Stones: Blue Agate

We finally publish again in our blog after more than a month.

As we promised, we are going to check out closer all the stones varieties that you can find in our stores, and in this publication we will talk about Blue Agate in particular.
Blue Agate, classified as a semiprecious stone, is a quartz sub-variety and appears with concentric strips which alternate blue and white colours. Its beauty and attraction depend on the blue colour intensity and abundance. It is born in volcanic rocks when there are hot silica filtrations. The various filtrations, that can have different silica concentration, form the different colour layers. When filtrations are very slow, in the stone’s central part very evident microcrystals can be formed, meanwhile if they are very fast, that crystals will be microscopic.

The Corals - The reason for their colors

Welcome to the post nº5 of El Coral blog, in which we will continue to talk about coral.

Coral, corallo in Italian, can have a great variety of colours, as we said in the last post, now I am going to explain why.
The same as people, coral has cells that protect theirselves from sun intensity and UV-radiation, in relation to this its colour and tone will be different. It depends of which pigment take on their own tissue or to the algae one that live in symbiosis with them, it can change in each case due to the enormous diversity of corals.

Algae determine where corals are located, so they are very important. Corals which live in symbiosis with them need the algae for being nourished and live (and vice versa) and tend to be placed in clear shallow-water for receive the sunlight. However other corals that don’t require algae for survive can inhabit until 3000 metres depth.


In this way, as we told in the last post, coral can have many colours, from red (the most common and wanted), to pink, orange, yellow, white, blue, violet, green, brown and black. Occasionally this may can change and some people think that happens when coral dies. Well, even though this is true, it isn’t a general rule.
Sometimes coral can change the colour because it is getting used to the ultraviolet light intensity and its pigments, just as ours, adapt to this. So coral is able to satisfy nutritional and protective necessities of its colony.

And for the moment we have already talk enough about coral, but maybe it will appear new curiosities.

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We wait for you on our next post and don’t forget to have a look to our jewels!

There is no only Corals in stores El Coral

Welcome to the post nº4 of the blog of El Coral, in which we will talk about precious and semiprecious stones.

Our brand name is ‘El Coral’, however, in our shops we have not only corals. We work and sell all kind of stones, too. Our speciality are the semiprecious stones. In this publication of our blog we want to explain a little the differences between precious and semiprecious stones and start to introduce some of them.
Distinction between precious stones and semiprecious stones is fairly recent, considering that it take place at the 19th century.

The most well-known precious stones are, without a doubt, Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire and Esmerald.

On the other hand, the semiprecious stones list would be very long, so we will only mention some: Aquamarine, Amazonite, Aventurine, Citrine, Carnelian, Jasper, Fluorite, Jade, Lapis lazuli, Tiger’s eye, Olivine, Opal, Moonstone, Sodalite, Turquoise, etcetera, etcetera.

Amethyst was classified at first as a precious stone, but its category changes, almost at the same time of this classification’s creation, when a huge deposit of this mineral was discovered in Brazil and Uruguay.

Stones’ preciousness is established by their purity, colour intensity and the difficulty of finding them. When it’s more difficult to find a stone over the world, its preciousness is higher. On the contrary, if the stone is more present in nature, its value is lower, becoming then into semiprecious, as in case of amethyst.
However, distinction between precious and semiprecious stones may cannot be reflected exactly in the same way when it’s time to determine their commercial value. In fact, a precious stone with lowest purity level or with an obvious imperfection can arrive at cost much less comparing it to a semiprecious one whom colour is similar. Likewise, the work of the stone’s cut can provide it with a big commercial value, although the stone is classified as a semiprecious. Weight and size also count to establish each piece’s price, as well as goldsmith’s command who embed them into a jewel can make it more or less valuable, so it not depends only of the used stone kind.
Inside all that speech about distinction between precious and semiprecious stones according to their ability of being found over the world, diamonds deserve another discourse aside. We will talk about this matter on future publications.

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We are waiting for you in the next post and ... do not forget to take a look at our jewels!

EL CORAL - Properties and colors

Welcome to the post nº3 of El Coral blog, in which we will talk about coral.

Coral, corallo in Italian, is considered the jewel of the seas; from Ancient Ages it has been used to fill necklaces, bracelets and rings. Also it has been utilised in crowns, armours and weapons, and not always with an aesthetic purpose, but esoteric too. There is a general belief that red coral, the most famous and commercial of the world, is a protection and good luck bearer. So it doesn’t look so ridiculous having a coral piece into your heavy armour when you go to the battle, what wrong could happen calling the luck?
But what is coral actually? It is easy to confuse with a plant because of its appearance, and when someone talks about coral reefs you may can think about sea forests. But coral is not a plant, is an animal.

In fact, it is a group of multicellular and individual organisms named polyps. They usually grow on top of each other creating a colony which is called coral. This term comprehends thousands of species, each one with its own characteristics and peculiarities, but there are two big factions: hard and soft.
Hard coral is the one with calcareous skeleton; when polyp dies it leaves their rests that will be a basis for new polyps in future, these are which constitute the reefs.
Soft coral, however, is made by a skeleton that become disintegrated when die, so it doesn’t be a part of the reefs.
In our shop you can find red corals from Mediterranean sea and white ones from Pacific Ocean, both are included into hard coral category. This has been always the most wanted because is the one which works best and the most attractive. Finally, another datum, do you know that coral has many colours?

They can be red, pink, orange, yellow, white, blue, violet, green, brown and black.
Well this is it, now if you talk about coral, you will can do it informed.
We wait for you on our next post and don’t forget to have a look to our jewels.