10 Wing Shells – “Elytra”: $5.00

10 Neck Shells – “Protonum”: $6.00

Some of you may be thinking: "Beetles? As in Insects?!" The answer is: "Yes!" These beautiful shells are actually the exoskeletons of beetles.

The colour of each shell is beautiful; photographs simply do not do them justice! These shells are an amazing, shimmering green, but in the right light they cab also appear to be blue/purple. They match our "Peacock Blue" anodized Niobium incredibly well.

Farmed in Thailand, these shells are very unique and no two shells are identical because the size of the beetle makes a different size shell.

The shells are slightly flexible, but will break if abused, or forced. We recommend using them in earrings and necklaces, as they may not hold up as well in bracelets.

The “Elytra” (wings) are the long shells and come with one hole drilled into the top of each shell.

The shorter, more round-looking shells are called “Protonum” (neck) and have two holes drilled in each shell. These shells more closely resemble actual beads.

All shells are sold in bags of 10. They are hand packaged and arranged by size. So you won't get huge shells and tiny shells mixed in the same bag, however one given bag may have shells which are larger overall than another bag.

We give credit and our thanks to Jen Makowsky for letting us use photos of her beautiful jewelry as examples of what you can make with these shells!