Introduction: Toothy Shell Mouths
I was walking on the beach over the summer and saw a small, flat-ish white rock. It was oddly tooth-shaped. "Huh", I thought, "I could collect a full mouth of tooth-rocks! Even better, I could put those teeth in a shell mouth and use them for Halloween or something!"
And thus this project was born. Enjoy!
Step 1: Materials & Tools
- Small tooth-sized rocks (32 per "mouth")
- Incisors (x8)
- Canines (x4)
- Molars (x20)
Step 2: Assembly
Start by gluing the incisors (the small/flat rocks) in the front-center of each of the shells (4 per shell).
Then glue the canines (the pointiest rocks) on either side of the incisors (2 per shell).
Finish by gluing the molars (the widest/flattest rocks) on either side of the canines (10 per shell).
Step 3: Positioning
Hold the final, glued shells together, matching up the "teeth" on the top and bottom in various degrees of openness to determine at which angle your "mouth" looks the best (worst?).
Once you find a good angle, glue any combination of the back-most molars, back corner of the shell, and front teeth in place, whichever happen to match up in the angle you choose (the more glued together, the more stable).
Holding the shell-mouth face-down and gluing from the back corner (the part where the shell attaches normally) will allow you to glue the teeth together from the inside without having any excess glue show on the outside/front.
Step 4: Diversify
All mouths are different! Make your Halloween collection have a full range of sizes, expressions, and quality of dental care as you can!

Participated in the
Halloween Contest 2018
5 Comments
5 years ago
bwahaha my 6 y.o. son gonna love making this! :D
maybe i'll add some pink dyed salt dough or something to make the gum...
Reply 5 years ago
I was thinking about how I'd go about making gums... silly putty, fun tack,... let me know how the dough or whatever you go with turns out!!
Reply 5 years ago
here's the result ! we made some salt dough, colored with red gouache. i did the samml one, my son did the big one. we just had to plant the teeth in the gum. i sprayed some varnish so as the salt dough doesn't melt (it's baked, but still) , and it also allows better the teeth to stay in place. there was more dough than enough, so we used the leftover to make a tongue... they're like "BWAAAAAAAAAH!!!", happy as a clam! :D
Reply 4 years ago
Ack they look great!! well done with the gums and tongues!
5 years ago
Those rocks are toothy! I'll have to pick some up next time I'm at the beach :)