One day in 2014 in Tampa, Florida... a brown pelican stood on a pier looking straight into the lens of a camera as if it knew its picture was being taken. This pelican was sending the photographer a message. What the message was wasn’t quite clear to the photographer until a month later . . .

That photographer was me, Rose Shanahan, the owner of Pelican Pearl Designs, who is fortunate to have a summer home in Grassy Sound, New Jersey; and, since being there, have become an adamant bird admirer due to the many birds that flock there every summer. That June while at Grassy Sound, the idea presented itself - to create original artwork capturing the beauty of these birds and place this artwork onto various product items like the ones you see here on our Facebook Page. Knowing I couldn’t do this alone, I shared this idea with my two sisters, Anne and Aggie, who excitedly agreed to go on this adventure with me. In considering that this all started with that brown pelican, we believe that pelican to be our Muse so we gave that pelican a name– “Pearl”, and honored her by naming ourselves Pelican Pearl Designs.

The three of us city girls have come to appreciate the beauty of all birds, but, in particular and naturally, the shore birds that flock to Grassy Sound, New Jersey. With Pelican Pearl being our Muse, these Jersey Shore birds are our inspiration. Through all this we are on a mission to inspire others to share in our appreciation for all birds and to shed light on the importance of protecting their habitats and for people to bring this message home to their own habitats – whether one lives in a seashore home like the ones in Grassy Sound, a home in the country, a home on a suburban col de sac, or a row home on a city street.

The images you see on our products are all original artwork created by us. We photograph the birds and from these photos, make watercolor and ink pen renderings.