Green Abalone .com

Abalone Shell

The abalone shell that you find on the beach nowadays is truly a rare sight indeed. It indicates that the creature who's house it used to be probably died a natural death (for abalone this consists of (absurdly) pollution, abnormally large ocean swells, being eaten by an octopus, El Nino effects, and the like). Most abalone in the wild never get to reach any kind of mature age that would allow them the luxury of dieing at a ripe old age, or because a freak storm plucked them off their rock and tossed them ashore unceremoniously. Most abalone shell ends up in our hands after it has been fished, sold, and eaten by someone who can afford to pay one hundred and thirty dollars for an entrée, with the exception of those which are consumed by people lucky enough to know someone who enjoys diving for their three-a-day limit and likes to share.

The strange and wondrous thing about abalone shell is that it is at once a strikingly beautiful, and an exceedingly durable material. In nature there are few materials that can compete with the striking beauty of mother of pearl, or the brilliant patterns that appear when the outside of an abalone shell of any species is polished to a shine. Human beings even have invented ways to copy these patterns and manufacture materials that mimic the shimmery, wavy look of a smooth, polished piece of abalone shell, and are currently using a process called "biomimicry" to copy aspects of it's molecular structure to produce synthetic compounds with the same rigidity and impact resistance.