Small kid time, I spent hours on the beach searching for what we called “cat’s eyes.” Those little spirals fascinated me, and our aunties added to the fun by showing us how to make them fizz. I didn’t know their proper name then. They were simply something my brother and I loved finding.
Years later, I was surprised to realize that the cat’s eyes from my childhood were what I knew in the bead world as Shiva eye shells. It’s funny to recognize something from your childhood in a completely different part of your life.
From the beach to a strand of beads
What we call a Shiva eye shell is an operculum, the hard plate that certain sea snails use to close the opening of their shell when they withdraw inside. It works like a protective door!!
Turban snails are found along rocky shores and reefs in many parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including here in Hawaiʻi. The Hawaiian turban snail lives in shallow water among rocks and crevices, and its rounded operculum is commonly called a cat’s eye. These plates can detach after the snail dies and wash ashore, which helps explain those familiar finds on the beach.
With the beads in these photos, there’s more to look at than the spiral alone. You can see the rounded contours, the uneven outlines, and the green and gray lines against the glossy white. Those shapes make it easier to picture their connection to a sea snail. The operculum once fitted into the opening of a larger, coiled shell.
I think one of the remarkable things about working with natural materials is understanding where they came from. Sometimes my brain doesn’t make that connection right away, but once it does, suddenly I have a new favorite bead.
When there’s a spiral on both sides
There’s a bit of bead-making to know about here, too. Some double-sided Shiva eye beads are made from two pieces of operculum bonded back-to-back, with a spiral facing outward on each side.
This construction is called a doublet, and I only recently realized I’d been looking at an assembled bead and imagining it had grown that way!! LOL. Again, when the brain kicks in… right??
The shell itself is natural, while the finished bead is assembled. Having two patterned faces is useful in jewelry because the spiral can still show when the bead turns.
Seeing these beads together also shows how much variation there is within a strand. The curves don’t all sit in the same place, and the outlines aren’t identical. Matching them takes a little looking, which gives you a chance to notice the individual ones.
A familiar spiral, a new beginning
The spiral also gives me a way to think about growth and renewal. It moves outward while remaining connected to its center. I like that as an image for beginning again: moving forward while carrying the parts of our lives that matter to us.
Jewelry gives us a way to keep those reminders close. For someone else, a Shiva eye shell might symbolize protection or mark a fresh start.
I know more about them now, and boy, has my appreciation multiplied—with the memories of my brother and our aunties, an understanding of where these shells came from, and how they became the beads we get to work with today. Every time I see a pretty Shiva eye bead, I HAVE to get it for us. ;)
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