Leslie found she enjoyed the calm of working with a scroll saw as opposed to the chatter of a lathe but couldn’t find any projects that left her wanting to make more of them. Seeking something different she watched a YouTube video about making a shell using a scroll saw, tried it and she was hooked. Six years, hundreds of shells and many awards later, she has found her niche. Using a scroll saw she cuts out the pieces for a shell from wedged shaped pieces of wood. She glues them together in sections, sands them inside and out in sections and then glues the sections together. The shells range in size from that of a naval orange to that of a beach ball.

Though her early shells were made primarily from southern pine she soon experimented with other species of wood such as cocobolo, canary wood, black and white ebony, flame box elder, ambrosia maple, pecan and buckeye burl to name a few. She also often inlays the wood with turquoise or other minerals, dyes pine shells in hues of blue/green, soaks pine shells in boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits to give the wood a translucent effect and has recently been casting wood and burls with resin for a dramatic and colorful result. The images in our nautilus shell gallery will give you an idea of the shells that have been made. If you are interested in seeing what shells are available for sale please contact us and we will email you pictures of what we currently have with respective pricing. Though the shells in some of the images appear to be freestanding they all come with a custom fit base made from mopani which is a hard, gnarly wood from Africa that resembles driftwood.