Summer’s finds are winter’s crafts for lifelong Wilmington resident and artist Clara Hodges.
Each winter Hodges breaks out the pounds of seashells she collected throughout the years, pours a mix of shells out and arranges them into the nautical objects and marine animals of her seaside scenes.
Most of the shells are not whole, but broken fragments, each sorted into bags according to type and color.
“The broken shells remind me of life,” Hodges said. “People sort of disregard broken shells, but I see things in them and to me they are gorgeous.”
Crab shells, turret shells, scallops, lady slippers, cockleshells, sand dollars, whelks and more are combined by Hodges, usually forming a beach scene or other nautical items like the Old Baldy lighthouse. Hodges said having the ability to combine the inside part of a whelk and two other shells to form a blue heron is all about creative vision.
“The minute I saw this I knew I wanted to make a bird out of that one. You just have to have the eye to put together pieces,” she said. “During the cold winter it made me feel warm remembering the days I would go on the beach and pick these things up.”
Most of Hodges’ shells are from Wrightsville Beach or Masonboro Island, usually picked up after storm events or hurricanes. After that they are combined to make objects and the objects are then glued onto a Masonite board with the background painted on with acrylic. Applying gesso as a primer on the board helps lighten the scene to make it more brilliant. Upon completion, each piece finds a place in Hodges’ studio.
“I don’t know what I am going to do with all this stuff,” Hodges said. “My hope would be to put them in an exhibit because they are different, but it’s something I guess only cuckoo old ladies do.”
Hodges has sold only one piece of her shell art. That piece was sold to a family on Atlanta Street in Wrightsville Beach because all of the shells used in that piece were collected from the adjacent beach strand.
Fitting the pieces together helps Hodges stay active and occupied.
“I had to do something; I had to keep my mind busy,” she said. “I love artsy things and I love to be creative, so when I was walking the beach picking them up, this art was in my mind.”
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