Decorating with Sailors Valentines

In celebration of Valentine's day, I want to introduce you to a talented artist and show you a couple of decorating ideas with Sailors Valentines.

So meet Lynda Susan Hennigan, a Connecticut based seashell artist, here showing off one of her stunning creations.


While the term sailors valentine is often applied to shell-encrusted frames and boxes, Country Living explains that true 19th-century Sailors Valentines were octagonal boxes filled with mosaics of shells.


Here Lynda works on a worded piece, drawing the letters freehand, tracing the penciled letters with glue, then adding small shells.


The history in a nutshell (an excerpt from the same article):

Capitalizing on the height of the whale-oil industry in the early 19th century, English brothers B.H. and George Belgrave opened a shop in Barbados, which was the whaler's last port of call. Decorative shellwork was at its height in the 1820s, and the Belgraves' shop was sought out for its locally crafted shell designs in eight-sided boxes, like those encasing a ship's compass. Snapped up by seamen for loved ones back home, these pieces were soon dubbed sailors' valentines.

Lynda has so many gorgeous sailors valentines in her collection that it was hard to pick a few favorites, but here they are, starting with a heart shape.


Perfect for Valentines Day.


Plain sweet.


I love this underwater scene, just gorgeous.


And orange is now officially one of my favorite colors.

If you would like to try this art, you could start with a Sailors Valentine Kit!

Now just a couple of decorating ideas and sources, so that you can create the look!


You might remember this from The Wild Nautical World of Diamond Baratta. Six sailors valentines adorn the wall.


It's not an inexpensive look, even these reproductions from Newport Nautical Decor are over two hundred dollars, which of course is a fraction of the antiques that date back to the 1850's. Originals are rare (and very expensive), and most are held in public and private collections.


And a serene bedroom by Phoebe Howard.


These sailors valentines are created using natural whites only and a few mother of pearl shells, also from Newport Nautical Decor.

And now I wish you all a Happy Valentines Day!

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