About Nacre (Mother of pearl)

Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner shell layer. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. This substance is called "mother of pearl" because it is literally the "mother", or creator, of true pearls.

Nacre is secreted by the epithelial cells of the mantle tissue of some species of mollusk. Nacre is composed of hexagonal platelets of aragonite. Nacre appears iridescent because the thickness of the aragonite platelets is comparable to the wavelength of visible light. This results in constructive and destructive interference of different wavelengths of light, resulting in different colors of light being reflected at different viewing angles.

Abalone are medium-sized to very large edible sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the genus Haliotis. Common names for abalones also include ear-shells, sea-ears and Venus's-ears, as well as muttonfish or muttonshells in Australia, ormer in Jersey and Guernsey, perlemoen in South Africa and paua in New Zealand.

The shell of abalones has a convex, rounded to oval shape. The color of the shell is very variable from species to species. The shell of the abalone is exceptionally strong.