With Valentines Day a month away it is time to start preparing.
Maybe with a Sailors valentine.
For those of you you may not know what that is Sailors' Valentines are a shell art form developed in the early nineteenth century. Octagonal boxes served as frames for symmetrical and well-balanced compositions that artists created, in pointillist-like fashion, using small shells of different colors and shapes.
Contrary to myth, sailors' valentines were not made by sailors in order to pass time at sea. They were usually assembled by female residents of Barbados and other Caribbean ports of call for New England whalers to purchase and bring back to their loved ones waiting at home. The craftswomen would often include romantic phrases such as "Forget-me-not" and "Remember me". Recently this art form has undergone a revival amongst shell crafters.
Contrary to myth, sailors' valentines were not made by sailors in order to pass time at sea. They were usually assembled by female residents of Barbados and other Caribbean ports of call for New England whalers to purchase and bring back to their loved ones waiting at home. The craftswomen would often include romantic phrases such as "Forget-me-not" and "Remember me". Recently this art form has undergone a revival amongst shell crafters.
Sanibel Island and next door at Captiva Island here is sunny Florida are 2 of the best places for shell picking.
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