At Home with ... SUSAN SERVICE SHE SHAPES SEASHELLS

Susan Service spends hours at her kitchen table sorting through bags of seashells. When she can't find just what she wants, she dyes shells or paints them. She may even cook up a trout dinner for her and her husband, Richard, so she can dress up shells with the tiny fish bones.

Unlikely as it sounds, those bits and pieces go into creations that look nothing like shells. Nor even like anything that comes from the sea.

Rather, Service, 63, creates flower blossoms. Soft-looking petals of pale pink and rich burgundy that spill from, over and around everyday objects.

For inspiration, she shops at thrift stores, antiques shops and flea markets for things to be-flower. She has found an old schoolhouse clock, antique frames, old plaques, the top of a perfume bottle.

In fact, after only about two years at the craft, she has amassed 37 creations in her south Tampa home.

Shells? Flowers? Whatever got you started?

I saw a story in a Martha Stewart magazine about Sailor's Valentines. That spoke to me.

Sailor's Valentines were shell mosaics created on small wooden boxes in Barbados during the 19th century. Sailors coming home to the United States often bought them for their wives and girlfriends.

So you just fiddled around till you figured out how to make a flower? How do you do it?

I drill a hole into a wooden button, then I glue a piece of floral wire into the hole so it sticks out the bottom. I glue the petals onto the top. When I'm ready to mount the flowers, I'll paint a piece of Styrofoam black and stick the wires in.

How many shells does it take to make one flower?

It takes 35 shells to make a rose. Most of my shell flower creations have hundreds of shells, some even more than a thousand.

Which means a lot of time at the beach?

No, because you can't find what you need. You can only use so many of those speckled scallop shells.

The shells come from The Shell Store in St. Pete Beach, from shops in Sanibel, at a flea market in Bradenton.

And I don't suppose your tools of choice are lobster crackers and oyster knives.

Toothpicks, pliers, wedge-shaped erasers and knives. I even used a Dremel drill to cut a sea urchin into slices. I use the erasers to prop the glued petals until they set.

And your glue of choice?

I use Clear Liquid Nails.

How much time do you actually spend gluing petals in place?

An hour here, an hour there, usually afternoons and evenings. It gets kind of tedious if you're at it too long. But it's on my mind day and night. I hardly slept at all the first month because I had so many ideas.

But you said it does get tedious. What keeps you at it?

It's a balance to the downside of life. My husband had open-heart surgery twice in two days. My mother passed away. Life has its ups and downs, but I feel like this makes kind of a pleasant sanctuary from the world. ... It's my gift from the Lord.

So it's good for the soul. And maybe for the pocketbook. Have you thought about selling these creations?

Yes. But everything I have has a place. I get attached.

Reporter B.C. Manion can be reached at (813) 259-7150 or bmanion@tampa