Recent content by J Marcus

I just want to say thanks for the fascinating and insightful responses. I must apologize for not responding to them yet. I have been under a real time crunch because of a combination of work, having to handle some extra business, and my wife and I getting ready to go on the Prairie Home...

Addendum... Addendum... I received some photos and commentary from Ana Vasilu today that may shed just a bit more light on this subject. The pictures were of Pteria Sterna that had many small pearls imbedded in the mantle. Ana mentioned that in the case of Pteria Sterna they very rarely...

Incidentally--I would like to make contact with some of the abalone culturing/farming operations. If anyone could help put me in touch with these folks I would be eternally grateful!

Hello fellow pearl people! Recently, Steve Metzler contacted me and put me in touch with Ana Vasilu who is doing research on shell formation at the University of Granada in Spain. We have been corresponding and I have sent samples of shell anomalies to Ana Via Steve. It has caused me to write...

It is a section of a machinist's steel ruler and is in inches. If I remember right, I believe that the largest Abalone I have encountered is a little over 10 inches. I have a beautiful, specimen-grade, red abalone shell (No blisters!) that is just under 10". All of the ones that I have now...

My apologies for taking so long. Sandra and I have been very busy getting the garden in (My aching back!:() and making wedding plans and preparations. Yes--blister pearls are formed on the inside of the shell. Usually in response to the incursions of toredo clams (aka. "shipworms") boring...

Hi Nels, I just happen to have a few lying around.... Here's some pix of them. The first two are of the very large blister pearl that I have made into a mabe' and named the Cascadia Moon Pearl. The next two are a couple of shells that have clusters of rather large blisters. I believe that...

Say "Abalone Anomalies" 10 times in a row as fast as you can! OK, couldn't resist. As I mentioned at the end of the "Abalone Gone Buggy" thread, I've found some very interesting oddities in some of my abalones. When I've come across these in the past, I've usually set them aside to look at in...

That's great news, Mikey. Knotty: The point of this is that the process changes diffuse toxins that are free in solution and are available to damage many bio-systems into a solid form that can be sequestered away from the open environment. Originally, these toxic metals were sequestered in...

Congratulations on your 501-3C status, Johanna!:D ...and welcome, again, to the forum. We look forward to your contributions.

Interesting article--Not life "as we know it....." Notice they mention that crabs don't seem to be able to grow carapaces in those conditions. What else?

At $5,485,000 for an historic carpet made of approx. 2,000,000 pearls--all natural, drilled and sewn into a carpet...... Let's see--that comes out to just about $2.73 each. Yes, quite a bargain at that.

Here is another cluster of a group of small, solid, natural, abalone pearls that have come free from the mantle and were subsequently cemented to the inside of the shell. This must have happened a fairly short time before the abalone was harvested because they have only about one or two layers...

Gravity Always Wins: Your screen name says it all............

Here is a recent report on the current state of ocean acidification. It's dire. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/10