Minding Your Business - Chatham Coastal Creations

Chatham Coastal Creations

Sea Shell Art made entirely from Locally Harvested Shellfish

The Harwich Cultural Center at 204 Sisson Rd.

Harwich

Open Houses: Saturday, Nov. 25, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

and Saturday, Dec. 2, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

508-237-4213

ChathamCC.com

Did you ever have an idea, but never acted on it? Well, former Chatham commercial fisherman Nick Nickerson had one of those ideas but acted on it. “I was going through radiation treatments for cancer, stage 4 cancer,” he said. “The doctors actually told me to get my affairs in order.” He said he began to create mirrors with scallop shell frames to take his mind off things. “And Nautique started ordering them!” He was surprised. And all the fuss about those must have made him forget about his illness. (He’s now cancer free.)

“Then I noticed my son-in-law, Jim Beebe’s cutting boards; they had a shape of the Cape cut out at the top. I started thinking maybe I could cut out designs in the scallop shells.” Nickerson knew the instrument Beebe used on the wood boards wouldn’t work on the more fragile scallop shell material. So he started looking around for a laser jet business. “They all laughed at me! They said the speed of the way the lasers worked would smash those shells to smithereens!” But Nickerson didn’t give up.

He eventually found Dick Hersey at the Hersey Clutch Company in Orleans. “Dick has a powerful water laser jet cutter. So I hired him.” Today Nickerson creates the designs, which are then input into the program of the machine to create the ornaments. “Dick and I have a great relationship.

“It’s a very labor-intensive process on our end,” said Nickerson. His backyard is full of shells that were shucked at sea, all from local fishermen. The ornament-making process starts with a thorough cleaning of the sea scallop shells, then after scrubbing and grinding the shells, he brings them to Hersey. Then they come back to his studio where he and his family box them up for shipment to the many shops that carry the product. “A shell is probably handled 20 times before it gets in the box!”

In business since 2017, Nickerson is always adding new designs to the many designs he already has, much too many to name here. They are in 70-plus stores from Maine to New Jersey. “Different stores request different designs.” Some of the stores opt to show a video of the laser process to show customers. “People love watching it.”

This past week, he had a request for a Star of David, “so I designed one and we shipped them out the next week.” He does custom orders, too. He’s done some for Chatham Bars Inn and the Wequassett Inn. He has and will do custom ones for weddings, party favors, other businesses and more. There’s a minimum of 25 shells when he does a special order. He said some artists even buy the plain shells with the drilled-in hole so they can paint them.

He’s holding two open houses at his studio in the next few weeks in Room 111 of the Harwich Cultural Center, the 204 on Sisson. The first one is Saturday, Nov. 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the second one is on Saturday, Dec. 2 from 10 to 4. You can also swing by his studio in Harwich anytime if you want, but he asks that you call him first.

“What started as therapy for me is now a full-time business,” he said with a smile. Check out his website or drop by the open house to see all the wonderful designs.