[Slraep]

Originally Posted by Caitlin Williams

Osmena aka osmina comes from a nautilus shell. Your osmena is blue as are many of them. I don't know why they don't come in any colors but white and blue. I think slraep is correct when she says it dyed.

Hi Caitlin,

Probably from a chambered nautilus, as you say, due to its concentric construction.

The Pacific Cat's Eye(Turbo p.) is suppose to come in natural coulours like green, peach and white, but you can see a distinct spiral construction to it, so it is not what olmander shows in her pic. The green turbo operculi were very prized by ancient peoples. I suspect the chambered nautilus operculum in olmander's pic is dyed because the blue/grey dye makes it look like it could pass as a real mabe from a dark lipped oyster, to the uninformed. Can't be 100% sure, though.

These are "cat's eye" operculum. See the spiral? Hmm...Shiva's eye, eh?

http://www.shiva-eye.com/





Slraep

[olmander]

Cat's eye seems to be in a different colour range
Here it is (from wikipedia)



About haliotis I found this:
"Abalones are also called ear-shells, haliotis, sea-ears and Venus's-ears, as well as muttonfish or muttonshells in Australia, ormer in Jersey and Guernsey, perlemoen in South Africa and pāua in New Zealand."

And the picture looks more in the direction of my colours:

[Caitlin]

Yours is definitely not haliotus. It is osmena, which is often sold on eBay as Mabe pearl and even blister pearl. I have several osmena pieces and we have discussed it in some other threads. This thread is the first time the more scientific definitons have been discussed. Thanks Slreap.

[Slraep]

Sorry, olmander yours is no way near abalone and not a turban shell operculum. It's a dyed chambered nautilus operculum or osmena.

Slraep

[Slraep]

Originally Posted by olmander;

Cat's eye seems to be in a different colour range
Here it is (from wikipedia)

Yes I know, olmander. That's why I put up a pic and website of the the cat's eye because it is different from yours. Because I want to illustrate the difference between a cat's eye operculum and nautilus osmena .

Actually(and I just found this out!!), the osmena is NOT an operculum, but an inner layer of shell from the chambered nautilus. It's a MOCK operculum!! This inner shell is usually white with some irridescence and is not completely smooth(has ridges). It does not naturally come in blue!!

Geez, the things this forum forces you to look up and study!


Slraep

[olmander]

What is it much to study for me today! I got my head big and round after so much reading and searching

I don't have ambitions for having abalone (in fact I did not know about abalone too until tonight), I am just trying to understand what it is and from where it comes, because I never met this type before. And the chinese shop was selling it as blister although I had dounbts about it from the beginning...

Thank you Slraep and Catlin!

Olga

[olmander]

I got a picture with some nautilus shell jewelry, looks indeed similar:

[Slraep]

Oh-oh, the blue/grey colour may be natural.

"The nautilus shell is composed of 2 layers: the outer layer is a matte white, while the inner layer is a striking white with iridescence. The innermost portion of the shell is a pearlescent blue-gray."


But how do they get the colour to match so well on a pair of earrings?? So maybe they dye the white osmena after all. Some old text books clearly say the blue/grey colour is the result of dye. Someone should do some tests.

Slraep

[jerin]

Hi Olga,

I have a very nice pendant "Osmena pearl", the ridges are well defined and the colour is silver grey. Length 40 mm x 21 mm.

The Nautilus pompilius belongs to the family of Cephalopods, they are related to octopus, cuttle fish and the likes, animals with arms on/at their heads.

The Nautilus is a nightactive animal.
If you go to Dresden/Germany you could see beautiful carved objects in the "Green Room".

[Slraep]

Originally Posted by jerin

The Nautilus pompilius belongs to the family of Cephalopods, they are related to octopus, cuttle fish and the likes, animals with arms on/at their heads.

The Nautilus is a nightactive animal.
If you go to Dresden/Germany you could see beautiful carved objects in the "Green Room".

Hi Inge,

Yes, you are right, they do have a bunch of suckerless tentacles directly attached to their head! It has a cephalopod's body and a snail's shell. Weird but wonderful. I wish their interiors weren't so beautiful though. There is overcollection for its shell.

Nice pics here:

http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/Npompil.php

[jerin]

Hi Slraep,

you are absolutely right! Great article! Thanks.

[olmander]

Here is the photo of the thing in the daylight. The colours are not blue but pale silver-grey with some pink overtone. I could not get a good photo with correct colours, so in fact it is much lighter than on the picture.

Olga

[jerin]

Originally Posted by olmander

Here is the photo of the thing in the daylight. The colours are not blue but pale silver-grey with some pink overtone. I could not get a good photo with correct colours, so in fact it is much lighter than on the picture.

Olga

The colour is very similar to mine, a lovely silver grey, but the ridges ar much more pronounced and I think the add said something about "non treated". Whatever, it looks lovely just as yours, Olga.