Modern Substitutes
Naturally formed rounded cone shell fragments suitable to be used as beads are hard to find in large quantities, so true puka jewellery is now uncommon. Shell jewellery made from naturally occurring puka shells is also now more expensive because of the labor and time involved in finding and hand-picking these rather uncommon shell fragments from the beach drift.
In modern times, discs cut from other types of shell, or even discs of plastic, are used to make imitation puka jewellery. Cone snail shells are sometimes harvested so that they can be chipped down and ground down to make more authentic-looking puka jewellery, which is however still not 100% genuine compared with the originals.
A very glossy patina 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, then the hole was drilled by humans.
Read more about this topic: Puka Shell
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