Forest Snail

Did you know that most land snails have a shell which spirals to the right?  I’ve been looking closely at a shell as I’m carving one in stone.  The central tip of the spiral is the shell that the snail was born with – when it emerged from its egg.

As its soft body grows it adds shell to the opening in a spiral shape, and so increasing its size.  What a sculptor the snail is.  (The snail secretes calcium carbonate from glands, which forms the shell).

The shell I’m using as my guide has a distinct lip at the opening and this means that the snail had finished growing and was at a mature and mate ready state.

As it was carved in the forest, I’m calling my snail Forest Snail – I  was in Dalby Forest at the Dry Stone Wall Maze site running a lettercutting workshop on Sunday.

When the session had finished  I worked on my snail which is carved on one of the walling stones and hopefully when my snail is finished it will be built into the maze wall somewhere.