Cypraea Argus
Author: richkent88
2016 SHELL SHOW ENTRY FORMS
Click on links to download full sized forms.
For additional information please see Shell Show Page.
2016 SHELL SHOW RULES
Please click on the link below to download the PDF of the 2016 Broward Shell Club Shell Show rules
APRIL SHELL ART AND CRAFT MEETING
Hi to all,
The next Shell Art and Craft Club meeting is scheduled for:
Monday, April 27th
6:00 to 9:00 PM
At the Pompano Civic Center
We have two activities planned for the evening.
1) Apple Snail Flower Arrangements- Patti Jenkins will take us through all of the steps in making these arrangements in a small apple snail. Members will go home with a finished arrangement. Check out Linda Ebeling’s apple snail arrangements she recently made in the attached photos.
SUPPLY LIST
-Hot Glue Gun and sticks
-Needle nose pliers with spring action return Your jewelry tools should include one of these. The club has a loaner pair to share at the meeting
-Tweezers
-Exacto knife
-Scissors
-Loctite or other brand superglue-Not gel
-Regular knife, straight edge, not serrated, to cut the foam
-10 -13 small shell flowers, ranging in size from about 1 to 2 inches. We suggest you make your shell flowers in advance and bring them to the meeting to save time. You can stem them at home or at the meeting. Note: If you have not yet learned to make shell flowers, there will be flowers available for purchase at the meeting.
Kits for the apple snail arrangements will be available for $3.00 each at the meeting. Kits include an apple snail, a stand, floral foam, stems for your flowers, and filler, i.e. natural plants and sea life. Please bring anything you want to include in your own arrangement.
2) Finish making a complete shell necklace. Marta Cruz will show members how to finish making a shell necklace using the focus shells they made at the last meeting.
SUPPLY LIST
– 1-3 focus shells with wire bales like the ones we made at the last meeting
– Jewelry making tools- The club has one set to share
– See attached Necklace Supply List. This is a comprehensive list of supplies needed if you want to continue making shell jewelry. Many of these supplies can be purchased at the meeting in quantities needed to complete one necklace.
IMPORTANT- NEW MAY CRAFT MEETING DATE
Please note that the May meeting date has been rescheduled to Monday, May 11th. The original meeting date, May 25th, is cancelled because the civic center is closed due to Memorial Day Holiday.
As always, we encourage you to bring your shell art and craft projects for others to see.
I look forward to seeing you on Monday night. Please call me at 954.309.7752 if you have any questions.
Linda Laurin
ORIGINAL 1835 KIENER ILLUSTRATION DONATED TO COA AUCTION
This rare and valuable original 1835 plate of two volutes from our hemisphere will be offered at the 2015 COA Convetion Auction. It is the work of Louis Charles Kiener (31 July 1799 – 24 July 1881) who was a French malacologist born in Paris.
The plate comes from his 12-volume, “Spécies général et iconographie des coquilles vivantes comprenant la collection du Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Paris, la collection Lamarck, celle du prince Masséna (appartenant maintenant a M.B. Delessert) et les découvertes récentes des voyageurs.”
In English the title would be “General species and iconography of recent shells: comprising the Massena Museum, the collection of Lamarck, the collection of the Museum of Natural History, and the recent discoveries of travelers.”
This book was and is one of the most important contributions in the field of conchology as it cataloged all the species know at that time. The 12 volumes have full descriptions of every shell in the museum’s collection along with hand drawn illustrations of each specie.
For those doing research, “Spécies général et iconographie” has been digitized and can be found on the internet.
In his memory, the following are a few species named after him:
Lophotriorchis kienerii (G. de Sparre, 1835)
Murexsul kieneri (Reeve, 1845)
Thais kieneri (Deshayes, 1844)
Cypraea kieneri (Kiener’s cowry) (Hidalgo, 1906).
The plate was donated by Richard Kent on behalf of the Broward Shell Club. This could be a once in a life time opportunity to acquire an original plate. As it illustrates two favorites of American collectors, Voluta ebraea and Voluta musica, it is of special interest.
SHELL CLUB PICNIC
The club has scheduled the picnic for Sunday, April 19th at the Jetty Pavilion in John U. Lloyd State Park in Dania Beach. The club will be supplying the meats, beverages, condiments and paper goods, and the only thing the members are asked to do is bring a favorite covered dish (something “picnic” oriented). The only cost o the members will be the $6 entrance fee to the park.
It is suggested that you arrive early to ensure a parking spot as the Jetty Pavilion has a smaller lot than the others, and it is also advisable to car-pool. We will start the grill at 11:30 so you can plan accordingly. I know the majority of us know where the park is but is you have any questions as how to get there feel to contact Richard Sedlak at 954-296-5633 / sedlaki1@comcast.net. Last call!!
TSUNAMI SHELLS ON RAFFLE TABLE!
Here is an interesting item for the shell crafters that will be included on this month’s raffle table. It is a set of 30 vexillum of about an inch and half in size. What makes this interesting is they were collected on Phuket Island in the rubble that was left behind from the devastating tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004.
SHELL CRAFT MEETING UPDATE
Hi to all,
Wow! We sure had a great turnout and good meeting last night. Thank you, Marta for teaching us how to make a bale and spirals on our shells using wire. I’m thinking it might take some practice before ours will look as good as yours. LOL!
Below are two links to articles featuring our own award winning shell artist, Shanti Moore.
Check them out. This was Shanti’s first year entering artistic exhibits and she ended up winning several awards and first place ribbons at our shell show and Sanibel’s Shell Show. Congratulations Shanti. There are nice pictures of a few exhibits at the Sanibel Shell Show on both sites.
If you haven’t been to the iloveshelling.com web site yet, you are going to be very happy to discover such a wonderful site about shelling. Scroll down to the left for links to a variety of shelly subjects.
At the April Arts and Crafts meeting the group Patti Jenkins is going to show us how to make small flower arrangements in snails. So, for those who know how to make flowers, can get a head start and can make and stem some small flowers to bring with you to the next meeting. I’ll send some pictures of sample arrangements so you can see how they look.
Take care,
Linda Laurin
SHELL OF THE MONTH – APRIL 2015
Conus tribblei Walls, 1977
10m deep in coral reef sand pocket
Off Olango Island, Cebu, Philippines
Collected in 2009
Our Shell of the Month, Conus tribblei Walls, 1977 is in memory of Leonard Nimoy – Spock – of the TV series Star Trek. The shell was named by Walls after his pet cat who was in turn named after the “The Trouble with Tribbles” which aired in 1967 and is considered one of the all time best episodes of Star Trek.
Conus tribllei is not a rare shell so it is surprising that it was not named until 1977. One guess is that it was confused with Conus bayani Jousseaume, 1872, Conus recluzianus Bernardi, 1853 and several other similar cones and slipped the attention of the scientists.
The shell is obconical and elongate, rather elegant is shape. It is white with a pattern of brownish blotches arranged in irregular axial groups. There are typically spiral rows of granules on the bottom third or sometimes more with a the remainder of the shell being smooth. The surface is waxy and glossy.
It is reported that specimens grow to 70mm to 100mm and larger but they don’t seem to grow that large anymore. The only specimen listed on eBay at this moment is a meager 47mm. Specimens of Conus tribblei are difficult to acquire. The few specimens that reach the market come from the Philippines or Taiwan. Our specimen is a choice one, about as near to gem in grade as a cone can be and has a natural lip. Donated by Richard Kent.
SHELL OF THE MONTH – FEBRUARY 2014
Calocochlia festiva Donovan 1825
Mountains, Cagayon Province,
Northern Luzon Island, Philippines 44mm 1 3/4”
Calocochlia is a genus of large air-breathing land snails, pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Bradybaenidae. Tthere are over fifty species of Calocochlia, the vast majority of which the collector will never encounter. A few are particularly large and colorful, notably Calocochlia festiva Donovan 1825, which comes in two color varieties, rose or yellow. C. festiva has only been recorded from Cayagan Province, northern Luzon Island, Philippines and no other information seems to be published. This months specimen is donated by Richard Kent and was purchased from Richard Goldman at the 2015 Broward Shell Club Shell Show.
Broward Shell Club 
You must be logged in to post a comment.