Today fashion takes due account of the use of shell buttons. They lend colour to and decorate fine silk dresses, blouses and shirts. Developed in countless variants, they impart spirit and uniqueness to the garment, and even make jewelleries unnecessary.The thicker shell buttons that obviously have undergone serious treatment are used with equal success as the thinner ones, resembling a flake or a delicate piece of raw shell.
Fascinating examples since 18 century to the present days are preserved in the Button Museum in Italy. Periodically exhibitions are organized in the world’s largest museums, where you can see for yourself how the small shell buttons have excited man’s imagination for centuries.
Shell – the mother of pearl:
Today the various shell buttons are manifestation of the tendency towards the use of natural materials that is quire steady in recent decades. Shell, the raw material they are manufactured of, is very close in composition to the true pearls. It is secreted by the mollusc in its attempt to make the shell perfectly smooth and to prevent itself from the irritating effect of foreign matter and parasites that have got inside the shell. Actually it represents platelets of calcium carbonate, arranged parallel to the surface. These layers are separated by sheets of elastic biopolymers that contribute to the shell strength.
When you select shell buttons, remember that the difference between them and the true pearls is very small. In the pearls the platelets of calcium carbonate are arranged perpendicular to the surface and radial to the irritant that later transforms into a core of pearl.
The shell colour may range from dark to white, depending on the type of mollusc that produces it. Its characteristic features are the brilliance and the change of colour with the change of the angle from which it is observed. During the millennia shell shells have been used for different purposes, from a medium of exchange to impressive material for jewellery, cameos and works of art, and of course – for brilliant shell buttons.
