Scallop Shell Poppies

Why poppies?

As this is the 100th anniversary of the A.N.Z.A.C landing at Gallipoli, we decided it would be fitting to create poppies as a garden ornament. We had to problem solve a design that would work based on an example that Mrs O’Brien found at a country fair.

Scallop shells were collected from Waipu Cove beach and Mrs Tolhurst helped in our quest by gathering shells off Matarangi Beach.

Firstly, we had to wash all of the salt off the shells so that the paint would adhere properly, we also matched up the shells into sizes.

We knew we had to file the shells to make a small hole big enough for the wire to fit through so it could hold the sculpture in the garden.

After that we had to paint the shells with water based paint. We had to do this a couple of times because the paint stuck to the drying station (Paper).

We glued a pair of shells together with a product called No More Nails, it took a while to dry and we couldn't move our hands.

After we had two pairs of shells together we painted the middle of the shells black with yellow spots.

The wires had to be cut and twisted to make the stalk of the poppy.

Firstly, we tried to paint with brushes but we couldn't get into the twisted wire successfully, so we ended up spray painting it.

Once we had glued everything together and added the wire stake, we had to touch up the shells and paint over the ‘Knead It’ that secured the wire in place.

This is the finished product. We are all very happy with the problem solving and team work that went into producing our poppies. Look out for them in the Room 3 garden soon.