abalone veneer - questions about laminating

Hello!

I've benn seeing a lot of really fine examples of different shell-veneers put to use as scales.
I have, after a long search, found a supplier of abalone veneer in germany. I know theres masecraft but they have a rather high minimum amount for international orders so i disqualified them..

So, i have a few options here on how to do this and im hoping one of you experienced gentlemen could guide me towards the best choice.
The way i see it, i need to back the abalone with something dark or colored(spelling?) to lure out the colors from the abalone.

The veneer is about 0,5 mm thick and possibly brittle. its is a thin plastic film with embedded shell.

Option one -
Black acrylic backing/liner - shell laminate - clear acrylic front. All laminated with glue(for acrylics). Then shaping and so forth..

Option two -
Making some paper micarta with the last layer consisting of the shell laminate. Then rough-shaping and then som more epoxy-resin poured over to get a clear top-layer.
-I'm a bit discouraged by this method because of prior atempts with epoxy resin has made it clear to me that the mixing proportions have to be dead-on for it to cure correctly. The veneer is quite expensive and i dont want to fail.. I have veneer for about 3 atempts..

Option three -
Same as above but insted of pouring the resin after the backing and shell i use clear acrylic on top. A big hunk of paper-shell-acrylic-micarta so to speak..

What do you guys think i should do, any of the above, none of the above and something entierly different?

Thank you for your help!

Regards / Victor