I spent an hour sanding a freshwater mussel shell under water (dust causes a type of asbestosis), and have come to the conclusion that the work was worth the terrible state my hands ended up in.
However, I also decided I need to buy a dremel...
I'm not sure what I will do with the mussel shells. They make me both happy and sad.
Happy: They are stunning! Huge specimens, from the river by middle sis, and they average roughly 80 years in age!
Sad: The farm practices and resulting run-off have wiped out living populations in all but a few rivers countrywide, and so these are the shells that we are saving from the dredgers. All the while, nobody is accountable, and too few people care.
I am determined to give them a new reincarnation. Maybe a simple hinge and clasp as a small handbag or purse. For now, a few are lined up across my mantelpiece until my hands have dewrinkled.
