Tuesday, January 13, 2015

A IS FOR......ABALONE


ABALONE is a quite a large mollusk (in the same family as mussels and clams) that can be found off the coast of California.  The meat from the thick heavy 'foot' of the abalone can be eaten and enjoyed by many.    However, to most people the abalone is more well known for its shell.  They come in red, black and green and are about 8 inches when fully grown.  We found ours, a red one, many years ago dumped with others on the pier at Catalina Island about 30 miles across the channel from Long Beach.  Divers had obviously been harvesting them for their meat and discarded the shells.  I think there are restrictions on harvesting them today.


The outside of the shell is not very attractive, but the inside, when the meat is removed the shell is 
made up of an iridescent inner coating that can range from white to pink, red, purple green and blue.


The shell is often used for making jewelry and buttons or it is used as Mother of Pearl.  These are some of the pieces I have collected over the years.  Inexpensive but quite attractive. The shell from Australia is also known as puau and from what I have seen, their colors are of deeper hues and make very pretty pieces of jewelry.


My shell sits on a shelf and contains quite a few white pebbles, all carefully collected from the beach at the South Landing at Flamborough, East Yorkshire.  I sat there one afternoon scrabbling among the pebbles, all of them white by the way, picking out the smallest and prettiest shapes I could find, to carry home with me to California as a keepsake of my years of living in Flamborough.

Here we are at Round 16 of ABC Wednesday.  What an amazing project this has been!  Our worthy founder, Mrs. Nesbitt and equally worthy successor, Roger Owen Green are to be congratulated for their perseverance in perpetuating this fun meme.  To visit others who participate faithfully and always have something worth reading, please click HERE


17 comments:

Photo Cache said...

abalone jewelry is so beautiful. i've purchased some sets for gift giving over the years.

My ABC WEDNESDAY

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

shamefully, the Chinese have cause the price to go up the roof.

snafu said...

Very colourful. Nice you have a bit of Flamborough as a keepsake. Those white cliffs are unforgettable.

claude said...

You always have a lot of ideas to illustrate the ABC Wednesday.

Roger Owen Green said...

This is very nice material.
ALWAYS am pleased to see your post!

ROG, ABCW

Mersad said...

I knew about these, but never knew the right name. So thanks for your post!

Mersad
Mersad Donko Photography

Latane Barton said...

I loved learning about the abalone and I love that jewelry. So colorful, nature made. Wow

A Colorful World said...

What a wonderful share. Really interesting to learn about these abalone shells.

Gattina said...

The shell is indeed very nice for jewellery !
Gattina
ABC Wednesday
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Patty said...

When we sold supplies to Calligraphers, we sold Abalone shell dip pens. I can't remember, it seems like a gentleman in NY made them for us.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I go again next week, the 20th for another Trigger Injection in my back. The one I got before Christmas is starting to wear off, but so far it has lasted the longest. Thanks for your visits.

Dina said...

Such beautiful colors!

Honest Abe Lincoln said...

I collected them here in Ohio in the creeks. I made paper clip holders out of them and wrote on the inside where I found them. I will put it on my Facebook page.

www.facebook.com/oldmanlincoln

kaybee said...

Nice ! Looks very familiar!

Reader Wil said...

Thank you for the lovely post! When we were in New Zealand we bought a lot of souvenirs made of mother of pearl. I forget how they called it over there.
In Tasmania we found similar shells. They are so beautiful!
Chris, I am looking forward to seeing your artwork with dots and circles! See you next week.

Black Jack's Carol said...

So good to see you back for Another round, Chris! And what an Auspicious start. Just loved the subtle hues and your commentary about the Abalone. Already looking forward to whatever you have in store for the letter B :) I think someone commented in an earlier post that ABC Wednesday brings people together each week and that is so very true.

Anita (Rosy) said...

As a child my parents owned a Bait shop in San Diego and many a times either my dad or one of my older brothers would bring in Abalone, and of course always left the cleaning for my mother to do, then we would sit down and have a dinner of battered and fried Abalone. It has been years since I have eaten any abalone, now I think the Abalone is protected, not sure tho.

Nice to see you are still blogging, I took a long absent after mother had passed away, this is Rosy just in case you are wondering, and I have returned back to blogging.

Diane said...

When we were in the ChannelIslands, Abalone were called "Ormers" and are a delicacy. They have very strict harvesting rules. The inside of the shells are amazing xxxx