Seashell masks are the most fun thing we make at Christa’s South Seashells.  They all derive from Commedia dell Arté characters from the Venetian renaissance drama troupe.  These characters are still used today, and the mask is always more important than the player.  You will see them in sitcoms, dramas, opera and theatrical works.  Zanni can be a clown–how about Seinfeld’s Kramer?  Brighella is cunning and manipulative–Othello’s Iago?  Columbina the maid?  Why she could be a Mozart heroine, like Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro!  And Arlecchino means the harlequin, or clown.  There is Il Dottore, who has spent his lifetime always studying, but learning little.  The list goes on, and it’s lots of fun to tie these characters to ones of modern day.  What’s more fun, though, is creating characters from the odd and colorful shapes of seashells, sea beans, urchin spines and sometimes even broken seashells or a bit of sea fan.  There are always new ones offered, or we can copy an old one you see on the site. Take a look at some of the hundreds CSS has created over the years: