Just looking through Christmas catalogues, I came to an odd realization: resin sculpture is a real positive development. You want kudu horns decorating your den? Resin horns. Deer antlers. Corals. Shells. All the things that used to be sold in catalogues for home decorating, many of them collected by doing in living specimens [the shells in particular, because the naturally vacant ones get dinged up in a hurry]---all these things are being replaced by resin imitations...which are better for the sales people. Painted resin doesn't chip or break in shipment, doesn't have the last few specimens at the bottom of the barrel that never will sell because they're not perfect, and in general, are exactly what you see in the catalog, ending another customer complaint.
It's not a minor dent in the trade. It's got to make shell-collecting less profitable, and that may persuade local populations that the real value in their reefs is not through sale of dead, bleached specimens.
It's not a minor dent in the trade. It's got to make shell-collecting less profitable, and that may persuade local populations that the real value in their reefs is not through sale of dead, bleached specimens.
