Mermaid Crown

[Orphena]

Greetings crafters!

I'm looking for a few ideas - I would like to make a crown of sea shells for my upcoming role as Ocean, Mermaid Queen in Guelph's  (Ontario, Canada) Faery Fest.

I would like an idea that is relatively simple and comfortable to wear. I have LOTS of seashells in various shapes - can anyone suggest a base of some kind to work with? I had thought of a headband, but I don't find them particularly comfortable.

Something that will last all weekend would be best. (ie - hot glue gun & hot sun not so great!)

Thanks!

[FaeHollow]

You could always have a wire skeleton and use the shells as "beads" by carefully poking holes on each side and threading a sturdy wire through it and bending into the shape you want. Then adding other pieces onto the center piece. When you are done with the crown piece you could get a headband that you ind comfortable and use it as a base to wrap the entire structure onto. Then you could cover that with ribbon or fabric to hide the wire attachments. You could reinforce he whole structure with hot glue or E500K Glue. that way the whole structure would be held together by the wire and just reinforced with glue that might melt. Get a sturdy wire able to stand on its own and something to easily poke small holes without much force. This might need to factor into the delicacy of shells you choose. But this way you wont be worried about glue all day. You would want to make sure you get some form of support to go in back to make sure the whole thing doesn't flop but with enough engineering you can make it work!