As a new nurse in my early 20’s I took care of a woman who had cameos which her then boyfriend, later husband, brought back from his WWII tour of duty. They were lovely, and I became hooked on cameos since, always wanting to visit this factory. As the years, and decades, went on never did I think I’d visit. Was shocked to find this was part of the tour.

Here are some of the snipits from the video tour.

Tools of the trade. Cameos are fragile made from shells, and apprentice cameo makers take 7 years to learn their trade.

The shell is shaped.

After much cleansing and refining of the shell an image is etched on the shell.

Further etching, then the image is “baked in,” and colored. A bit lost in translation, sorry..

Here’s what I purchased.