Oh, guess i missed that onyx part, Didn't figure the message to be read ,
must be the poultry seasoning , it has a hallucinogenic quality . I have
also seen crazing in good old regular cowries that were boiled . in fact any
shell (gastropod or bivalvia ) that has a glossy aperture seems to crack,
craze or check not to mention delaminating of the layers .
While on the subject of onyx , there is a shell shop in Florida (no i ain't
gona tell ya where, ok ask me privately) that has cypraea succincta mixed in
with the onyx . nice find . At this same shell shop they once sold $15.00
baskets, now most shell baskets are full of half valves , common chipped
stuff and are worthless except for filling shell lamps. Now these baskets
came from a shell shop in the keys that closed when the owner died and that
was some 15-20 years back, the material in the baskets was amazing cypraea
Mauritania that was about 100 mm , large cones that were F+++ and many were
at least uncommon , plus the fill material was not the drilled out lucines ,
it was full of  many small different shells . it was strange to see how they
have changed so much in those years .
Guess I'll just wonder back into the kitchen and watch the turkey for the
next four hours.
Ross, i now know what you feel like ,
Ferret, now just plain old ferret



-----Original Message-----
From: shelloak <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, November 25, 1999 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: Baking cowries


>The color change was for an onyx not aurantium, onyx every one knows is a
>different shape and smaller.  John
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ferreter <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Thursday, November 25, 1999 7:52 AM
>Subject: Re: Baking cowries
>
>
>>Good call John BUT there are a few other indicators, such as the shell is
>>not the proper shape as the golden , the shell will have uniform color not
>>subtle shading like the real one , and the shell will also have a faded
>look
>>.
>> Now how to fake and bake , heat in peanut oil , it will keep that
cracking
>>down that's caused when the inside of the cowrie is cooler then the
outside
>>and this causes fine cracks . but remeber , mark all shells as "baked" or
>>"faked " as to be fair to the buyer .
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: shelloak <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>>Date: Thursday, November 25, 1999 1:29 PM
>>Subject: Re: Baking cowries
>>
>>
>>>They have crase marks from the heat.
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: Jiongtao HUANG <[log in to unmask]>
>>>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>>>Date: Thursday, November 25, 1999 7:32 AM
>>>Subject: Baking cowries
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi, everyone.
>>>>
>>>>Recently, some "Great Golden Cowries" come to the shell market in Japan.
>>>>But in Dr.Lorenz's cowrie book, some black cowries such as Cypraea onyx
>>>etc.
>>>>can become "golden color form" by baking. But Dr.Lorenz did not explain
>>how
>>>>can we separate a "golden shell" or "color variation" is a baking one or
>>>>natural one.
>>>>Could anyone of you tell me how can we separate a baking shell from
>>natural
>>>>one? or testing method?
>>>>Thank you very much advance.
>>>>
>>>>Jiongtao
>>>>http://www.soft.ics.keio.ac.jp/~huang/
>>>>
>>>>______________________________________________________
>>>>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>>>>
>>>
>>
>