29: Organics: Coral. Don't bleach it! Or Maybe you should.

This episode explores the fascinating world of coral, its history, types, and significance in gemmology. Hosted by Simon and Lucinda, it covers everything from the biological origins of coral to its cultural importance and modern regulations.

 sound bites

"Polyps are tiny creatures related to sea anemones."

"Coral structures are like a living family tree."

"Black and gold coral are rare and often bleached."

 key topics

Definition of organic materials

History of coral harvesting and trade

Types of coral: precious, soft, fossilised, black and gold

Identification and authenticity of coral in jewelry

Regulations and sustainability in coral trade

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Coral and Organic Materials

02:53 The Importance of Organic Materials

05:14 Coral Fishing in History

07:57 Understanding Coral Polyps

10:32 The Journey of Coral Harvesting

13:03 Regulations and Sustainability in Coral Harvesting

15:33 Coral as a Jewelry Material

18:03 Types of Coral and Their Significance

21:50 Identifying Coral: Key Features and Characteristics

24:33 Understanding Soft Coral: Misleading Names and Textures

26:42 Fossilised Coral: The Transformation Process

28:20 Exploring Black and Gold Coral: Unique Properties and Origins

32:17 Coral Conservation: The Impact of Overfishing and Regulations

34:44 Closing Thoughts: The Beauty and Importance of Coral

 resources

Gemmology by C. D. M. Roberts - https://www.amazon.com/Gemmology-C-D-M-Roberts/dp/XXXXXX

CITES - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - https://cites.org/

Coral Museum in Naples, Italy - https://www.coralmuseumnaples.it/

https://instagram.com/facetnationgemmology

 guest links

Instagram - https://instagram.com/facetnationgemmology

TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@facet.nation.pod

coral, gemmology, organic materials, jewellery, coral harvesting, coral types, coral regulation, fossilised coral, coral history, coral identification

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Hello, and welcome to Fascination Education Podcast. My name is Simon.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And I'm the Cinder.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

This week we are going to talk to you about coral.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

It's actually a really exciting day, Simon, because this is our first episode about an organic material, and every organic is special, including coral.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Yeah, I actually really like coral. I like the colour. I'm not very good at saying it though. Coral. I like the colour a lot. Yeah, that sort of, you know, pinky, pinky-orangey type. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to this. I will state early doors that I don't really know a lot about coral. Lucinda's like the Jade. Well, I'm I'm gonna be a bit of a passenger here. She told me that I had to chip in with doing a lot of talking, but I'm just putting it out there on air that uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Passenger princess for the day.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

This is this is Lucinda's baby. So thanks for that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

You're welcome. You're all welcome. One thing I know that you can talk about is the definition of an organic material, Simon. So when we say that coral is organic, what do we mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:16

So an organic material is something which is derived from a living organism as opposed to a mineral, because a mineral is a natural inorganic solid which has a definite chemical composition and an orderly crystalline structure.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Gorgeous definition.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Whereas an organic doesn't have that.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

It does not indeed. And there are a few of these on the syllabus, but their importance is quite outsized, I would say. Simon, would you agree?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Yeah, like you sort of go through the foundation thinking, right, yeah, those ones at the end, I don't have to worry too much about them because there's only like two lines about them. And then wham, there's like a whole fucking section when you get to you start looking at the diploma exams, and there's like whole fucking forty marks or something, all dedicated to one of the organics.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Four pages on a random organic that they've just decided to get really into.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Surely they're not gonna fucking do that to us because like they're really hard to know about and really hard to distinguish and really hard to like. But no, they do. And uh yeah, it's very important that you know about organics.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

All of them. What was the one that they've really zoomed in on? We had some shell questions. Yeah, some coral questions. So this one should actually be near and dear to your heart, Simon. I was out there drawing soft coral.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

We did a um sort of mock practical, didn't we? And there was a bloody amylight in it?

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yes, we all got it wrong.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Well, I knew what it was, I just couldn't find the fucking thing in the book to know how to spell it. I couldn't I couldn't remember if it was amylight or ammonite. So I was like, well, I'm not gonna fucking put that because it's not in the book.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

So I think everybody put boulder opal.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

I don't know what to do. Okay, I put something like really dumb. But I the thing is I knew what it was. I just couldn't find the fucking thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

As some as like they are organics are really beautiful. They're also a little bit treacherous in that there are a lot of synthetic versions, there are a lot of imitations, and they all look quite similar. So it's definitely one that's worth getting to know. We're talking shell, coral, amber, jet, bone, ivory, like all of them. Yeah, they and they're they're socially quite complex as well.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Their imitations are actually like really good. It's also like, you know, like turquoises and things like that. Things that are carved into cabochons and are just like one colour, more or less fucking odd. Like just look like could look like plastic, could look like glass, jade, same thing. They're hard.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

They're really hard. But they have amazing histories because they're some of the earliest gemstones that humans were using. And they also are just quite interesting because it's not as simple as like there was a boulder and then inside the boulder was jade. And like bears because they come from living things, they go on quite a journey, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yeah. Um and they're quite precious, and people are not allowed to destroy them anymore, are they? So like we need to be we need to be conscious of that, and we also need to uh yeah, respect respect coral, I'd say.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Respect the coral. Well, Simon, you want to be a passenger princess, so shall we get started and I'll take you on a little holiday?

SPEAKER_02 4:22

That sounds nice.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Great. Okay, everybody close your eyes. You don't have to. But I'm going to take everybody to a beautiful town. The year is 1850. We're in Italy, we're just outside of Naples. You can see Mount Vesuvius in the distance. This is the Italian town. Simon's just making fun of my Italian pronunciation, so stick with me here. If you're watching on YouTube, please note the hands. Torre del Greco.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

What do you think? Sounds very good.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And the reason that we are here, you know, it's got these winding lanes, they're all packed with workshops like little rabbit warrens. It smells like the sea. And the reason that we're here is because of the harbor. It's at the very center of town. We have arrived there pre-dawn, so the sky is ink blue, and there's some small weathered boats, and around them are clustered men checking ropes and nets, getting ready to go out to sea, because this is the center of coral fishing in the Aids. And at this time in history, precious coral is one of the most popular jewelry materials in the world. People are absolutely going crazy for it. It's super trendy. Everybody is obsessed with it, but it's very hard to get because scuba diving doesn't exist yet.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

So the people It's kind of funny that, isn't it? That like these organic things were such a big thing a long time ago and then they stopped being. I suppose it's because we're not really allowed to get them anymore. So is that why? I don't know. Because jet was a big thing in like Victorian England.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Jet was very trendy, amber was very trendy, shell cameos, like when's the last time you saw a shell cameo worn? Not ironically.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Yeah, you don't really, do you? So yeah, it's kind of interesting. Anyway, sorry, back to your back to your story of um non-scubering divers.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

So essentially, these coral fishers were risking their lives every time they were going out to harvest coral. So, you know, they were the sons and grandsons of coralfishers, people had been doing this for generations and generations. And once they struck out, they would be out at sea for like months or even years, and a lot of them wouldn't come home because they would drown. And as Simon says, like, what was the point of it all, especially from our perspective, where Simon, you're totally right, like post-round brilliant diamond coral is it just looks a bit sad. But actually it's a very beautiful and interesting material. So shall we talk about the basics, Simon? What it was all for?

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Can we just go back to these these coral fishes?

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

So they're like packing their packing their stuff up and shipping out in these little boats, I take it, and then literally lumping themselves over the edge of the boat and swimming down unaided to farm coral.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yes. Well, so we will talk about the history of coral horvest harvesting. At this time, what they're doing is they're dredging, and so they've got nets and they've got wood, and they're throwing both of these things over overboard, and then they're dragging the bottom of the seabed and hauling it back up, and a lot can go wrong in this process.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Yeah, that doesn't sound like it could yeah, that sounds like it could cause problems to me.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah, and there's no health and safety, man.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

No.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

But who's the real victim here? I think it's the coral itself. It's the polyps.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

The polyps.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Yeah, so tell us tell us what is coral spider.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Basically, it is an organic material which originates in marine environments, so in the sea, and coral is basically secreted by coral polyps.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

That is true. Legend has it, of course, that precious coral came to the earth when Medusa's blood from her severed head hit the seawater, but actually it's polyp spit. Simon, tell us more.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Polyp spit.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Basically.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Okay, so these little sort of creatures that sort of wiggle around in the sea, they're kind of they're related to sea anemones and jellyfish. And they're kind of squishy and squiggly and they have tentacles and they wave around in the ocean like I just find them really creepy in my mind, but I'm sure they're cute in person. Yeah, I mean like they're they're a bit sort of sinister, aren't they? Those things that are in the sea. They kind of look like they're not, but they also I don't know, you wouldn't want to encounter one up close, would you?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

They what I always think about sea creatures is they were literally born there. Like they know what's going on. I don't.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

It's a mysterious old world, the deep sea.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Okay, go on, keep telling me about polyps.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Okay, so um basically, um they it says here that they little organism organisms are what they eat, and they basically photosynthesis, you know, like plants and things. They have tiny bits of algae living in their tissues, which are photosynthesizing, and the polyps get some energy as a bit of an oceanic kickback.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

They're really bizarre, these guys.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Hmm. And then like as they're doing that, they're sort of gobbing out coral.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Basically, so essentially these polyps are really small, so they're like centimeters to millimeters big, and they can live alone if they desire. They can also be part of a colony, but there is one crucial detail about them, which is that they are sessile, and that means that they have to be attached to a surface to survive. If they're not attached to a surface, they cannot be free-floating.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

So this is the polyps, they have to be attached to something.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Exactly. And so what they are attached to is coral. Basically, they secrete. God, it's so gross. They secrete this like solid mass around them, and they sit in this kind of cup. So it's like their secretion kind of scoops them and holds them, and then their cups can join each other, and that's a polyp colony, that's a coral reef.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

And the coral kind of becomes their skeleton, like their bones, I suppose.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Exactly. It's like a literal living family tree. So like everyone has their own cup that they've made themselves.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

And then it attaches onto the next one.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

And that's that's the that's a coral reef, as it were, with all those nice fish swimming around inside it.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Exactly. So, like if you think about if you really want to humanize the polyp, which I do always, I always love a bit of anthropomorphization. It's like uh basically living in a big house with everyone you've ever been related to in the next room.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

No thanks.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

So, of course, coral is beautiful, which means that humans have always wanted it. We wanted to own it, we wanted to wear it, and we don't care how many polyp families we decimate in the process.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Originally, like it wasn't a big deal because we couldn't swim that far, we didn't have any scuba gear, so ancient humans were just like taking what they could get off of shallow reefs, or like if something would wash up on the shore, we would take breaking up anyway.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

So we're not sort of like going in and destroying it as it were.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Exactly. Then in the 19th century, so we're going back to Torreel Greco, all of our friends, especially in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, they were using nets guided by breath hold divers. So, Simon, to your point, people would get into the ocean with a big net, and then they would like swim as deeply as they could for as long as they could, gathering as much coral as they could.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

That does sound pretty fucking dangerous, to be fair.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Pretty dangerous. But that's I mean, there's amazing cultures. Did you ever see that um free diving documentary?

SPEAKER_02 11:38

One of my favorite films actually is a Luc Besson film called Le Grand Bleu, and it is about a gentleman by the name of Jacques Mayol, and uh he was a free diver and um basically thought he was a dolphin.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Did it interest me?

SPEAKER_02 11:52

And he could hold his breath for a long time, and I won't spoil the end, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

And of course, pearl diving is operating very much the same way. So let's say that those are the grandfathers of the people that we met in Toriel Greco. Their grandsons are Can you hear my cat smashing at my kitchen?

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

That's what's happening, everyone. So he's literally dredging the kitchen. So um, this is what we were discussing earlier. So rather than swimming around with a net, people started throwing weighted nets weighted down with really special kinds of lumber and then dragging it across the seafloor. And obviously you get more coral that way, but you also destroy the entirety of the ocean floor doing that.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

And then I suppose if you're destroying it, it's not going to be able to regenerate itself. Because effectively if it's still there, it can then produce more coral. But if you're dredging the whole thing and dragging everything out, it's not going to produce any more coral, is it?

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Exactly. And then Simon, tell me what happened in the 50s.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

So in the 1950s, something terrible happened. And aquariums got trendy. So everybody wanted to decorate their aquarium to make it look like a bloody coral reef. So what do we do? We dredge the shit out of it, and uh, pretty bad.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Yeah, so industrial scale dredging with you know, these aren't wind-powered boats anymore, even. They're all gas powered. It's a disaster, and we're just decimating the seafloor. Humans suck. I did I have a note here. Is this how they find dead bodies and murder weapons if they're in a lake dredging it?

SPEAKER_02 13:21

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Okay. Simon, I thought you'd know more about that, but don't know much about dead bodies, unfortunately. Do you know about coral regulations though?

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Not all, but I'll give it a go. Basically, coral recovery began to be regulated through regulations, although the the regulations basically vary from country to country. And these days, harvesting coral requires individual divers to get suited up in their scuba gear, so they're not like going in holding their breath. The descend descend to greater depths, like 30 to 130 metres, they can be down there for hours and it's very dangerous. And they can be a bit more precise with what they actually gather rather than wrecking the whole place and sort of, you know, not making it sustainable. It's all about s sustainability. So if you go down and you sort of like take a bit here and there, I think that's allowed in certain places. In other places maybe not, because it's probably a bit more endangered because of all the stuff that's happened previously.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

I always people are so surprised when I tell them that like pearls just don't exist anymore out in the world, as far as we know. Except like in rivers in Scotland sometimes, if you're lucky. You don't create as much to extract.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

You're just not allowed to go and get them, are you? Because it's like because and it's like it would be fine if you literally just went down and got one. But people get greedy, don't they? No, people get carried away. You can't trust people. So it's what you can't have like one rule for one and another rule for another. Everyone has to be tarred by the lowest common denominator, which is the moron that's going to destroy everything.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

And for that reason, regulation exists. And we are talking, of course, about the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. AKA Simon?

SPEAKER_02 15:05

CITES.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Yay! There are a few species of coral. We'll talk about a few of them in a bit, but not all of them are covered equally. Essentially, you just need to know that you are allowed to trade coral internationally, but it is regulated. So there are some rules that you're definitely going to want to Google before you try and sell anything. And you do need a permit to prove that it was harvested sustainably and legally.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Is this a bit like the Kimberley process, though? Is it just sort of word-of-mouth permit? You're like, yeah, I yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

I think so, especially with coral, because unlike a lot of other species, which we will talk about, they're not cute. There's not some great outcry about the coral reef. Um, except that one famous one in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

I don't I don't feel like people are showing up for polyps the way that they're showing up for elephants.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

I've been to the Great Barrier Reef when I was a kid and um don't remember much of it. But yeah. I remember going like, oh, it's the Great Barrier Reef. This is cool.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Was it beautiful?

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Don't remember. Good story.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Story time with Simon.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Yeah. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Now let's talk about something Simon actually knows about, which is coral as a jewellery material. Simon, what are the basics?

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Basically, gem quality coral is uh translucent, translucent. Um psych kind of can be opaque as well, I think. Um and has a waxy to vitreous luster. It's usually fashioned in sort of cabochons, beads, cameos, carvings, and drops, like things with rounded edges, probably because of um its hardness and toughness. Um so it has poor toughness.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Someone didn't do their vocal exercises today.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Um it has poor toughness and low hardness, about 2.5 to 3.5. Um so basically it's very precious and you need to look after it. Uh one of the key things to note about coral is its poor stability because you don't really want to be getting anything sort of any sort of chemicals or anything near it. There was a picture in our course notes of a bit of coral that had been dipped in bleach and it had literally like lost all of its colour, or like some kitchen cleaner or something. So like keep everything very well away from your coral because you're gonna destroy it pretty easily. And the reason you're gonna destroy it is because it's very porous. Um and it's gonna suck up all like any sort of liquid, chemicals, anything like that, and effectively sort of eat itself from the inside. So don't stick it in your ultrasonic. Yeah, like it's it's really not for any of that shit. No ultrasonics, no cleaning solutions, don't sort of start rubbing it with your perfume and things like that. You're going to cause it damage. Don't even test it on your R on your refractometer. It does have an RI, somewhere between 1.49 and 1.66, but don't test it because you're going to stain it and it's going to be looking shit after you've done it.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

And this applies to all coral, not just the nice coral, not just the pretty coral.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

All well, one of them, which we'll tell you about, something interesting happens, doesn't it? But that's a cliffhanger for later.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Now, when we're talking about coral, you're probably thinking of this red or pink material that Simon says that he loves, and you are not wrong, that is coral, but it's also not the whole story. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Is it Simon? No. There's four varieties of coral, and you need to know about all of them. Some of them have very misleading names.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Some of them are creepy as fuck.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Some of them are weird. So let's start with precious coral, shall we? This is the stuff that I like. It's got that sort of pinky, peachy, orangey colour. It can be white and it can also be red. And as Lucinda was telling us, it's one of the most ancient precious materials in the world. And you can find it all over the shop. Anywhere where there's some sea, there's a chance of you having coral. Is that right? Or does it need to be warm in the water? Probably.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, it needs to be warm so that there's some very famous localities. It's sorry, Jake's just come home. I believe these days you're mostly finding it in the seas south of Japan, but it was traded very extensively. So like it's been found everywhere, as in people have been wearing it everywhere. So from the Iron Age tombs of Celtic kings to the sacred scriptures of the Buddha, people are all over it. In ancient Greece, obviously, it was linked to protection. The Romans thought that coral could stop bleeding and prevent shipwrecks. Both Taoism and Buddhism have coral in their sacred texts and ancient treasures. And in Japan, red coral was a talisman for health and good fortune. So basically, everyone has been obsessed with it historically forever. Everybody thought it would save sailors, and it was getting from its locality, from where it was being harvested, all across the world in this like crazy way. And of course, it's a very it's it's from the ocean, right? So considered very sacred in Polynesian, the Pacific Islands, where it was said to forge a connection with the sea gods, and sometimes fragments of dead coral were used to mark graves in sacred spaces.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Interesting. So many uses protecting you on the seas, stopping.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Whether or not that's happening.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

They had some nutty ideas, didn't they? The Romans.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Certainly did. They also really didn't like the ocean. They were like, fuck that.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Scared of it.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yeah, so they when they tried to invade Britain, nobody would get on the fucking boat. They were like, get on the boat. And the soldiers were like, hell fucking no, we're not getting on the boat. Anyway, enough woo stuff. What is what is precious coral, Simon?

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Well, like we said, it's the spit of a polyp, and actually, strictly speaking, it's not coral spot polyp spit, it's actually calcium carbonate, so calcite with an organic origin, as we said. Typically in coral, this calcite takes the form of aragonite, which is a denser, more needle-like version of calcite.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

They're relatively small and they kind of branch. They look like little red trees. You may have seen them. Um, and these aren't the corals that you would see in a coral reef. You probably have, if you've been to wards, it's at the back, probably seen it on your grandma's necklace. Um, those kind of pink, red branch like don't you think they look like kind of dead trees?

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Yeah, they do, like tiny little like red trees trees. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

So literally that's what it looks like when you pull it out of the ocean, you haven't faceted it.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

I'd sort of imagine like these big coral reefs for the coral itself to be a bit bigger than that though. Whereas these things are like, you know, tiny little things that you I think those are a different species of polyp, you see. I see. Okay. So I see in the sea.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

I could be lying to you, but I don't think so. I think I'm right about that. Like I don't think you can get precious coral from the Great Barrier Reef or anything. Gotcha.

unknown 21:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

That's bigger coral. Bigger bigger polyps, bigger coral.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Exactly. More friendly, more social.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Okay, so we can wear it without really doing much to it, but also we can do stuff to it and make it Sort of roundy and capochony.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Yes. Tell me more.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Well, that basically.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

We identify it, Simon, if we're not looking at a branch.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Okay, fine. So Coral has a actually it's actually got some quite key identifying features. One of which being it has like fine ridges going along the branches themselves. They run along the the length of the branches. So almost like a tree, yeah? Like trees have ridges going up them, don't they? So think of your mini tree and you're getting a good picture of of what coral looks like. It's just sort of more red and pink. Um and then in the cross section, which is actually one of the key things to identify coral versus its imitators, is a sort of concentric spider web type pattern. And it kind of like radiates out. And if you have a cabochon of coral, if you like, or something that you suspect to be coral, then what you're going to want to do is shine a light at it through it. And if you can see the spider web structure, then you're pretty much looking at actual coral rather than something imitating coral, because it's pretty hard to imitate that specific thing which happens in nature with plastic or glass or other things that you might use to imitate coral.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

As with so much, it's the underlying structure, you know, the material telling you the story of how it was made that's going to set it apart from synthetics and imitations.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

So in your exam, you're probably going to see like a stick of coral that hasn't been hasn't been fashioned and like you're more or less going to be alright with that because you're going to look for the ridges, you're going to look for the spider web texture.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

But one thing you do want to make sure that you're also looking at, no matter how much of a slam dunk you think it is, that you're looking at natural coral, look for staining or dyeing, especially if the coral is red or pink. That's the most valuable type. And it's very common to have coral that is stained or dyed. So common, in fact, that if your coral is truly untreated, it will carry quite a hefty premium. If you deal in coral at all, if you're interested in coral, if you want to go buy coral, it's worth having a look and getting familiar with how that dye takes to this material.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

So when we're looking for staining or dyeing in materials, we're looking for concentrations of colour sort of on the surface under magnification, shining light through it. You want to see it's going to be a bit more even if it's natural, whereas you're going to see areas where the dye's gone in and areas where obviously it's just closed surface where it hasn't gone in.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Exactly. Now, coral type number two, the creepiest, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Definitely. This is the one with the misleading name. Yeah. Yes. It's not so.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Simon, tell me about soft coral.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

So soft coral, I believe, gets its name due to the fact that it looks like a sponge. Now a sponge is generally pretty soft. Soft coral, on the other hand, is hard.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

And it's kind of it's quite holy. Like if you have that fear of symmetrical holes, this is definitely not one for you. Like I've I feel afraid when I look at soft coral through the microscope that like something's going to be blinking back at me from the It's like a sea sponge, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 25:09

It's got that sort of same sort of thing, although a sea sponge is soft.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Now this is a hard sea sponge.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

It's a hard, scary sea sponge, but apparently it is soft in comparison to other corals. So hard coral is what's building the skeletons that make reefs happen. And so when it's like when it's vibing, it's kind of like leathery. Everything about it just gives me the fucking ick.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

So this is normal coral. And then soft coral is like yeah. So there was when it's like in the sea and alive, it's soft. Is that what we're saying?

SPEAKER_00 25:42

It's yes, like leather.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

And when it's dead, that's when it sort of hardens up, like it's gone off. Cursed, cursed coral would be a better name for it, I think.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

These guys are also brittle AF, and they're more porous than your standard coral. I mean, those holes are like right there.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Okay, so bigger, bigger holes, more brittle, more spongy, less branchy.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Same kind of colour. Verbatim.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Same colourways though. We're talking oranges, reds, sometimes yellow or brown veins, equally unappealing. And it's almost always resin impregnated because it doesn't want to fucking be here. Okay. It wants to be under the ocean. So if it's not resin impregnated, it's just gonna fall apart. And you can figure this out by just spotting a shiny surface. If you're lucky, there will be bubbles in the pores. I mean, the whole thing just makes me unwell.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

So what are the other types? We call fossilized coral. I see.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

I love this one.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

I love this one. Tell us why you like it.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Well, we've heard about pseudomorphs briefly, and I'm sure we'll touch on them in much greater detail in another episode. But this is essentially something like tiger's eye, where one thing is replaced by something else entirely, and that becomes a gem material all its own. So we're thinking tiger eye, we're thinking opalized fossils. The same thing happens to coral. So when coral is fossilized and replaced by quartz or calcite, this is the material that you get.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

And it has similar colours to um to coral in some ways, perhaps. It can also come in brown, you know, everyone's favorite gemstone colour.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

You're really talking like me today, Simon.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Sorry. But if you look close closely at fossilized coral, you can see the sort of original coral structure, much like you can with like your tiger's eyes and things, you can see where the um asbestos fibers were and things like that. Um so yeah, look look for that, the coral structure, but it's not going to be coral, it's gonna be something else which is taking the place of coral. So that's gonna be a sort of indicator, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Do you guys have sand dollars here, Simon, in this country?

SPEAKER_02 27:51

So when I read about sand dollars, uh sand dollar is like those sort of disky things with like a little star in the center. Stegosaurus. And no?

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Looks like a stegosaurus. It looks kind of like a sugar cookie, but it's got a little heart or a little like flower in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

And it's like a shell.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Okay. Yeah. Fossilized coral looks a lot like that. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

And typically, as with all corals, you're gonna see them as cabochons or beads, but you can also spot them in ornamental limestone.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Oh right.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Oh no, interesting. Last but not least, in fact, I would say it's actually my favorite, I think. Is it? Alright, tell me about it.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

So it's my favorite, purely because of some of the words that you can say when you're describing it. So this is black and or gold coral. So you've written here, this is not black and golden coral, LSenti Santigold.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Do you know that song?

SPEAKER_02 28:43

Is it black and gold? No? Am I just gonna be a little bit more? There was a song called Black and Gold.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

There was a song called Black and Gold, but I'm thinking of a different song.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Right. I quite liked Santi Gold. I've seen them a couple of times.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Had a major moment in the early 2000s when we were young.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Yeah, they did. RIPR. So black and gold coral isn't made of calcium carbonate like precious coral or soft coral. Instead, black and gold coral are conchulin, which is the same thing that you find in pearls, which is what holds the aragonite together in pearls. Comes from the sea, you get aragonite, calcite, you get calcitic seas, aragonitic C's. So it's all to do with the C calcium carbonate in the sea. Anyway, so the thing I the thing I like about black and gold coral is that when you're looking at it, again, like a tree, the cross section of the branch, so it still grows here, it still has these like branchy branches, as it were. In the cross section, you see sort of concentric rings, like the growth rings of a tree. I don't know if you can count the rings and tell how old it is, probably not, like you can with a tree, but it has that, and it also has subsurface pimpling. So a subsurface pimpling. Now I I didn't really understand what a subsurface pimple was, but it's I suppose a subsurface pimple is a pimple that is within the so i.e not on top. It's within and sort of like raising up the outer layer of the thing itself. Um so it's like a lump and a bump, which is kind of the same colour and texture of the thing that it's lumping and bumping. Exactly. Subsurface pimples, brilliant stuff.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

And once you see them once, you'll recognise them instantly, these subsurface pimples. Very distinctive.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

The really gnarly thing though about black and gold coral is that gold coral doesn't actually exist.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

It does, but it's it's not very common.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

Okay, but like 99% of the time, gold coral is black coral, which you've done the thing that you're never allowed to do with coral is bloody bleach it. So you can you can't get chemicals anywhere near coral. But sometimes if you do, it turns it gold. And it turns it gold. Like what? I love gems. Like, how in the hell does that make any sense? Do not bleach this stuff, it's very susceptible, it will damage. Unless it's black, then we can make it gold. Like fucking alchemy.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Imagine all the trial and error that went into that discovery, though.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

Yeah, you'd fuck loads of coral up, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Although, do you know what I think probably happened is it was sun bleached. Did I make I mean, is that even possible? Let us know in the comments.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

I feel like I'm going out on a lot of limbs here today. Get called out. Don't at me.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

That's definitely why it's my favorite, because like you can make it gold by bleaching it. Sick.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

It's an utterly bizarre material, but it is also important to note that it's not found in the same localities as precious coral, which as we said is found mostly in the sea south of Japan. If you're looking for black or golden coral, you're thinking the West Indies, Australia, the Hawaiian Islands. Um, the Gemma notes do say that there are incredibly strict controls operating in these localities now, and coral fishing is banned in Australia full stop. So if you were quitting your job to start a new life as an Australian coral fisher, this is our official warning to you not to do that. We do not endorse that behavior.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

No, don't go swimming down, fishing the coral.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

Illegal. Very so those are the four types of coral that you need to know. If you're a real coral head, uh, there are also some interesting museums that you can check out around the Naples area, one of which is actually invite only. And I think Craig told us that the Queen got told she couldn't go.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Oh, I do remember now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

When we were doing our little pre-show confab, Simon was like, What are you fucking talking about? But now you remember.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

She was like, I would like to go to the coral museum. And they were like, No, fuck off.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

I think it might be the Livellino Coral Museum, but it could be another one. But basically, almost all of them.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

I bet there's some pretty serious stuff in there, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Oh yeah. I mean, there's like three coral museums in the Naples Italian area, and apparently all of them are pretty legit.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

So how is it that like Italy seems to be a big player in the coral industry so long ago, but now there's no coral there? Could they s could they dredged it all and fucked it all up?

SPEAKER_00 33:16

I imagine so.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Shame, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

I know. But that's just the way that we do things, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 33:21

It really is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

Let's Google it. Why is there no precious coral in Italy?

SPEAKER_02 33:30

In Italy.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

It's highly endangered. Oh, so we can't do it. We suck. It literally yeah, it's historical overfish. It's all the answer is always historical overfishing.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

We suck. Yeah. But not to end this on a bad note, guys, coral is beautiful. We hope that you enjoy it. Have you seen any good coral on the garden lately? I've almost I feel like I very rarely see it.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

No, we've got maybe a nice pair of coral earrings. Like I said, I really like it. I would like, yeah. Like it if you have a coral necklace. Someone that wore earrings, I would have like some sort of coral earrings, I think, with like a knotted gold outer. Like some big things, you know, like a sort of eighties style jobies.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Yeah, why don't you get like a coral beaded necklace?

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

I could make you one. It would be so cunty.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

I would probably look a bit of a dick wearing that don't.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

Think about it. Everybody at home, let us know. Do you like coral? Have you even seen coral? Does your grandma wear coral? Is your grandma called coral?

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Your grandma might be called coral your own. Please let us know if your grandma's called coral.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

We'll send you something. It's a sticker.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

On that note, that's all the notes that I have on coral. Simon, anything that has occurred to you or notes?

SPEAKER_02 34:44

No, not really. I I enjoyed that. It was um yeah, I learned some things. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

My pleasure. Any news and views for the podcast community today?

SPEAKER_02 34:54

I don't have anything new really to tell you about. I've got something brewing that I'm gonna reveal when I get better at it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

It's very exciting.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

We'll talk about that once I'm a bit more proficient.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

I think there's a whole episode that we can devote to your journey through this thing.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

Okay, we'll see how we get on.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Let us know, guys, if that's something that you want to hear, Simon's mysterious journey. But in the meantime, thank you as always for joining us. It's such a pleasure. You can reach us on Instagram anytime. Or Facet Nation at Facet NationGemology.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

Yes, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

On Instagram and on TikTok. Come and join us on TikTok, guys. And uh if you hate social media, you can drop us an email. Simon, what's the email?

SPEAKER_02 35:36

FacetNation at fascination.co.u Wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Have a gorgeous week, guys. We will see you next Monday with another colour episode.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

We're going to be tackling sort of physical optics, so like play of colour and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Very exciting. I've been thinking about oatballs a lot, so this will be fun.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Okay, yeah, good. This is quite a yeah, quite a good one, I think. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Well, have a great week, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Yes, thanks very much for listening and adios.