to search for oyster shells, try your local Seafood market.

You may be surprised at how many will be more than happy to let you have their discarded shells.

Did you know that some States actually have recycling centers for oyster shells?

There is a really interesting article all about the South Carolina Oyster Shell Recycling Program here.

How To Clean Oyster Shells

One of the benefits of buying oyster shells is you don’t have to clean them.

That is a wonderful thing as it is a lot of work!

But if you want to save some money and clean them yourself, here is a helpful tutorial.

Paint And Glaze Your Oyster Shells

One of the really fun things about crafting with oyster shells is you can use them in their natural state or paint them as I did.

Adding gold and silver paint to the edges gives the oyster shells a glamorous touch.

You can paint the entire shell too. The possibilities are endless! 

To give them a nice sheen and really showcase the natural coloring, I used a glazing medium.

Easy Way To Add A Hole To The Oyster Shell

I’m going to admit something. I don’t like using a drill!

As a DIY’er that is not easy to admit.

There are other power tools I love to use, like my orbital sander, but I only use a drill if I have to.

So when I read that you could use thumbtacks to place a hole in oyster shells, I was all in.

You guys-it works!  But I did choose shells that were a little thinner on top.

It definitely wouldn’t work on thicker shells.

Once you push the thumbtack through the shell, you can go back with the tack and make the hole larger.

How To Make Oyster Shell Wood Blessing Beads

This is a very simple tutorial that I hope you will find helpful. Here is what you need to make your own blessing beads:

Supplies Needed to Make Blessing Beads

• Large Unfinished Wood Beads
• Natural Jute Twine
• Oyster Shells – if you can’t find them for free, you can buy them pre-drilled here.
• Thumb Tacks
• DecoArt Metallics Paint – I used gold and silver
• DecoArt Glazing Medium
• Small Paint Brushes

Step 1. Knot The Twine 

Start by tying a large knot on one end of the twine large enough so the beads don’t fall off.

Step 2. String The Beads

Begin stringing the beads onto the twine.

Determine the length of your blessing beads.

As I was using the beads in several different ways, I created several lengths.

For the large blessing beads, I used about 36 – 1″ beads.

Step 3. Add The Oyster Shell

I chose to add my oyster shell to the ends of the blessing beads, but you can add them wherever you like.

Simply string the twine through the hole.

You can use a needle to push the twine through if you need to.

Step 4. Tie The End

When you have the length that you want, tie off the end, again ensuring that the knot is large enough to cover the hole in the wood bead.

What To Do With Blessing Beads

Now that you have all of these beautiful blessing beads, what do you do with them?

There are so many great ideas for using your handmade blessing beads.

I’m sharing a few that I made, but there are so many more. Pinterest will be your best friend for this!

Just search “wood bead oyster shells” and you will be shocked at the number of items that comes up.

Think about pink painted wood beads with natural shells, or pretty lilac for a Mother’s Day gift. Let your creativity inspire you!

• Oyster Shell Napkin Rings – Coordinate painted wood beads and oyster shells to seasonal tablescapes. How pretty would a Christmas version be? There are more of these in my future for sure!

• Blessing Beads Key Chain – My daughter already claimed this key chain as hers! I added a tassel to the end of four wood beads and added the oyster shell to a key ring. Wouldn’t these make a great gift?

• Blessing Beads For The Home – decorate a lamp, place on a bookshelf or simply on a table

• Garland – place the blessing beads on an old window, or drape across a buffet as a fun statement piece!
• Jewelry – another thing I plan to make next is a long wood bead necklace with an oyster shell hanging from it. I’ll update pics here when it’s done.

One of my favorite ways to use them is to drape them around a vintage-looking demijohn.

It adds so much interest and texture!

You can see how I made the knock-off demijohn from an old wine jug here.

This was such a fun project to make and I hope you enjoyed it.

You will be seeing several other oyster shell projects in the coming weeks as I still have quite a few left to create with.

Sharing is caring…please pin the below image:

I’m thinking a mirror for my bedroom will be next.

You may also like the DIY Seashell Wreath I made here.

I was first inspired to try crafting with oyster shells after seeing the gorgeous metal leaf oyster shell jewelry storage dishes that Amy from Atta Girl Says created.

They are so pretty!

She has a great tutorial for these, as well as oyster shell candles that you will definitely want to check out!

And we have a special treat today, as Amy just created these absolutely stunning Chinoiserie Chic Oyster Shells that I am totally fawning over!

Just look at these beauties:

The navy and white against the gold are so classic and elegant.

Head on over to Atta Girl Says to get the full tutorial on her blog here.

Also, if you are not following Amy on social media yet, you definitely should.

She shares not only gorgeous home decorating and craft ideas, but also delicious recipes that will make your mouth water.

Here are her social media links:

• Pinterest – Atta Girl Says
• Instagram – Atta Girl Says
• Facebook – Atta Girl Says
• Twitter – Atta Girl Says

Thank you so much for visiting. Have a great day!

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