Ash Trays

Using a lovely giant clam shell to hold cigarette ashes seems a shameful desecration. For this reason, the MMDC gift shop never sold clam shells specifically for use as ashtrays. Even the idea of a restaurant having clam shells filled with mouth-watering sashimi alongside similar shells filled with cigarette ashes is unappetizing. Yuck!

Sadly, smokers are everywhere in the Asia-Pacific region. It is truly a region of puffers. And they are an inventive lot, capable of turning just about anything—coffee cups, beer cans, sinks, newly waxed floors, the palms of their own hands, and yes, even giant clam shells—into ashtrays.

Smokers patronizing the MMDC gift shop frequently and quite shamelessly bought giant clam salad bowls, soap dishes, wasabi dishes, planters and even candlestick holders with the specific objective of using them not for their intended purpose but for ashtrays! The following conversation, or some variation of it, took place many times in the MMDC gift shop.

Customer: “What's this?”

Salesclerk: “It's a salad bowl made from a giant clam shell. Of course, you could use it for serving sashimi, sauces, candy, or any other type of food.”

Customer: “Hmmm, that would make a great ashtray. Ethel, let's get a couple of these ashtrays.”

Because this manual gives instructions for crafting most of the shell products that might conceivably be used for ashtrays, the issue need not be belabored by repeating the techniques. If you would like to be in the ash tray business, just use giant clam shells to make virtually anything resembling a dish or bowl and label it “ashtray.” Trust us: someone will buy it.