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$3.79

gbc002
[gbc002]

Beautiful dark BLUE CORAL Heishi Beads. Wonderful dark blue denim color. These beads look wonderful in combination with red coral, carnelian, turquoise and lapiz, as well as being beautiful just by themselves.

Currently, however, blue coral is becoming rare and hard to find in the bead trade since coral collection and mining was banned worldwide in 1992. Also the United States currently has an import ban on corals from the Philippines.

Blue coral is Heliopora coerulea - the only species in its genus, and one of two genera in the family. It is not a true stony coral, but more related to the soft corals except it secretes its supporting skeletal spicules "inside out" and is known for its ability to strip the water of iron and oxidize it into a blue salt which is deposited in the skeleton. It is mostly equatorial, and part of a group of corals that long ago thrived when ocean waters were warmer.