Take a stroll around the extraordinary world of shells!
Seashells are uniquely appealing and endlessly varied; from the dramatic Venus Comb to the delicate Greater Argonaut, they range from dazzling blue to palest pink, and are one of the most beautiful and varied treasures of our natural world.
Gorgeously illustrated and packed with fascinating information, The Shell Seeker is a unique way to discover these enticing natural forms. Featuring an interactive wheel set into the cover, the book introduces a wonderful selection of shells from the world's seas.
Discover the ways that shells have inspired us, through art, music, architecture, financial systems. and even by providing insights into our future.
The book concludes with a directory of thirty iconic shells, revealing where to find them, how to recognize them, and the fascinating facts and history behind them.
The Shell Seeker is perfect for beachcombers, conchologists and anyone who wants to delve into the secret world of shells.
FROM JULI
I have been incredibly thrilled to dive into the world of mollusks for the last year. I was overjoyed to be asked to write this book for Clarkson Potter and UniPress and they could not have been more wonderful partners in the journey. Like all my books, this one took me to places I never expected and where I learned more than I could have imagined.
Shells have been part of humanity for as long as we have been human, or earlier. Someone 100,000 years ago picked up a shell in Java and carved a few zig-zag lines on it, the first etching we've discovered. The sounds of shells have reverberated among us for ten thousand years, an ancient call to connect us to each other and to the sea. We've worn shells, dyed our clothing in the secretions of mollusks, traded in shells, and even used them to divine our futures.
The animals that make shells, mostly mollusks, are among the most diverse on our planet, a signal that what they create is among evolution's most successful of experiments. And the great variety of shells: from the massive giant clam to the untold numbers of micro-mollusks just a few millimeters in size shows the almost mind-blowing potential of the mollusk form.
One of the best parts of doing the research for this book was following the design team into the mollusk archives to find gorgeous drawings of shells from as early as the seventeenth century. It is so easy to be entranced by these drawings, which have a different kind of hold on you than photographs do. The artist's hand helps connect us to the forms that other people found fascinating as well.
And the book is fun! There's a Victorian-era feature called a volvelle on the front: a spinning wheel that orients you to some of the most special shells that I write about in the catalog of thirty shells that receive special attention.
It was a gift to be able to write this book. And I hope you will gift yourself with a copy - and give them to all your friends as well!