New Zealand shells ‘shore’ need a new home
Seeking a new owner for a child’s suitcase full of sea snail shells from New Zealand is a curious task facing Lismore woman Brona MacDougall.
The Paua shells, legally brought back to Scotland in the 1950s, are from the estate of a North Connel woman who passed away.
Her two daughters, who both live in Australia, visited after their mother’s death to wind up the old family home and asked their friend Brona and long-time family tax-advisor to help find the unusual shells a new home.
‘They could only take back what they could fit in their suitcases so that left the shells behind. They’d found them in a gorgeous children’s suitcase. They had been legally brought back here in the 1950s,’ said Brona, who used to work at a chartered accountants in
Oban but is now with a firm in Hawick.
‘The daughters are all for girl power and they would really like the shells to go to a female jeweller in Scotland to be turned into something beautiful to be enjoyed at last after years of being shut in an old suitcase,’ added Brona.
Despite getting ideas from the Lismore and Oban communities about who might be interested in working with the shells and bids of Brona’s own to contact jewellers, there have been no takers so far.
‘It’s a curious responsibility to have. I’m at a bit of a loss what to do with them really.
‘At the moment they are covered in sea crud so they’d need sanding down but once they are cleaned up they are beautiful brilliantly coloured purples, blues and greens like water.’
Paua is the Maori name given to three New Zealand species of large edible sea snails, that survive strong tidal surges by clinging to rocks using their large muscular foot and eat seaweed.
Also known as ‘sea ears,’ the shells are often used to represent the eyes in Maori carvings and traditionally are associated with the stars and eyes of ancestors gazing down from the night sky.
Any women Scottish jewellers interested can contact Brona on 01450 372267.