[Jewelry making - Article 00085] - Re: [Orchid] Use of turtle shells

[Ian W. Wright]

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    This whole subject of 'conservation' as it relates to biological
    materials is a mess. For example, you could be in serious trouble for
    incorporating parts of Aunty Bessie's pet tortoise into jewellery
    after it has died and yet you could quite freely use Aunty Bessie's
    teeth, hair etc. in jewellery after her death and sell them on the
    open market if you want (e.g. as mourning jewellery). Tons of coral
    is dredged up every day, ostensibly quite legitimately, by fishermen
    who just throw it back - what are the chances of it surviving?
    virtually nil. Much of this coral together with that disturbed by
    storms is washed up on beaches around the world - who is to
    'certify' that this is OK to use as it is 'ecologically collected'
    and has not caused avoidable harm to the environment. Similarly with
    turtles and other marine creatures - dead ones are often washed up
    and many island communities also rely on turtle meat as a food
    source. According to the law, the shells of these cannot be used as a
    materials resource as they are not 'certified'. It appears that to
    be certified, there has to be some planning of the collection of the
    material and the application of a quota system. So, almost by
    definition, this implies that the collection will involve killing
    live animals! The situation becomes even worse when you look at old
    material. I had some small pieces of ivory which I obtained
    twenty-odd years ago from the dusty back corner of a storeroom in an
    old cutlery factory which was being demolished and I occasionally
    used bits of this to replace missing escutcheons from around the
    locks on antique furniture. I know from discussions with people who
    worked at the factory that no new ivory had been bought in over 30
    years so making this stuff at least 50 years old and probably older
    but this is only heresay and, since all the company's records were
    destroyed, I cannot prove it. So, should I have used it or what? I
    did so in the hope that, should it ever be questioned, there would
    be some expert somewhere that could date the material by scientific
    methods. But how would this apply to material which is, for
    instance, salvaged from old cutlery or broken antiques. By
    definition, anything on an antique should be old enough to pre-date
    the ecological restrictions but can you be sure that it hasn't been
    replaced or repaired with new material? The whole area of the
    restoration of antiques is fraught with difficulties - if the
    restoration is not carried out with materials which are identical to
    the original, the piece may become virtually unsaleable and will
    certainly have a much reduced value. Another consideration is - how
    can you trust the certification system? It is well known that, in
    some countries, the whole framework in which the certification
    originates is corrupt and probably more than 50% of the materials
    allowed onto the market 'legally' are, in fact, 'poached'. This
    particularly applies to exotic timbers and, whilst the dealers in
    western countries may do everything in their power to assure
    themselves that what they are buying and selling is 'ecologically
    correct', this is never certain. Even if they actually go to the
    seller's premises in Africa, the far East or wherever, they will only
    be shown what the seller wishes them to see! There is currently
    controversy on the China/Russian border where forests in Russia are
    being rapidly denuded by China's insatiable thirst for timber. It has
    apparently been shown recently that the agreed quotas are being
    totally ignored and that far more timber is being taken than is being
    documented leading to great ecological damage. It is difficult to
    educate rich purchasers not to want beautiful materials such as ivory
    and tortoiseshell but this is obviously key to reducing demand and
    hence reducing the supply chain. there should, however, be a way of
    making some material for repairs available legally which only exists
    as a result of the natural death of creatures or from justifiable
    food production.

Ian Wright
Sheffield UK
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