Puka shells are naturally occurring

bead A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under ...

-like objects which can be found on some beaches in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. Each one is the beach-worn apex of a

cone snail A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines con ...

shell, a kind of

seashell A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal. Empty seashells are often found washe ...

from a

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

. ''Puka'' is the Hawaiian word for "hole" and refers to the naturally occurring hole in the middle of these rounded and worn shell fragments. These natural beads are made into necklaces. Numerous inexpensive imitations are now widely sold as puka shell necklaces. The majority of contemporary "puka shell necklaces" are not made from cone shells, but from other shells, or even from plastic. In addition, some strings of beads are currently sold that are made from cone shells, but the beads in these necklaces were not formed by natural processes. They were instead worked by hand from whole shells using pliers to break the shell down to the needed part, and then subjecting the rough results to

tumble finishing Tumble finishing, also known as tumbling or rumbling, is a technique for smoothing and polishing a rough surface on relatively small parts. In the field of metalworking, a similar process called barreling, or barrel finishing,Degarmo, p. 781. wo ...

, in order to give each bead more or less smooth edges in imitation of the natural wear-and-tear a shell receives when tumbled in the surf over long periods of time. The original all-natural puka shells were very easily made into

necklace A necklace is an article of jewellery that is worn around the neck. Necklaces may have been one of the earliest types of adornment worn by humans. They often serve Ceremony, ceremonial, Religion, religious, magic (illusion), magical, or Funerary ...

bracelet A bracelet is an article of jewellery that is worn around the wrist. Bracelets may serve different uses, such as being worn as an ornament. When worn as ornaments, bracelets may have a wikt:supportive, supportive function to hold other items of ...

s and

anklet An anklet, also called ''ankle chain'', ''ankle bracelet'' or ''ankle string'', is an ornament worn around the ankle. Barefoot anklets and toe rings historically have been worn for at least over 8,000 years by girls and women in Indus Valley, in ...

s because they were naturally pierced, which enabled them to be strung like

s. Puka shell

jewellery Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a wester ...

first became a popular item in

during the 1960s, as an attractive and inexpensive lei that could be made and sold on the beach. In the 1970s, this type of shell jewelry became highly sought after, and prices skyrocketed. The craftsmanship also became more refined and the ''lei pūpū puka'', puka shell leis were strung in graduated or matching styles, rather than the original random patterns. Many "legends" about the puka shell were created during this time, and these stories also helped sales.

Natural puka shell formation

The terminal helix of the shell of a cone snail is cone-shaped, and closed at the apex. When the empty shell is rolled over a long time by the waves in the breaking surf and

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

rubble, the terminal helix of the shell breaks off or is gradually ground off, leaving the solid top of the shell intact. Given enough time, the tip of the

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

of the shell usually also wears down, and thus a natural hole is formed from one side to the other. This shell fragment can be viewed as a sort of a natural bead, and is known in Hawaii as a "puka". Real puka shells are not flat: one side of the bead is slightly convex; the other is concave. The concave side of the bead clearly shows the spiral form of the interior of the

of the cone shell.

Modern substitutes

Naturally-formed rounded cone shell fragments suitable to be used as beads are hard to find in large quantities, so true puka jewelry, formed entirely naturally, is now uncommon. Shell jewellery made from naturally occurring puka shells is also now more expensive because of the labor and time involved in locating and hand-picking these rather uncommon shell fragments from the beach drift. In modern times, beads cut from other types of shell, or even beads of plastic, are used to make imitation puka jewellery. Cone snail shells are sometimes harvested so that they can be chipped and ground down to make more authentic-looking puka jewellery, which is however still not genuine by the standards of the originals. A very glossy

patina Patina ( or ) is a thin layer that variously forms on the surface of copper, brass, bronze and similar metals and metal alloys (tarnish produced by oxidation or other chemical processes) or certain stones and wooden furniture (sheen produced b ...

indicates that the shells in a necklace have been tumble polished. If the edges of the shell beads are chipped, the shells were harvested and manually broken into shape. If the "puka" or central hole is perfectly circular and parallel-sided, then the hole was drilled by humans.

References

Books

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Puka Shell Jewellery components Symbols of Hawaii Hawaii culture Seashells in art 1960s fashion 1970s fashion 1990s fashion 2000s fashion

Natural puka shell formation

Modern substitutes

See also

References

Books