| How Femorale was started?
We have been collecting
shells since 1976 and had no contact with other local collectors
until 1983 when we went to a Shell Convention of SBMa (Sociedade
Brasileira de Malacologia). There we met most of those who
are our best friends today. We also met our good friend Bernardo
Linhares from Salvador, State of Bahia and he asked us if
we would be interested in selling some of the shells he and
his divers used to get when diving for ornamental fishes.
Then, we started to sell shells from Salvador to collectors
at our meetings (which started to happen periodically after
the Convention). We then started to exchange shells with some
shell dealers in the USA and Europe.
In 1986 José
and a friend went to Miami to sell shells to Len Hill there
and visited some others dealers as Bob and Betty Lipe (who
became our American family!), Al Deynzer and Ed Hanley. Two
years later we went together to the USA for the first time.
We participated in the St. Petersburg shell show in February
of 1988 and that was our most exciting trip until then. We
both spoke English poorly (we still don't speak very well…)
and we had only common shells to sell. We liked it very much
and we decided to go to the COA convention in July of the
same year in Fort Myers, Florida. We enjoyed it so much that
we haven't missed a single COA convention since then.
In 1989 we went
to Europe for the first time and visited many shell collectors,
dealers and participated in a shell show in London.
We officially opened
our business in May of 1989. We have already sent some lists
and had received good response from the shell collectors,
most of whom became very close friends.
We traveled to
many places as Ecuador, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, Aruba, American
Samoa and Western Samoa, Marshall Is., Egypt, New Zealand,
Australia, The Philippines, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas,
Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, São
Tome and Príncipe (Africa), Arab Emirates, Mexico,
New Caledonia, Japan, Trindade Is. (a Brazilian island In
the middle of the Atlantic), all the countries in Europe,
many states in the USA, and of course, many beautiful places
in Brazil.
We have been to many
shell shows all over the world, and all COA conventions since
1988.
We enjoy everything about our
business and we hope to keep doing a good job!
Why Femorale?
In 1985 our late
friend Renato Moscatelli offered to print some labels for
exhibitions with a shell printed on it. I draw some shells
and we chose the Cymatium femorale. When we had to choose
a name for our official business, we decided to keep the logo
and the name!
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