Thread: Paua and other shell scales

Hi All, just to let you know I shall be experimenting over the next few weeks with laminated paua shell, abalone etc..

I get this in laminate form which is only 0.3mm thick and will epoxy to thin wood, then brass for strength and finally a plastic liner.

I'll post pics when I'm done. The colours available are amazing. They vary from natural paua, abalone, mother of pearl, and then tinted colours such as red, yellow, blue, green, autumn red/brown etc..The shell patterns and hues still show through and it looks beautiful.

The scales will be flat sided but thin and light, hopefully. If it all turns to custard then I'll go to plan B. Whatever plan B is.

Just a heads up.

Cheers

Gary

Can't wait to see them Gary. I think abalone is a beautiful scale material.

Ed

I would absolutely go nuts if someone started making abalone scales that is absolutely the most awesome stuff.

Here's one I made for someone in Abalone and MOP with nickel silver. I'm working on one for him now that will be sterling silver and abalone.

Those are amazing scales!!! Wow really impressive!!

PapaBull, very nice indeed, they look very striking and the finish is superb.

Gary

W.O.W!
absolutley amazing work.

Thanks, guys... I don't make many of these because they're expensive, very time-consuming and requires constant attention to detail in order to avoid a very, very expensive mistake. But... there's not much that looks nicer than abalone and MOP if it's high quality stuff.

Gary,

If you can get mother of pearl in gold white or black, or any type of abalone or paua that is large enough for one piece scales, I'll take some. I know of another person on the board who is also interested.

I've got plenty of the laminate, I'm looking for natural shell material. The largest quality pieces I can find are about 3" x 1" x 1/8th". I'd like to know where Dovo and the Maestro get their one piece abalone scales. It is possible to create the panel scales, like Robert (very nice) does, but I'd really like the chance to create one piece scales.

Will the laminate be thick/strong enough for scales? It's usually only about 1mm thick and all of the laminate I've seen shows obvious borders between the small pieces, so it's not the greatest for larger projects. I suppose living in NZ, you get the best of the best though, eh?

Best of luck,

If you want to search for paua etc go here www.trademe.co.nz and just search for paua etc..

There are many suppliers with all sorts of bits and pieces.

Gary