It can be said that every culture has used shells, whole or in part, and pearls as personal adornment. Some cultures even wore shells as part of their elaborate costume to signal their distinct tribal identities and to display their role and rank within the tribe. In some parts of India, a Hindu woman's equivalent of a wedding ring is a bracelet made of the sections of the Indian (or Sacred) Chank shell.

Picture courtesy of Helen Dennet   Here is a picture of a man from the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea wearing a baler chest ornament. Different cultural groups have evolved different ways of decorating themselves with shells and one can often guess which tribe a person comes from by the shells being worn. 1984 To see more photos of New Guineans wearing tribal costumes, click HERE

Some of the other ways shells have been used as adornment are:

as shell jewelry (pendants, earrings, finger rings, nose rings, bracelets, etc.)

	As buttons and fasteners Abalone shells, especially the famous Paua shell from New Zealand, were once extremely popular for buttons - until plastic took over!! The freshwater mussels of the Mississippi River system were used extensively to make “pearl buttons” for many years.
According to one source (Pennak) in the year 1912, there were 196 pearl button factories in 20 states along the rivers of this great river system.  They sold over 6 million dollars worth of buttons that year.  These same mussels are today being used as the “seed” for cultured pearls.

• Shell or mother of pearl (iridescent shell interior of many species of bivalves) were commonly used on ceremonial or religious garbs, as decoration, or intrinsic parts of their function.

• as clothing adornment, pearls are frequently sewn on as jewellery, fresh and salt-water pearls are used in many ways as inserts in ceremonial masks.

• Some GREAT new pictures

• Denatlium Purse. These photos show a carved elk antler purse which was used by the people of Hoopa Indians in California to carry their Dentalia shell money. It was made and used by men.

Two examples of man using the by-products of molluscs for decoration or fancy clothing are:

Two examples of man using the byproducts of molluscs for decoration or fancy clothing are:
1. as fine gloves, caps stockings and collars. These were once made from the "golden fleece" or byssus threads of Pen shells (Pinnidae).	Pinna ragosa

2. as Dyes. Dyes made from molluscs were used to beautify clothing and other items made from cloth. Depending on the species of mollusc used, the final product varied from red to violet to almost black. As early as the fifteenth century B.C., the people of Tyre and Sidon had found a way to extract the purple dye from some molluscs. The same royal purple colour worn by kings, emperors and high priests in the past is still used in the robes and alter mantles of some religions today. (Note: The color the ancients called "purple" (Royal or otherwise), was in fact closer to a dark burgundy or maroon, and various shades of blue were also included under the general moniker (i.e., name) of "Purple".  In the northern Mediterranean, the dye makers found they could change the color produced by peeing into the vat! (The priests and nobles who wore the finished product probably never even knew!!)

• An example of this is The Association for the Promotion and Distribution Of Tekhelet (Biblical Blue) in Jerusalem, Israel. This society still uses and makes the Biblical blue to produce the Jewish ritual fringes on their prayer shawls. In the Old Testament, this blue was so rare and highly valued that it could be collected only once every seventy years and was used to dye just one thread at each corner of the prayer shawl.
  
  
• Even though artificially produced dyes are available at a fraction of the cost, many Mexican and South American natives still prefer the molluscan dyes for their garbs, since they produce more natural - looking and traditional hues In Oaxaca, the Mixtec still search the seashore for the pretty Wide-mouthed Purpura shell, squeeze some of their juices onto yarns and return the shell to its home, to be used again the following season. These same dyes were used as early as 400 B.C.
  

Some molluscs that have been used to dye material are

Murex miliaris Gmelin, 1791 (Syn: Vitularia miliaris) (Mediterranean)	Murex miliaris
The Purple Dye Murex (Murex brandaris): Mediterranean - Millions and millions of these Murexes were killed to make purple dye for the Roman Empire. Trunculus Murex (Hexaplex trunclulus (Linne, 1758)): This shell was equally important with brandaris in the ancient purple trade and it was most extensively used by the Phoenicians, but also by the Romans and other Mediterranean cultures.
Murex brandaris and Murex trunculus
Certain Rock Shells: (e.g. Thais haemastoma) (Europe) - These live on rocks at the Low tide mark, and just below.	Thais haemastoma
The Atlantic Dog whelk (or "Dogwinkle"):(New England and Eastern Canada, and also Europe).  In Nova Scotia, (Canada), someone once tried to set up a factory to produce purple dye from this species, but it flopped because it took too many people to gather and handle the millions of individual specimens involved: by the time they paid all the workers, there was no money left for to make a profit!	Nucella lapillus
The Purple-mouthed Purpura (Central America) (see above article on dyes).	Purpura patula pansa
**     Note: All of the above species belong to the Murex Family, and all produce a bluish-reddish-purplish type of dye.
The Barnacle Rock Shell (Peru and Chile) - not a real barnacle, just glues onto rocks like one!	Concholepas concholepas