Coral

Corals are the product of tiny living beings which settled in enormous colonies in the depths of warm seas long before our time. The polyps, surrounded by a fleshy skin, excrete a carbonic substance from which the corals grow like trees and branches. These can attain a height of sixteen inches (40 cm), though the actual branches seldom exceed one and a half inches (4 cm). At the forks, they are somewhat thicker. It is from these parts that the precious raw material for jewellery items, large coral beads or carvings is obtained. Traditionally, the fragile little coral trees were brought up from the depths with trawl nets. However, since first-class corals have now become rather rare, divers are now deployed, in a less destructive process which involves their going down and harvesting the sensitive coral branches. After that, the branches are cleaned, sorted and processed by means of saws, knives, files or drills. Coral is not usually ground or cut on a wheel.