Australian aboriginals made beautiful beaded jewelry by stringing together shells, bones or painted rocks. They used ochre, in varying tones, mixed with water to paint the rocks, and also to paint their skin. We see some great examples of this in Festivals of the World: Australia. We decide to make our own necklaces out of shells and head to the beach to find some pretty ones…
It’s a great day for the beach…
And the little islands in the distance remind us a bit of the islands of Australia…
HZ puts his Mickey glasses on to help him spot some good shells…
The tide is low so many of the shells we find still have someone living them!
Check out all of these clams…
And one horseshoe crab in the rocks!
We find lots of good shells in the marsh…
And some smooth rocks to save for painting another day
After dinner and a long day at the beach we pour out our shells and give them a good wash…
Out of the soapy water crawls a little crab!!
Once we have washed all the shells and carefully poked a hole through them with a nail and hammer (and set the crab up in a temporary home!) we’re ready to make some necklaces…
We use a mixture of shells and beads.
CZ pays tribute to Australia with hers..
It’s tricky to string the shells without breaking them so the kids take their time…
The finished product..Ready to wear!
Globe Scouts 