Jewelry Lovers

The fascinating variety of shells, and their different colours, shapes and textures, make an ideal cheap material for jewelry pieces. As with pebble polishing, there are various levels of involvement; you may just wish to use the shells you have already collected or you may want to clean, polish and colour them or change their shape completely. But, however much you want to involve yourself the techniques are simple and the equipment basic.

Choosing shells

Even if you do not live near the sea, you can collect shells by buying them either direct or by mail order. There are advantages to acquiring shells this way in that there will always be a very wide selection of shells available from all over the world and the shells will already be cleaned and polished for use. If you are using shells you have collected yourself, you can always supplement them with one or two of the more exotic varieties bought from a shop.

Every shell is intrinsically beautiful, however common the species, but when collecting shells for decoration, the most important consideration must be colour, structure and the outline shape of the shell.

You will find that most shells fall into the following categories of shape: spiral (snails such as ^welks and winkles); cone- or tent- shaped (limpets, top shells); dome-shaped (cockles); flattish (the smooth donax shells which have the quality of very thin porcelain, shiny abalones, and the ridged scallops); spiky (murex shells); smooth and rounded (cowries) and long and pointed (turritellas). Some of the larger shells, for example abalone shells, can look very effective when broken up into chips and used in pieces. To break up shells, simply put them into a plastic bag and crush them with a hammer. You can buy pieces of abalone for this purpose.

Cleaning shells

To wash the shell use detergent and hot water. Use a toothbrush to brush the smaller shells and a vegetable or nail brush for the larger ones. Make sure that all foreign matter is removed. In order to bleach shells and remove their outside coating (periostracum), soak them in a strong solution of chlorine for a few hours. However, this will discolour coloured shells so use this method only for white shells.

Rinse the shells, dry them thoroughly and polish them with a soft cloth. Wax polish rubbed over a shell will help to bring out its surface pattern and colours. If you prefer, you can apply two coats of clear polyurethane varnish to the shell instead of wax polish.

Piercing

It is very easy to pierce shells with a drill. Most shell drilling is carried out by part-time women workers in a suburb of Naples, Italy. These bucatrice’ or ‘bow drill women’ use an archimedean drill, which you can buy from jewelers’ supply merchants. It looks like a bow and arrow, with the bow cord twisted around the arrow and shaft holding the shell in the other. The `bucatrice’ work with their coral or shells held in a hand vice fixed to the bench. They are considered to have a much lighter touch with the drill than any male craftsmen.

Small shells, so long as they are not too brittle, can be held between the jaws of a vice to which leather has been stuck.

Large shells will need to be stuck down with lapidary cement (obtainable from lapidary and craft shops). The manner of piercing a shell will depend on the way in which it will lie best in the necklace or with other pieces of jewelry for which it is intended.

Where to drill shells

Generally, the mouth of the shell should always lie on a string so that it is hidden while the jewelry is being worn. A cone shaped shell is often best drilled along its axis from the point of the spire out through the mouth.

Always begin piercing a hole in a shell by making a pilot hole. This is done by twirling a sharp steel tool so as to give the drill some purchase when it begins to bite. It might even be necessary to flatten part of the surface of a shell in an unobtrusive way by rubbing it with a small file before beginning the hole. To pierce a shell take a good quality steel drill bit of about 1 mm (1/16in) in thickness (thinner bits can be used but they have a tendency to break). Put the bit in a hand twist drill and drill gently in the hole already formed in the surface of the shell. Go slowly, concentrating on neatness rather than speed.

You can tell by the feel of the drill under your hand when the drill bit has passed through the outer wall of the shell. Once you have gone right through the shell, withdraw the drill slowly, twisting as you go.

Once you have pierced enough shells to make a necklace or other piece of jewelry, arrange them in a row to see how they look. Decide where every individual shell in your collection will show up to best advantage.

Large shells are very suitable for pendants. They do not need to be pierced because they can be suspended simply by cementing to the tip of the cone of the shell a jeweler’s finding called a bellcap. This is then attached by means of another finding called a ‘jump ring‘ to a chain. Bracelets can have shells attached by this method, and so can ear-rings.

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