When Courtney and I were about 5 years old, our family took a trip to Florida and spent tons of time collecting things on the beach. I found some sand dollar teeth, and I thought they were so cool when I learned what they were. I filled a little film container with them and had way too much fun showing them off back home!

On our recent trip to San Francisco, we were walking along the beach and noticed that there were sand dollars everywhere! We searched for some sand dollar teeth to cast and make into jewellery. Not only are these things nostalgic for me, personally, but they are also so interesting! Sand dollars are little sea-urchin type creature that move slowly through the sand on lots of little legs covering their surface. They feed on plankton, and have 5 teeth inside that help them break down the plankton. The white sand dollars that we find washed up on the beach are no longer alive and have been dried out, so all that remains is the skeleton.

I think these animals are SO weird (in a good way), and I think its kind of funny that such a simple, slow creature has teeth (not to mention that the teeth are actually beautiful little objects!)

Here are some of the pieces that we made with castings of sand dollar teeth: