Any floral arrangement can be given seaside charm by adding some stems with genuine shells.

This tutorial is similar to my Crystal Stems project [1], but is designed to work with items (like shells) that don't have a hole drilled through like Swarovski crystal beads.  

Materials and Equipment Needed for Real Shell Floral Picks:

• floral wire
• wire cutters
• real shells
• hot glue gun
• electric drill
• screw-in hook

Cut a length of wire approximately three feet long.  Fold in half.

Loop the center of the wire over a screw-in hook in a power drill.  Hold the two ends of the wire together with one hand, and start the drill spinning with the other.  In seconds, you'll have a perfectly wound floral wire stem!

You'll be left with a piece of wire that has one end with a tiny loop; that's the end I like to stick in the shell, because it has a little more surface area.  Use your hot glue gun to glue one end of the wire in a shell. 

The shell-topped floral wire picks can then be easily incorporated in any kind of floral arrangement.

A bouquet, a centerpiece--anything, really!  I'll bet there are all sorts of other things I could do with wired shells, actually.  Wouldn't an entire bouquet of shells (maybe with some pearls) be a cool bouquet if someone didn't want to use flowers at all?