1.Preparation: To clean the shells and separate them into different groups according to their sizes in order to make use of each shell fully.For Trocas, larger size and thicker button can be obtained from the bottom part of the shell, and smaller and thinner button can be obtained from the top part.Button made from the bottom part has pink back while the button made from the side part has greenish back.
2.Button Disk Cutting: Button disk is cut manually by diamond coated tubular cutter and cooled by water simultaneously due to the hardness of the shells. Each worker can produce about 8,000 pcs disks per day.
3.Button Disk Flattening: All shell button disks have uneven surfaces on both sides.Thicker button disk is flattened by special grinding machine and thinner shell, like Akoya, does not need to be flattened.
4.Hole Drilling: Shell button disk with different thickness requires different kinds of drilling machines.Holes of thick disk are drilled by the fully automatic machine and normal thickness by semi- automatic machine.Holes of thinner disk, like Akoya, are drilled one by one manually.Each worker can drill about 5-7,000 pcs of shell buttons per day.
5.Shape Turning: If the shell disk is thick enough, it can be turned to any shape or even carved into very fancy pattern.For thinner shell disk, like Akoya, we can not turn it into any shape.
6.Smoothing Edge and Restoring Iridescence: Shell button’s rough edge can be smoothed by polishing with pumice and ceramic granules.With special method of applying water and acid on these shell buttons, their original iridescence will magically be restored.
7.Whitening and Polishing: As some of the shell buttons are with beige color they can be whitened by using special solution.Akoya shell, River shell Black MOP and Brown MOP do not require this process.In order to obtain perfect iridescent color and shinny effect, these shell buttons will be put into a rotatina barrel filled with bamboo tip and wax which will be rotated for about 15 hours.
8.Quality Control and Packing: As shell button is a natural product it requires very special quality control in each process.To obtain an accurate amount of shell buttons, all our shell buttons are counted manually, gross by gross, and bag by bag.
