Fish Scale Beauty and Jewelry


If you like fishing or simply cooking fish, you may discover that fish scales have a very natural beauty. They are silvery shiny, sometimes with touches of pink or purple, or brown. Simply lovely. They remind you of beautiful sea shores, of sitting on a beach early in the morning to wait for the breathtaking sunrise. They can really look like very fine pieces of jewelry. So, why not make yourself some adornments out of them? You can make full use of your imagination. If you don't have enough patience or aren't a big fan of such time-consuming works, you can find plenty of such sea treasures to buy on the internet, or from jewelry stores. The idea is that many people before us, for centuries, have been using fish scales to make pretty things. We all want a piece of the amazing nature in our dwelling places. Why not? "A thing of beauty is a joy forever", as the poet William Wordsworth once put it.

By its unique appearance, fish scale jewelry has gained a special place among other jewelry styles and materials. Although as far as prices are concerned, fish scales cannot be compared to diamonds, gold, or precious stones, it still becomes evermore popular each day.

The interesting colors of the scale fish can either be part of their structure, or be in fact the color of the fish's inner skin. Throughout history, fish scales have been used decoratively in two ways: directly applied to create ornaments, still after being dyed or painted, or indirectly, as an ingredient for the so-called "essence d'orient", which is known to function as pearl stimulant. Yet, only some of the fish scale are chosen for the "essence d'orient", chiefly those which have a special color, iridescence, glow, etc.

Fish scales are considered to be "large enough to be used for junk jewelry" (by authors like Collette & Facey Helfman). Nevertheless, there is a College in Canada, for instance, the Red Deer College in Alberta, which has a course entitled "Mixing beads & Fishscale Art": "Fish scale art is unique to this region and has been developed to create jewelry [sic] and as art suitable for framing. The intricate arranging of these natural elements creates various artistic designs on any surface. Students will learn the History, the Art, the Techniques of applying beads and dyed white fish scales to a leather or velvet background ready for framing. They will learn to process the white fish scales, such as scale removal, cleaning, dying, trimming and preparing background surfaces like leather and velvet. The basic six beadwork stitches will be taught to incorporate the art pieces. Students are expected to complete a pair of earrings, a lapel pin and two 5x7 works of art in the one week session." (Red Deer, 2006)

As to their more "noble" use, the beautifully named "essence d'orient" is generally made from herring fish scales. After having prepared the "magic potion", beads made of shell, glass and ceramics are taken and covered in the essence d'orient. This coating, due also to its ingredient called guanine, gives the pearls their special iridescent appearance. This property of the fish scales apparently has been noticed in the 1600s, by a Frenchmen named Jaquin, coroner of Passy, who discovered that some fish used to give the water some special iridescence after being scaled. From this observation, he later on made the substance which is now worldwide known as "essence d'orient." He would fill the interior of some small glass spheres with this newly-invented product, and the result looked so grand that he could commercialize it. They gained the name of 'Parisian pearls or French pearls'." (Rollandi, 2004).

Together with the appearance of the "Essence d'orient" also came up the pigments having that special pearl luster. The tincture created by Jaquin, possessing that silvery shimmer, contained what was later on called "natural fish silver." There are also some cosmetic products, like lipsticks or other shimmery makeup, that include in their composition the essence d'orient. Apart from lipsticks, there also are cosmetics like hydrating creams, hand creams, cleansing milk and gels, creams for sensitive skin and complexion, and many more.

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