The necklace closed in a ring on a neck display: the sequence of colours repeats, dark red, light blue, lemon yellow

Collection Creazioni in Argento·Collana·Hammered links

Silver choker necklace with tourmalines, citrine quartz and blue topazes

Fifty-five grams of silver, and every stone is also a link in the chain.

€1.460,00 CA101AG

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

Oval stones with a smooth dome, each closed in its own silver tray, and between them hammer-beaten bars and round links. The colors come back in the same order: dark red, blue, lemon yellow, and then from the start again. Not one stone is faceted — they are all cabochons, and the light goes into them instead of bouncing off the surface.

Fifty-five grams of silver 925, and fifty centimeters and seven millimeters of length: it is a collar, it sits at the base of the neck and does not fall onto the chest. The stones are tourmalines, citrine quartzes and blue topazes, and the studio does not state their carat weight. The hammer is not a finish given at the end: a beaten surface holds the light even where polished silver would lose it, and every setting is at the same time a link carrying the weight of all the others.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

55.00 gramsSilver 925‰
Metals
Silver 925‰
Style
Hammered links
Dimensions
Overall length 50.7 cm
Technique
Made entirely by hand in the company's goldsmith's studio.

The stones

Tourmaline

Dark red cabochon, repeated along the chain

Cut
Oval cabochon
Note
Carat weight not stated

Citrine quartz

Lemon yellow cabochon, alternating with the other two colors

Cut
Oval cabochon
Note
Carat weight not stated

Blue topaz

Pale blue cabochon, alternating with the other two colors

Cut
Oval cabochon
Note
Carat weight not stated
The necklace laid flat on linen cloth, overall view of the links and the oval bezels
The lobster clasp, hammered like the rest of the chain, between a light blue cabochon and a yellow one
Close-up of three consecutive links: light blue cabochon, hammered bar between two rings, yellow cabochon
A light blue cabochon close up: the dome is polished without facets and the closed bezel holds it all around the edge
A yellow cabochon and the hammered bar that connects it to the next ring

How it is made

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

Hammered links
The hammer adds nothing: it flattens. Every blow spreads the metal a little and leaves a hollow that sends the light back on its own account, and that is why a beaten surface never goes as dead as a mirror-polished one. But silver that is beaten work-hardens, and past a certain point it cracks instead of giving: you beat it, you heat it to soften it, you beat it again. Whoever holds the hammer has to stop while the piece is still sound, because a crack in silver does not close again.
Cabochon cut
No facets: the stone is shaped and polished to a continuous dome. It is not the easiest cut, it is the cut that hides least — on a smooth surface every undulation reads with the naked eye, while among facets it is lost. And the light does not come back as sparks: it enters, crosses the depth and rises again carrying the color with it, so what you look at is the color and not the fire.
The setting as a link
Here the setting is not hung from a chain: it is the chain. Every stone is closed in a silver tray from which two lugs come out, and it is those that carry the neighboring links. The weight of the whole necklace therefore passes through the seats of the stones: if a lug is soldered short or out of line it is not just any link that gives way, the circle of the neck opens.

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 piece leaves the bench made to order: sizes and details are agreed before the 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.