Fashioning seashells into art

Dubai You cannot miss them when you're walking on the beach. Their colour, size, and shape will make you want to pick them up and take them home with you, as most people have done at least once in their lives.

They're seashells, the crown jewels of the ocean. They're the exoskeleton that serves as homes to molluscs. But once they die, they leave the seashells behind.

"Picking shells in the beach is fine provided they don't evict animals from their homes," Keith Wilson, marine programme director at the Emirates Marine Environmental Group, said. "In the UAE, there are as many molluscs as there are fishes. The coastal regions have plenty of biodiversity."

This rich biodiversity gives plenty of choices to those who have developed shell collecting as a hobby like Syrian expatriate Mona Mansour, who turns seashells into art in Dubai.

"I was attracted by the coloured shells which looked like rose leaves by the seaside," Mona said.

"I started to collect these shells of different kinds and sizes, and made them into beautiful portraits," she added. Fast forward 20 years later, Mona's house is full of colourful shell portraits of flowers and birds.

The portraits may seem easy to make, but Mona said working on one project is like working with the tides.

"The time depends on the subject that I am doing, on the sizes of the panel, the sizes of the shells, and the availability of the shells on the seaside," Mona said.

"Sometimes we will go to the seaside and look for shells. Again, she needs the same kinds of shells, she wants colour. It just takes time, sometimes months, to gather," Mona's husband, Abdul, said. Shell gathering has taken the couple to the shores of Khor Fakkan, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, Dubai and Sharjah.

In Dubai, another couple is drawn to its shores. Mohammad Zomorrodian and his wife Pan Li Chen go to Jumeirah beach every week to collect shells.

"She started in 2010. She would look at the sand and would always imagine, "This [shell] is like an animal, this is one human," Mohammad said.

‘Feel relaxed'

Like Mona, Li Chen is also particular about her shells. Finding that perfect shell is like looking for a piece of a puzzle on the shore.

"You cannot use any shell for one design. For example, she wants to make a panda, [the shells should look] a little darker for the feet. Sometimes, it takes days to find one piece," Mohammad said, adding that Li Chen does not colour or shape the shells; she uses them as they are.

Li Chen, a self-taught artist and painter, has made around 25 shell art works mainly depicting humans, birds, and animals.

"When people look at my artworks, for example, when they are tired and they look at them to make them feel relaxed, that makes me very happy," Li Chen said.

But what makes both shell artists happier is the fact that the Gulf waters offer a wide variety of shells.

"We find that the Mediterranean Sea, which is our sea in Syria, has one kind of shell only. We also went to Italy and France on the Mediterranean, and saw the same shell," Mona said.

"There are quite a number of shells in the Gulf and the kinds here are better than those in the Mediterranean because we are part of the Indo-Pacific Ocean," Wilson said.

In 2011, on the International Day of the Oceans, 22 of Mona's portraits were exhibited at the Sharjah Natural History Museum for two months.

"This work has made me love nature more and confirmed greatly my belief in God almighty; the creator of everything perfect, precise, and wonderful," Mona said.