| Original Message: Re: Fossil Coral - The New Stuff |
|---|
|
Today, on the Net, I have read that Indonesian fossil coral is now being "heat-treated" to enhance its color. What the process and result may be is not stated. Last year, while I was in Italy, I saw (in a shop window) a group of new silver jewelry items set with Indonesian (?) fossil coral, that had obviously been color-enhanced, and made red. I think this is nothing more than an inevitability, if only because lots of coral is now dyed red (particularly from China), and people EXPECT coral to be red. Unfortunately, I didn't return to photograph these pieces. I assumed that I would see this new stuff this year, at Tucson, though I must have missed it. Thankfully, while I was at The Bead Museum this past week, I found the store buyer had acquired a nice selection of this material—and I eagerly bought several pieces. I'll show what I acquired. The photo we see here shows all of the pieces I bought, that I'll post in detail next. What I want you to notice is that the naturally-buff material has been color-enhanced to become red. Since the material is agate (and no longer coral), we can assume it has not been dyed, but rather is a beizen product (colored with elemental liquids, copying the processes of nature). This has been a specialty of the gem industry at Idar-Oberstein, Germany for over 100 years, and was transferred to China about fifteen years ago. So, just as most carnelian is manufactured, and a speciality of India and Germany, the process is now used extensively in China to manufacture carnelian. But its application for fossil coral is entirely new in the present marketplace. Fundamentally, the Chinese are now MAKING fossil-coral carnelian. JDA. All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
|
|