bluediamondrings

It must be noted that this way of artificiallly stimulating oysters was discovered by the Chinese as far back as the 13th century. They placed tiny carvings of Buddha inside the oyster, these were subsequently covered with nacre, and transformed into miniature mother-of-pearl ornaments.
Coral is basically the secretion from a tiny sea-creature called polyp. It uses this calcium carbonate substance to make a communal dwelling on the sea-bed, rather like scaffolding, thus providing an anchor for this boneless-type of animal whose primitive nature could be said to resemble a miniature form of sea-anemone.
Like the pearl, coral is a product of the sea. It has been dredged from the depths -for centuries. It is thought that coral jewellery was first worn in Hellenistic Greece. The main source of this gem used to be the Mediterranean coast of Italy where Naples was the centre for the craft of coral carving. Today most of it comes from Japan and from the waters of the Mediterranean along the African and European coasts.