Speshell creations
The lyrics to Bob Marley’s song “Three Little Birds” are fitting
words for Terri Leeman: “… every little thing’s, gonna be all right.”
Life changed in 2020 when pandemic-related layoffs affected her
job. She turned a favorite pastime into a small business and made
Speshell Creations her
full-time career.
Using sea glass, small
shells and pebbles col-lected
at area beaches,
Leeman creates simple,
delicate pictures to add a
touch of the coast to any
room.
One of Leeman’s favor-ite
pieces is of three little
birds she created with
pebbles found at Carolina
Beach that are perched
on a branch with sea glass
and faux berry accents.
The piece is titled “Three
Little Birds,” named after
the song, of course.
“The first time I real-ized
I was on to some-thing
was when I went
to Garner — they have
a huge market up there
every November —
and everything of mine
was selling like crazy,” Leeman says.
She created oyster shell Christmas trees for the holidays. For
Valentine’s Day the word “Love” is spelled out in sea glass and framed.
“My husband helps me with the shelling, I’ve trained him,” Leeman
says. “I’ll say, ‘Today I need oyster shells that are this long
and this wide or pebbles that are this size.”’
The time of day, the tides, whether it’s sunny or cloudy,
if there’s been a storm, all factor into how Leeman finds
her inventory. She also does special orders and enjoys
the personal connection with customers.
“I love it when someone picks up a piece and says, ‘This
is exactly what my mother-in-law needs’ or ‘My dad
would absolutely love this,’” she says.
Speshell Creations can be found on
Facebook.
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WBM
Mam a ’ s Secret
handmade skincare
The secret to Mama’s Secret Handmade
Skincare is nature.
“Mama’s Secret products have no preser-vatives,
no chemicals,” says founder and
owner Marge Bell. “If Mother Nature didn’t
make it you won’t find it in the product.”
Bell, a former herbalism apprentice,
launched the company with the Mama’s
Secret Weapon Bug Spray.
“That’s how the Mama’s Secret name
came about,” she says.
Today, Bell makes an entire line of
natural and organic skincare products, all
created from scratch in her kitchen, includ-ing
a scrub using salt from the Dead Sea,
a foot salve for dry, cracked feet, a lotion
for painful muscles and joints, and a heal-ing
treatment for eczema, psoriasis and
sunburns.
“One market — I’ll remember this for-ever
— a young girl came by, she was so
sunburned she could hardly walk,” Bell says.
“I gave her the Dry Skin Healing Treatment.
I said, ‘Here, it is a gift, take it’. Before the
market ended the family came and they
wanted to thank me for saving their vaca-tion.
The redness, heat and pain began
to subside almost immediately when the
treatment was applied to her sunburn.”
Mama’s Secret Handmade Skincare can be
found online and on Facebook.
TERRI LEEMAN TERRI LEEMAN
PIXEL & PAPER DESIGNS
february 2021