Soap and Sponge Dishes

Some of the finer hotels in the Asia-Pacific region use giant clam shells as serving dishes and soap holders. Without a doubt, a finely crafted, natural product like a clam shell is vastly more appealing than the ubiquitous, mass-produced plastic fixtures one sees so frequently today.

MMDC developed a novel soap dish that is composed only of two T. derasa shells (Figure 19), one of which is slightly larger than the other. The larger shell forms the soap holder, and the smaller shell forms the base. The shells are held together with a generous squirt of glue from a hot glue gun. Of course, the top shell should be large enough to comfortably accommodate a bar of soap, and the base should be large enough to keep the completed dish stable.

The shells should be chemically cleaned with bleach, then subjected to an acid dip. A light pass on the grinding wheel is needed to remove nicks and sharpness. The shells are rinsed with fresh water, dried thoroughly, then glued. Try to select shells for the bases that will sit without wobbling on a flat surface. Some grinding may be required.

Soap dishes are one of the easiest types of giant clam craftware to make. In 1994, the MMDC gift shop retailed hundreds of T. derasa soap dishes for $5 each. Most of the other giant clam species, especially T. gigas, H. hippopus and H. porcellanus, would also be suitable for soap dishes, but the sharp shell lips would have to be ground slightly first to remove the edge.

The same shell arrangement used for the soap dish can be used to display natural bath sponges. Now that the technology for farming bath sponges is well understood in the islands of Micronesia and a factory on the island of Pohnpei is producing fragrant soap bars, an excellent opportunity exists to bundle these local products into truly unique island-style gifts. What visitor to Micronesia would not welcome the chance to take home a locally woven basket holding Pohnpei soap, a cultured bath sponge and a giant clam soap dish?