Shirt Pins

During the years of operation of the MMDC Giant Clam Hatchery, the facility was visited by hundreds of local school children. We often thought it would be nice to give them each a small souvenir clam shell to take home. When we tried this, very few kids expressed much interest in clam shells. Having grown up surrounded by giant clams, the kids found them too commonplace to regard with much appreciation.

One day the thought occurred to us that the school children might be more interested in giant clam shells that had first been crafted into some sort of novel jewelry. After trying a few ideas unsuccessfully, we began making colorful neon shirt pins (Figure 28) from yearling T. derasa shells. These achieved the desired effect. After touring the MMDC facility, the kids were more than eager to put the neon clam pins on their shirts or dresses and to wear them home. We hoped that this would perhaps stimulate some discussion with their parents about where they had been on their school field trip that day and what exciting things they had seen at the mariculture center. At least they took something tangible home.

Sadly, the giant clam shirt pins were never much of a hit with adult tourists, even when we jazzed them up with a nice display card. The shirt pins languished on the shop shelves and were far outsold by giant clam earrings and other items.

Despite “bombing” commercially, the shirt pins achieved the noble purpose of making hundreds of Palauan school kids happy for a few moments and, indirectly, helping their parents learn something about giant clam mariculture. Who knows whether some of those kids may grow up to be future clam farmers? Occasionally, we still see giant clam shirt pins worn around Koror.

Making the pins is simple. Use bleached T. derasa, T. crocea or T. maxima shells about 5 centimeters long. Spray paint both sides with neon spray paint from your local hardware store. When the paint is dry, use a hot glue gun to attach (Figure 29) a locking pin mechanism (which can be obtained for about 5 cents each from River Gems) to the back. That's it. You won't get rich making these, but you can sure make a lot of kids happy.