History of Fashion Study: How to Drill a Hole in a Shell

Syd and I started a History of Fashion study this summer, using this book as our spine:



It's a very leisurely study, with lots of handicrafts, so we've actually spent most of the summer on the first unit, Prehistoric Fashion. We studied how animal skins are prepared, how the first sewing needles were invented, we worked with leather, we learned about the invention of weaving, we did some weaving, we learned about the first types of jewelry, and we crafted with shells.

I'll give you the full run-down of this unit later, because it's been awesome, but first: if you want to craft with shells, you probably at some point need to know how to drill a hole in a shell. I'm here to help you with that!




As you can see in the image above, you only need two things: a drill and a suitable drill bit. You can go old-school prehistoric and use a hand drill, or you can use what I use, which is a Dremel. It's so high-speed that it drills through pretty much anything as if that thing is butter.

If you use a Dremel, you also have a lot of choice in what bit you use. I used an engraving bit because that's what I had on hand and I was too lazy to go to the store, but I regret that a little now, because the bit was a bit too soft and I managed to wear it down in the course of drilling through just a few shells. I'd have done better to put the shells in a very shallow pan of water so that I could drill them wet, but it would have been best if I'd used an actual drill bit, such as a narrow tungsten carbide bit or even a diamond bit.

Ah, well... Next time!

Regardless, didn't these shells come out perfectly?



I'll show you another time how Syd and I painted and glittered them, and all the random stuff that we did with them, but right now Will is taking a practice SAT exam at the table near the computer, and I can't wander off with my camera and photograph shells because I have to supervise her and remind her every ten minutes that she can't actually make snarky comments about the questions out loud during the actual SAT...

Homeschooled kids. I tell you what.

P.S. Now that I'm no longer the editor of Crafting a Green World, I spend all my social media time on this blog's Facebook page. I share interesting links to homeschool resources and craft tutorials, and I take weird photos of my WIPs and our homeschool day and put them there. Come see me!