Coral
The legend says:"Perseo, once killed Medusa (the Gorgone who had the power to petrify the ones that looked at her), washed his hands in
the sea water; same drops of Medusa’s blood falled in the sea petrifing the submarine plants".
Having a tree form our ancestors thought coral was one among the sub-marine plants.
Once taken out from the sea, anyway, coral have the property to became hard like a stone: so the alchimists said it was a mineral.
Only in the 18th century we reach the consciousness it was an animal!
Coral is a colony of very small polyps whose secretions build a structure where to live: our coral is different from the ones that build
the so called "REEFS" all around the world.
We don’t work those madrepores; the fishing of those madrepores is forbidden because are protected!!!
This sentence is important for not misunderstanding our work: the fishing of our coral is ruled and the "red gold", how we call it, is a
part of italian tradition.
The fishing of italian coral is made by brave divers and being selective (only the big branch are fished).
Italian tradition
Try to touch a piece of coral: it will be charming, fascinating involving all your sense and you’ll feel the sensuality that lives
on it.
Still nowadays the magic of this material is alive; speaking about coral we think at the red coral and when we speak about it we think at
THE RED ITALIAN CORAL.
Mediterraneum coral (Scientific name: Corallium rubrum)
Color: from the orange till deep red
Fishing: all Mediterraneum sea, specially italian coast
Depth:from 30/40 meters (100/130 feet) till 150/200 meters (500/670 feet)
Characteristic:
- Uniform color
- Compact
- Branch are usually not of big dimension: 20 cm.(8 inches) of width for 100/150 gr.(3 ounces) of
weight
- Being compact and uniform in the color it’s very good to be used for:
a) Necklaces
b)Cabochons (for earrings and ring)
c) Pendents
d) Drops
Sciacca coral (Scientific name: Corallium rubrum)
Color: from pink till orange
It’s a particolar italian coral:
- It’s a sub-fossil coral dated same million of years ago (this probably gives his orange color)
- Was fished from 1880 till the beginning of ‘900
- It was worked in '900 for making balls, cabochons and little baril cut.
- Still nowadays it’s possible to find it in same specialized shop.
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