The silver corolla seen from above, the round peridot at the centre of the blackened ground

Collection Fiore d'Inverno·Anello

Blackened silver Fiore d'Inverno ring with peridot

Twelve and a half grams of silver, with the corolla blackened inside so the green lifts off it

€180,00 AA104per

Drawn and built by hand at the bench, in Tosi.

A silver corolla hollowed from a single sheet, the rim left wavy and polished. Inside it is black: the cup is sandblasted and then blackened, and the grooves running out from the center stay dark inside it, one beside the next. In the middle, in a round polished setting, a faceted peridot of a green with yellow inside it. The shank is a single band, hammered to an irregular surface; behind, the back of the flower is left raw, carries the silver hallmark, and the setting is pierced at the base, so that looking inside the ring you see the point of the stone.

Twelve and a half grams of 925 silver, exactly one gram more than its brother with the green-enameled corolla: there the color is put in by glass, here by the black left in the recesses after the cloth has polished back the raised work. The peridot is the delicate part of the piece — it sits lower than the quartzes on the hardness scale — and in a closed setting it has to be settled by pressing a little at a time. The studio states neither the carat weight of the stone nor the diameter of the flower.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

12,50 gramsSilver 925‰
Metals
Silver 925‰
Finish
Sandblasted and blackened inside, polished rim
Technique
Made entirely by hand in the company's goldsmith's studio.

The stones

Peridot

At the center of the corolla

Cut
Round faceted
Note
Natural peridot, in a closed setting pierced at the back. Carat weight not stated
Three-quarter view from above: the polished wavy rim and the grooves running from the centre
The flower among dry branches, the polished bezel tight around the green stone
Close side view: the hollowed cup and the shank running down
The ring resting on the branches, the corolla seen foreshortened
Three-quarter view from the side: the thickness of the cup and the shank with its beaten surface
Front view with the ring standing: how far the flower projects from the finger
Side profile, the whole silver shank with its irregular texture
The back: the silver hallmark, the raw ground of the corolla and the pierced bezel that lets the stone be seen
The ring worn: the corolla covers the phalanx

How it is made

The words of the trade, one by one, explained to those who do not know them.

Corolla from a single sheet
The corolla is not an assembly of petals: it is a single sheet, hollowed into a shallow cup and left irregular at the rim, with the folds running out from the center. The wavy rim is not corrected twice — silver once stretched does not come back — so the first fold is the one that stays. In the middle of the cup is the one point that has to stay flat: it is the seat of the stone, and if the cup has moved there the setting will not sit.
Sandblasting
A jet of very fine sand takes the shine off the metal and makes it velvety to the touch. Here it is used on the inside, against the rim left polished.
Oxidizing
The silver is darkened on purpose, and then polished back only where the light has to return. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the light on the raised work: it is a drawing made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.
Hammering
The shank is hammered until the surface takes on an irregular texture. No blow is the same as the one before, so no ring is the same as another.
Peridot
Peridot is olivine, and its green does not come from a treatment: it is iron, in the crystal since it formed. That is why the color does not depend on how you turn it — it has no good axis and no bad one — and it stays that green with a yellow note in it that no other gem repeats exactly. The difficulty is in setting it: at between six and a half and seven on the hardness scale it is softer than the quartzes, it fears acids and sudden changes of temperature, and it almost always has inclusions that the heat of friction can open. It is polished wet and with frequent stops, and the setting is closed by pressing a little at a time: the force that settles a quartz is already too much for a peridot.

I don't look at what others are doing: I would rather create in my own style. That is what makes our jewelry recognizable.

Fabio Gori — Anna Gioielli, Tosi

Made for you

Every ring is made to the size of the person who will wear it: we settle it together before work begins.

The goldsmith's workshop is also the place where made-to-measure jewellery is created and family pieces are restored: if you have an idea, or something you want brought back to how it was, that is where it starts.

Ask for a made-to-measure piece
Made by
Anna Gioielli

A goldsmith's workshop in Tosi, on the slopes of the Pratomagno: Anna opened it in 1988, her sons Fabio and Francesco carry it on. Piercing, repoussé, chasing and burin engraving — the Florentine school, with the workshop in full view of the shop.

All the creations by Anna Gioielli

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