I get asked the question "Do you paint these by hand?"..........and the other gem of a question "You do these by yourself?"............needless to say, my response has been to simply say "I tried using my feet byt they won't cooperate." and after I look around under my table "Yep,.........there are no midgets or little Mexicans under the table painting away."
Yes........I paint on crab shells........and I use real paint and real brushes, too :)
Oh yeah.......another big question I get is "How long does it take you to paint one?" Well, I suppose this is a fair question to ask and I think it is a fair response to say "As long as it takes." You see, not all shells have the same thing painted on them. Some are simple and some are complex. Some are downright difficult and some I tend to take longer to do because I might not enjoy doing that particular one. Actually, it is rare that I ever just sit down and paint just one at a time. I work in batches and paint them according to the method to my madness. If I am using red paint.......then I line up all of the various assorted shells that needs red paint. Then I move on to the next color, and so on. If I have music in my ears, I work faster and can pump out about 100 shells in a weeks time if I push myself. But normally I average about 35 to 40 shells per week. So there you have it..........its a huge amount of work and yes, I get tired of it and need to take breaks here and then.
Lately, I have been taking lots of special requests for custom painted shells and shells in display boxed. It is the start of that time of year when smart people plan ahead and place orders now for Christmas. Of course, some people place orders for birthday gifts, etc. Recently as last week, one repeat customer of mine requested a display box with two crab shells inside. They wanted one shell to have the Baltimore City flag and the other shell to have the Maryland flag, They told me that it was a gift for the Mayor of Baltimore.
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| The Baltimore Flag shell. |
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| The Maryland Flag shell. |
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| The finished product. |
Another customer had ordered a display box with his family name on a Scotland flag on a crab shell. Two weeks later he came back and requested another display box with five crab shells inside. This time I had to paint each crab with the first names of each member of his family.
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| The finished product. |
If you would like a painted crab shell, or a painted crab shell in a display box.......or would like to order one for a gift this Christmas...........time is of the essence..........get on down to the North Point Plaza Flea Market and look over my wide selection of crab shells on display and put in your request for custom orders. You can even watch me paint :) Without a doubt, Signtopia's Painted Crab Shells has the largest amount of painted shells available on any given day..........anywhere.
Also.....come see us at Hunter's Sale Barn on Mondays in Port Deposit, MD.
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| Triple shell box. |
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| The Maryland Flag display box. |
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| One of a kind and only one available, |
