Ellen,

That was like reading poetry.

I too collect fragments for holding, or art objects or jewelery.  They are all like small treasures.

Debbie

>>> Ellen Bulger <[log in to unmask]> 2/10/2008 7:53 AM >>>
I completely disagree, perhaps because I did the art school route before
switching over to science. Worn and broken shells can be just as delightful
as "perfect" shells. I have some that not only draw the eye, they draw the
hand. As Kaye Thompson's Eloise would say "I kind of have to touch
everything." A good broken shell is like that.

That being said, denuded Xenos frustrate me.

But for most of the shells I find, I know what the intact form would look
like, I can complete the story in my head.

I have a wave worn piece of a moon snail that I wear on a chain around my
neck. Next  to it, I've strung a section of turban snail that is about the
same size, but different in color and texture and even the break itself,
which is raw and sharp. The contrast between the two delights me. I had
often picked up pieces of broken shell from the wrack line and carried them
as I walked. But that little piece of natica was the first time I
"permitted" myself to bring one home.

And the wear on shells has always intrigued me. Initially it was because of
frustration, because I wanted the perfect ones. And then I just became
interested in the dynamics of the shoreline in a general way. Don't all
beachcombers do this? There are stretches of beach where one finds nothing.
There are pockets where we find treasure. Sediments are eroded on the
updrift side of jetties, deposited downdrift. You find big things, but worn
things; hunks of shell that look like bars of handmade soap, pieces of shell
that have been so well used by the life in the sea, that they look a bit
like sponges themselve. They are chaotic matrices of tunnels of other wee
beasties who have bored through the calcium carbonate and have turned the
shell into something almost unrecognizable. But that piece in your hand is
full of stories about those other inhabitants.

You walk along a seawall and you find there isn't much sand left, it has
been sucked away. The walls have been erected to protect structures built
where they have no business being. It is a losing battle. The sea WILL claim
them in its own time. But in the meantime the beach, the moving beach is
lost.

You visit an undeveloped beach and see the broad sweep of sand. Looking for
skipping rocks, you find them in clusters, in herds and packs at the points
of beach cusps. Squatting down on your haunches to select just the right
ones, you find pieces of shell that have eroded into pretty fine skipping
rocks themselves.

You watch the waves deposit shells and your feet and then snatch them away
from you. You stand in the sheet flow and the retreating swash sucks the
sand from beneath your heels. You stop watching the shells and start
watching the water itself, and you stand at the edge of the sea and feel it
and listen to it. You're present in the middle of all those dynamic
interactions of land and sea.

You walk until you are tired and can walk no more and you throw yourself
down onto the sand, on a beach towels to rest. On your back looking up at
the sky, you savor the thump of the waves resonating through the sand.

And it is good, all good. Even the broken ones.



On Feb 9, 2008 11:54 PM, Guido Poppe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> This is a very interesting topic.
>
> A collection of perfect shells gives long lasting pleasure to look
> at.  You never get bored. It is my personal experience that defect
> shells attract the look to the defect too often, and when mixed with
> perfect shells they take down the whole collection and one gets a
> messy impression and in the very long run one may get tired of this
> collection.
>
>

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