Corals
Corals are traded
based on their colors and are classified into red corals, white corals,
pink corals and also black corals. Corals are of
organic origin like natural pearls. They are called organic since
they are naturally created by small marine animals in deep sea, whereas
other gemstones like ruby, sapphire, amethyst etc are made of rock
minerals found in the land.
Corals (name of
Greek origin) are found in deep sea at depths ranging from 100-1000
feet. Red Coral reef deposits are found in the Mediterranean sea,
Japan, Hawaii (primarily black corals). They are harvested with
wide meshed nets dredged across the seabed by coral divers. In its
natural form, they are found as branching skeleton like structure and
they are built by small marine animals called "Coral Polyps".
Red Corals
pictures in its branch like skeleton form are shown below. These
pictures shows partially polished red corals.
The branches are generally found in ranges of 8-10 inches long and about
2-3 inches thick. Corals in smaller branch diameters (normally
less than 10mm-12mm) are used for making fine coral jewelry. Sizes
bigger than these are normally used for making unique carvings and might
cost thousands of dollars. In jewelry making, corals bigger than
6mm beads tend to become very expensive since they are not available in
abundance.
When they are cut
and polished (all natural process), they get orange to bright red
lusters. In the coral trade, dark red corals appear to have a
higher price than the orange colors and pink and white corals almost
trade at half the price of red corals.
Red
Coral and White Coral Pictures in their finished stages are shown
below.
Moh's hardness of
coral is 3-4 which means it is a softer material (diamond has a moh's
hardness of 10 and is the hardest stone). Corals, when worn
in its natural authenticity, it has many healing effects on the human
body just like natural pearls, since these are naturally formed in deep
sea and are untouched by humans during its growth and has all the energy
received from sun, moon, water etc for many decades or even
centuries. Since corals are soft, if they are worn at all times
(for jyothish effects or for healing effects), they tend to gradually
melt or dissolve slowly from its original size (obviously they won't
disappear completely) and this is believed to provide the healing
properties.
Beautiful coral jewelry
designs can be viewed at the links shown below.
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