Black drink shell cup

[swamp monkey]

Mississippian mound builders used to make a cup from lightning whelk shells.  They cut out the central spiral, known as a columella, and had a form of scrimshaw for images on the outer shell. 

I used modern methods to make this cup.  The shell I used was a knobbed whelk (i think), and does not have the same spiral of a lightning whelk.  Lightning whelk have their openings on the left side.  Also this is a a half sized version.  Black drink cups were twice this size.  Needless to say this is not a faithful replica.  But it is close enough for ME!.

Below is the shell front and back, followed by a shot of the columella removed, and the pencil outline of the image.   The image is a Mississippian design found on a black drink cup artifact.  I modified it slightly for my taste and so it would fit on the smaller sized shell.

[swamp monkey]

Before penciling the design I did a LOT of grinding and sanding on the outer surface.  I spent roughly 2 hours on that and I would be interested how long this would take with Stone Age tools.  After penciling in the design I marked it with a fine sharpie marker.  When I perform the grinding, dust can obscure pencil lines so ink stands out a bit better.   I used a small round diamond tipped bit with a rotary tool.

Following the engraving I sanded things down again to remove marker and pencil lines.  Then I sprayed the shell with enamel. 

I thought it looked pretty good at this point, but I knew the next step would prove me wrong.   

[swamp monkey]

I sprayed black paint on the design and wiped the paint as it dried.  Then I used sandpaper and steel wool to take the paint remnants off the high spots.  The idea was to leave the black in the grooves only.  The reality was that some of my grooves were not deep enough and some of my high surfaces had low spots I could not see with the naked eye.  So I sanded the paint off the high spots and in some cases it totally removed the lines I had engraved.  I had to grind those line sections in a second time. 

Repaint, re-wipe, and re-sanded.  This revealed a better image but I still had some paint down in micro grooves.  So I used some paint thinner, Q tips and cotton balls to clean up the areas around the design. 

[swamp monkey]

This cup represents about 6 -7 hours of work.  BTW Notice the warrior's necklace.  I am convinced these are full columellas from whelk shells.  Did i mention shells are HARD and difficult to work with?   

Finally, I ground the inside remnants of the columella so it was smooth and sealed the artwork with spray enamel.

Walla!  A whelk shell black drink cup.   
Thanks for looking!

[JW_Halverson]

Amazing!  Great work! 

Just one question, how far were the mound building cultures from the area where the whelks were collected?

[Adam]

That looks great!  Very cool idea.

[swamp monkey]

JW,  the whelk shells went all over the Deep South, Midwest, and southern Great Plains.  Those mound builders were able to obtain materials from all over the continent.  Just as a sampler, they obtained canel coal from the Dakotas, copper from the Great Lakes, white shark teeth from the Atlantic, Mica from the Appalachians, igneous rock form the Ozarks, and  . . . well you get the idea. They had a trade network, and perhaps sent people on long trips to get what they wanted. 

Amazing folks.  Too bad we know so little about em. 

[lostarrow]

  Not only hard to work, but  smells like a cross between burnt hair and rotten seaweed.  I had to sand a bunch of ERC after vacuuming the inside and outside of my belt sander .  Also blew it out with the compressor (outside)Shop still smelled for a day! Make sure you wear a dust mask and use a fine filter vacuum (for drywall dust)  and don't breath that stuff in . All sorts of no good comes from it.  Great job on the  cup!

[Badly Bent]

Thats nice work Swamp Monkey, cool project and beautiful results for your efforts.

[bow101]

Your'e a gifted artist, really kewl.

[swamp monkey]

Lostarrow- spot on with the dust mask!  No way I wanted to breath that dust.  I'll see your dust mask and raise you eye protection.    Chips fly off with the rotary wheel. I did all my work outside to boot.  Stinking up the house is not keen to my family. 

Thanks for looking guys, and thanks for the compliments!

[crooketarrow]

  SWEETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

 My friend CROOKETARROW gave me one before he dieded.

 A peice of personal equipment just never talked of.

 He said it was in his family for who knows how long. He was IROQUOIS.

 It was on a deer rawhide string. It was carryed over the shoulder to use to drink water with. When they came apond it.

 The IROQUOIS also used he big ones to boil water and cook in. They were well prized for 100 if not 1000's of years. I know they've been found would wide in primitive camp sites thats been dug.
  They were so well prized some of cultures they were bried with the dead.

  NICE WORK

[Josh B]

Beautiful work sir!  Just down right beautiful!  Josh

[lostarrow]

I  see your safety glasses and raise you a set of ear plugs! ........... the safety glasses are so second nature I don't even think about it, unless someone else is working with me and they don't put them on.  i find most people even if they remember  the safety glasses , they don't think about the mask  or the ear plugs . Those are the ones that bite you in the arse down the road.  Once again , great job on the cup!

[Pappy]

That's beautiful.Very nice work.You stuff is always cool and amazing to me.
   Pappy