Our family spends time on the East Cape of Baja and on one of our beach walks we found this perfect crab shell and subsequently made a life casting from it. The piece is cast in sterling sliver and is the life casting off a Mexican Inflated Spider Crab. The highly textured triangular carapace has short spines and is 1.25" long including the bail and 3/4" across. A carapace is a decorative bony or chitinous shield that protects the back and tender underparts of arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids. Turtles and tortoises also have carapaces.
What exactly is a “Life Casting” you ask? It is when you take a form from nature and reproduce it in metal by various methods of molding and burning out of the wax or the natural specimen. There were technical challenges in the instance of this fragile and detailed crab carapace. One has just one chance to do it correctly before the specimen is destroyed or damaged irreparably. My old school jeweler friend, Pete Conder was instrumental in brining this piece to fruition. He created a cold mold around the carapace and subsequently injected waxes into the mold which he gave to me to detail for a permanent mold.
This item usually ships the same or next business day.
All Marty Magic Jewelry is packaged in a beautiful purple box, embossed with the gold foil Marty Magic dragon logo. Perfect for any occasion!
Designed by nature.
Made in the U.S.A.
