When Flea Markets Attack...GOLD GOLD GOLD

Friends, I can't tell you how long I've wanted to find me 'some ah this. This stuff is so precious it's white glove material. A 19th-century thick Tortoise Shell sundry case with black coral dividers, damaged just enough that they sold it! It was brought back from somewhere in eastern Polynesia by a missionary around 1890. It is about 2/3rds of a square foot of real pacific tortoise shell. This means I will be able to carve Marquesan crown pieces which I have wanted to do for a very long time. It carves like bone but far smoother. Of course, for the odd cuts, the first order of business for any guitar man like me was to get some real tortoise picks! These sound amazing and very subtle. Everything they say about real tortoise is true.

The Cockeyed Mayor Of CarvaKaKai.

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna 2008-06-06 23:34 ]

Nice score BK! You may know this already, but it's worth mentioning here as a general carver's PSA that tortoise (turtle) shell comes under CITES legislation, and reworked objects made from antique (pre-1947) material aren't exempt from the ban on sale or export/import. As long as anything you make is for personal use you aren't breaking any laws, but in the end I decided it wasn't worth it for me - I was looking at preparing material from whole shells, and for that kind of effort I need a a return.

It's a shame, cause the integrity of the material speaks for itself:

I might still give it a go one day if I can find a little something that is cheap enough to warrant recycling....

Yep...Like the green stuff in California!

On 2008-06-07 13:08, Basement Kahuna wrote:
Yep...Like the green stuff in California!

I thought that stuff was legal in California? :wink:

My father bought me back two belts made from tortoise-shell from the Phillipines many years ago, made in sections and 'stitched' together with fishing nylon. I gave one away to a jeweller mate along my travels but will see if I can dig the other one out & will flick a pic. Good thick pieces from memory but like P'po, I was always a little reluctant to bother putting the hours into working any for fear of attracting trouble. Even whalebone has been banned from many NZ outlets despite it only being harvested under 'natural' conditions, ie whales that have beached/died of their own accord. Black coral is the same too; even if mistakenly dredged up in fishing nets it must be handed over to authorities who destroy the stuff.. aue!

Jeez: shell, bone, coral.. whats next? Wood?? (theyll be prising the pounamu from my cold dead fingers..haha)

Anything I make is going to be mine...I want to do a crown reproduction. The Marquesas crowns have intricate weaving which I need to learn to do, but the "flat" of this old piece is big enough to make a smaller tiki disc type. Finding a pearl shell that big is the next order of business.