Seashell Identification

While walking the Florida beaches during the many years I lived there, picking up pretty seashells was just part of life. It was something to keep the kids happy on vacation and we always went home with a bucket of their favorite shells.

Our collection grew – especially when we vacationed on Sanibel Island - which is one of the 3 top spots for shells collecting IN THE WORLD.  And I kept them in a big glass bowl that I bought at the dollar store. I never had a clue as to what they were called.  They were just “shells” to me.

I brought them with me when I moved back to the northeast and they sat in that glass bowl for years.
When I began photographing my shells for sale, I realized that it would be helpful if I could accurately identify them.

While searching around the internet, I have discovered the names of most of the seashells I have in my collection and I’m happy to share that info with you!
I have tried to include links to sites that better explain the shell, and I have learned a great deal from my research – (Do you know which shell is called a “mermaids toenail“?) and found some awesome sites with nice photos and good information.

Just Click on the link below to see photos and read about a particular shell.
The list will continue to grow as I add more of my photos, so please bookmark the page.

Florida Lightning Whelk - A ”left handed” seashell
Natica Lineata & Babylonia Spirata …Shells with stripes and spots
Pink Murex - A large shell
Strawberry Conch -Small cone
Lettered Olive & Golden Olive
Sand Dollars- More than one type
Jingle Shells- translucent
Elegant Dosinia -or Disk?
Pen Shell- Can be a foot long
Jujonia -A treasure
Spiny Jewel Box
Star Fish/Sea Stars
Gibbose (Brown) Olive Shell
Atlantic Auger
Atlantic Kitten’s Paw
Cowry Shells - Used as currency

~ View more on SEASHELL-INDENTIFICATION with photos and links~

Cockle Shells

The cockle shell is probably the most commonly found shell along Florida beaches. Even at Daytona and New Smyrna beaches, where there are far fewer shells than along the gulf coast, we almost always found one of these.

Cockle Shells

They can range in size and I have a couple that are quite large, but the ones I chose to collect stood out as unique due to their coloring or pitted appearance (such as the one I call the “footprint shell”).

I especially love my blue ones, but the ones shown here have a white inside that looks like it was painted.

White inside

Painted Seashells: The Photo Shop Way

Through the magic of Photo Shop I have done something I’ve only dreamed of doing…painted a picture! I am very new to using Photo Shop but somehow managed to figure out how to turn a photograph of mine into a “work of art”.

I know it’s not the same as having the talent to actually paint on a blank canvas, but apparently it looks good enough because I sold the picture on a mousepad to a customer in Maryland only a week after posting it for sale. Many thanks, Diane!

*View all mousepads at the Beachcombers Shop.

Would you like to know the names of the seashells pictured here? I have a whole page of information with photos at Seashell Identification, or go to the Home page of this blog.

Sepia Seashells for Christmas

Now that summer is gone, the seashell interest has seemed to disappear -almost. I suppose that is natural when most of the country is gearing up for the cold and snow.
My most recent customers reside in California, Texas and Florida. I create these seashell Christmas greetings with my warm climate friends in mind.

Seashell Photography Binder

I could have used this binder while doing my research on seashells and their names! I made it with seashells and beach vacations in mind. With 3 customizable text areas, this book can be used for anything from seafood recipes to marine biology studies – OR remove all text and use it for everyday.

Promoting Zazzle With Squidoo

I am getting off the subject of seashells for a moment to talk about the place that has helped me a great deal with online promotion of my online stores while making a little extra money as well.

I first heard of Squidoo through some co-workers at Zazzle. I am not computer savvy and it seemed like just another waste of time trying to figure out something new that would just get me nowhere.  I was wrong.

Once I made my first “lens” – or page of information at the site I saw how easy if was to create something interesting and nice looking.  And it was fun sharing my favorite recipes and garden photos with people from all over the world!  I never expected to make much money – and I haven’t!  But I do appreciate that $20 or so extra dollars a month and I am hooked on making lenses.  I do however get lots of traffic from Squidoo to my Zazzle stores, which in turn does make me some very good money.

A Squidoo page is made up of “modules” and the lensmaster (that’s you- the creator of the page) chooses which ones to add to his or her page and you work on one module at a time and add or delete them as you choose.  A module can be a Flickr account, Amazon list, e-bay account, a poll, you tube video, writing (text) module and comment section - there are many to choose from.  Some of the modules have an “add a photo” area to make adding pictures easy too.

If you have something interesting to write about just create a page, add some pictures and begin. You can always add more to it – in fact updating pages is encouraged.

If your lens is worthy, you might even get a “blessing” by a Squid Angel.  This will increase your lensrank and move you closer to the top 100.  Creating a LOTD (lens of the day) is a goal as well.

As I mentioned, you can make money on Squidoo too! Besides being an excellent tool to point potential customers to an website or online store, if your lens places well and attracts a lot of visitors, a percentage of overall ad views is partially yours. Add an Amazon link or two and one from e-bay and earn money that way.  If you have a Zazzle store, Squidoo has a “Zazzle module” to easily add up to 9 of your products at once (but you won’t get Zazzle referral money when using it).

Many Squidoo lensmasters have written lenses with helpful information about CSS, basic html, Squidoo do’s and don’t’s, and even ideas for what to write about.

If you want to get started go here and begin by choosing a name for your lens – choose wisely as it’s the one thing that cannot be changed on your lens.  **Here’s a hint I picked from Squidoo – put a dash between your Squidoo title words; such as “Favorite-Vacations” for better SEO (search engine optimization).

**I have been a Squidoo member since October 6 2008, have rated 460 lenses, favorited 288, and have created 18 lenses from scratch. My top-ranked page is “Seashell Identification“.  See all my lenses .