Silver ring with nest bezel and oval amethyst with shaded purple

How it is made

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

01

Lost-wax casting

The model is built in wax, coated in investment plaster and then heated until the wax runs out: what is left is a void of the exact shape, and molten silver is poured into that void. To get the piece out the mold has to be broken, so every casting consumes both the wax and the mold, and the model it started from no longer exists. It is the way to get what the piercing saw and the file would not do — ribbons that overlap, undercuts, voids closed on every side — but if the metal does not reach the end of a thin branch the piece comes out incomplete, and it cannot be mended: it is melted down and started again from the wax.

02

Nest setting

The setting is not a ring of metal closed around the stone: it is a shallow leaf-shaped cup, and over it pass round silver wires that cross and wind like the branches of a nest. The stone does not rest on the bottom — it stands raised on eight claws in pairs, and air is left beneath it. The bottom of the cup is therefore visible all round the gem, and it is the part that forgives least: it stays matt and in full view, so every mark of a file or a slipped tool stays on it, and to take it off you would have to remove metal exactly where the cup is thinnest.

03

Open adjustable shank

The circle is not closed: the two ends of the band overlap at the side and slide over one another, so the ring widens or narrows on the finger without going back to the studio. The convenience has a precise limit: bent silver work-hardens, that is, it hardens exactly where it has worked, and beyond a certain number of openings it cracks instead of giving. It is settled with the fingers once, on the right finger, and from then on it is left alone.

04

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.

05

Amethyst

Amethyst is purple quartz, and the purple does not come from a pigment: it comes from a few iron atoms that ended up in the lattice in place of silicon and were then struck by the natural radiation of the rock. That is why the color is almost never spread evenly — it arranges itself in zones and bands, deeper on one side and lighter on the other — and orienting the stone properly under the lap is exactly what serves to distribute it. It is as hard as citrine, the seventh degree, and it is worn every day with no care about scratches; but that purple is the most delicate thing it has. Strong continuous light fades it, and heat wipes it out completely: an amethyst heated enough turns yellow, and that is how a good part of the citrine on the market comes about. Purple once lost does not come back.