Puka shell

Common card · No. 385447

Puka shells are naturally occurring bead-like shells found on the beaches of Hawaii or other places. Each bead is the beach-worn apex of a cone snail. Such shells are often strung as necklaces, known as puka shell necklaces. Puka is the Hawaiian word for "hole" and refers to the naturally occurring hole in the middle of these rounded and worn shell fragments. Numerous inexpensive imitations are now widely sold as puka shell necklaces. The majority of contemporary "puka shell necklaces" are not made from cone shells, but from other shells, or even from plastic. In addition, some strings of beads are currently sold that are made from cone shells, but the beads in these necklaces were not formed by natural processes. They were instead worked by hand from whole shells using pliers to break the shell down to the needed part, and then subjecting the rough results to tumble finishing, in order to give each bead more or less smooth edges in imitation of the natural wear-and-tear a shell receives...

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