Esteban’s work – mostly conch

One example of Estebans work - there's at least 80 hours of work in there...

Esteban is working in many materials. As an example I have bought a very touristy shark carved from bone that I have in an leather strap around my neck. Although touristy, it is of a higher class than the others I’ve seen people sell all over the country and I really like it. I have also bought a ring made from couhun (a local hardwood) and with designs of steel wire. It’s nit quite my size, but I still like it. He’s also working in stuff like coral, but his main material is conch.

Conch is a big shell (around 20-30 cm) found on the ocean floor. The mollusk itself is really delicious, reminding me somewhat of octopus, that is often served in a Ceviche (like a thin salsa served with corn chips as snacks or appetizer) or soup.

We picked a few and ate on our boat journey to Placencia, but we just threw the shells away. I don’t know if they had been useful to Esteban since he only uses the best, but it irritates me somewhat – it would have been cool to have picked my own conch and then commission Esteban to make something of it!

The process goes something like this:
1. Select the right conch shells, based on such things as luster and lack of fault lines.
2. Examine the conch for which type of jewelry could be made from a certain part of the shell. For an example, there’s a certain place that is suitable for butterflies, while beads can be done from pretty much any parts, but then you choose the place to take the bead from to get the right color instead.
3. Cut it with a diamond rotary blad to approximately the right size and shape.
4. Grind it, once again with a diamond blade, to get it in the exact shape you want.
5. Polish it, with four different gradations of sandpaper and then with cloth.
6. Drilling a hole. At this stage 1 out of 20 breaks because of a hidden fault line, and you have throw it away.
The whole process takes from one hour for a simple bead, to several hours for something bigger like the butterfly or a dolphin! Some of the items will be sold just like that; typically it is the more touristy stuff, that I am convinced that he’s doing jut for the money.

But sometimes he gets to make something more complicated, like a bracelet and a necklace, and then they can contain upwards 80 or 100 beads and drops – just imagine the work going into that! Oh, and in that case it’s of course yet another step – pairing and combining the beads and drops in exactly the shape, color and patterns that will come out best.

It’s all amazingly beautiful – sometimes I am convinced that Esteban actually manages to store some of his own warmth in each and every one of the pieces he makes – amazing! He hopes to have a web site up soon with some pictures (some of which I and Raquel took for him), where people can commission work from him, and as soon as that’s up, I’ll post the address right here.