Karine Almir was introduced to the world of seashells as a child during her family’s summer vacations at the seaside in Russia. When she moved to America 16 years ago she started making sugar flowers and bouquets for wedding cakes, which turned out to be a useful ability for making flowers from seashells. Almir was inspired to start making shell art when she saw an episode of the Martha Stewart Show in 2008. She taught herself the art, and one year later, applied and participated, with great success and with winning multiple awards, in the Sanibel Shell Show- one of the big shell art shows in America.
Almir specializes in making Sailor’s Valentines, mosaics, and flower shell art. She enjoys working with seashells because they are pieces of nature’s beauty. The designs in her work display the individual beauty of each shell, and, accordingly, the combinations of those shells create beautiful designs.
Almir lives in Southern California with her husband and three children. Every year they make a trip to Florida to participate in the shell show and to collect seashells from the beaches.
The entry deadline for the 2023 Directory of
Traditional American Crafts has passed. We are now processing entries and submitting
them to our jurors. We will contract entrants after the jurors have made ther decisions.
BACKGROUND
