The necklace laid out: the four light strands and the frog clasp worn to one side

Collection Creazioni in Argento·Collana

Four-strand labradorite and onyx necklace with oxidized silver frog clasp

Name: Four-strand labradorite and onyx necklace with oxidized silver frog clasp
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: CA127
Price: 480.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Four strands of labradorite that catch blue at certain angles, and an oxidized silver frog holding them all.

€480,00 CA127

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

Four strands of pale beads, barely faceted, falling one longer than the next. The beads are labradorite, white and translucent, and turning them some catch a blue that lies beneath the surface and then disappears; between one group and the next runs a small bead of black onyx, round and polished, which keeps the rhythm and sets off the white. The strands do not close at the nape: they gather at one side, inside two fanned silver cones engraved with lines, and between the two cones sits a frog. It is seen from above, legs open, its back covered in raised bubbles, the silver oxidized black in the recesses and re-polished on the humps. It has two round red stones on its head and a third, larger, in the setting beneath its belly, where the lower cone hooks on.

Eleven and a half grams of silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths, and fifty-seven centimeters measured on the inner strand: the other three are progressively longer, and that is why the strands open in steps across the chest instead of overlapping. Four stones are declared: labradorite and black onyx on the strands, one natural ruby and two garnets on the clasp — which of the three red stones is the ruby the company does not write, and we do not decide it. No carat weight is declared. The blue flash of labradorite is not a color: it is light bouncing between the inner layers of the crystal, it is seen from one side only and disappears if the bead is turned the wrong way — across four strands that means orienting every bead like the others, one at a time.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

11,50 gramsSilver 925‰

Metals: Silver 925‰
Dimensions: Length 57 cm measured on the inner edge
Technique: Made entirely by hand in the company's goldsmith's studio: the four strands strung one at a time and gathered into the two fanned cones, the frog clasp in silver, oxidized and re-polished on the raised work, the stones of the clasp set by hand.

The stones

Labradorite

The pale beads of the four strands

Cut: Faceted rondelles
Note: Natural stone; carat weight not declared

Black onyx

Round beads between one group of beads and the next, on all four strands

Cut: Smooth sphere
Note: Natural stone; carat weight not declared

Ruby

On the frog clasp

Note: One stone, declared natural by the company; which of the three red stones on the frog it is has not been declared

Garnet

On the frog clasp

Note: Two stones declared by the company; carat weight not declared

Close-up of the frog: the bubbled back, the open legs and the red stone in the bezel

The two engraved fan-shaped cones that gather the four strands above and below the frog

The clasp seen at an angle, with the hook that joins the frog to the upper cone

The necklace on a dark background, where the light blue flash of the beads reads better

Overall view with the strands opened out in a fan and the small onyx balls at intervals

The four strands at increasing lengths, with the inner strand the shortest

How it is made

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

Labradorescence: The blue flash of labradorite is not the color of the stone: it lies beneath the surface. The crystal grew in microscopic stacked layers, and the light entering splits between one layer and the next and comes back out a single color — blue, green, gold — according to how thick those layers are. That is why the flash lives on one plane only: it lights up when the stone is turned the right way and goes out when it is turned the wrong way. Whoever cuts and whoever strings therefore decides whether it will be seen, because the plane of the layers has to stay parallel to the surface of the bead; and on a multi-strand necklace every bead has to be oriented like the others, or the strand lights up in patches instead of all at once.
Stringing by hand: The stones are strung one at a time, and the thread that holds them has to carry the weight of them all. The holes never fall exactly at the center of the bead: whoever strings them decides which side to go in, because a bead turned the wrong way makes a step and the thread runs crooked. The last operation is the knot, and it has to be closed with the thread already under tension: slightly loose and the necklace bellies, slightly over-tightened and it stops falling.
Load-bearing clasp: On a multi-strand necklace the clasp does not only close: it gathers. All the ends finish there, wound one at a time onto rings soldered at the back, and from those rings the weight of the whole necklace passes to the hook. That is why the clasp sits at one side and not behind the nape: it is the part that is seen, and at the same time the only one that can give. The hook has to open with one finger and not open by itself, and between those two things there is nothing but the precision with which it is bent.
Oxidizing: The silver is darkened deliberately, and then re-polished only where the light has to come back. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the pale on the raised work: it is a design made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.
Ruby: Ruby is corundum: the same mineral species as sapphire, and between the two all that changes is the impurity shut in the lattice. The red is made by chromium, and the same chromium that gives the color makes the stone fluorescent and, in a high dose, makes it grow with more fractures: that is why a large, clear ruby is as rare as a large diamond. In hardness it sits at the ninth degree, just below diamond, and it does not fear scratches; but where the fractures have been filled with glass or resin it fears heat, and whoever mounts it closes the setting cold and keeps the flame away from the seat.

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.

All the creations by Anna Gioielli