Freshwater pearl
One per earring, at the heart of the calla, in place of the pistil
- Cut
- Not cut
- Note
- Round and white, diameter 7.90 mm; the company does not state whether they are cultured or natural, and the carat weight is not stated
Collection Creazioni in Argento·Orecchini
Cala lily silver earrings with a freshwater pearl in the heart of the flower
Forty-eight millimeters from the tip of the hook to the tip of the flower, and the pearl sits where a real calla has its pistil.
€200,00
OL1103
Drawn and built by hand at the bench, in Tosi.
Each earring is a single calla. The spathe is a cone of rolled silver sheet, wide at the bottom and drawn to a point at the top, and inside it run close parallel veins that start at the bottom and open towards the edge. The bottom of the cone is oxidized almost to black; the edge that closes it and the stem have been re-polished, so the flower reads as a bright silhouette around a dark void. Where the real flower would have its pistil there is a white pearl, round, resting where the spathe widens: it is the only bright thing inside the black, and the black is what lets you see it. From the top of the calla the stem carries on upwards, thins and bends into a hook earwire.
Forty-eight millimeters from the tip of the hook to the tip of the flower, and the pearls measure seven millimeters and ninety across. On the weight of the silver the company contradicts itself: in the description of the piece it writes nine grams, in the list of materials twelve and fifty, and we report the figure written on the piece without choosing one in their place. Nowhere is it written whether the pearls are cultured or natural, and we do not write it. What does hold for all of them: they are calcium carbonate held together by an organic substance, they sit at about the third degree of hardness and they dissolve in acids, so they go on after the perfume and come off first. On the lobe they weigh little, but hung from a hook earwire they swing with every step, and the tip of the spathe is the thinnest part of the piece.
The material
Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.
9.00
gramsSilver 925‰
- Metals
- Silver 925‰
- Finish
- Oxidized in the recess of the spathe, polished on the edges, on the stem and on the hook
- Dimensions
- Height including the hook earwire 4.8 cm · pearl 7.90 mm
- Technique
- Made entirely by hand. The spathe is lost-wax cast with the stem already attached, then finished one by one — the veining gone over again inside the cone, the edge thinned and drawn in at the tip; the recess is oxidized and the edge re-polished, the pearl settled into the hollow, and the tail of the stem bent into a hook earwire and mirror-polished.
The stones
How it is made
The words of the trade, one by one, explained to those who do not know them.
- Lost-wax casting
- The model is built in wax, coated in refractory plaster and then heated until the wax runs out: what is left is a void of the exact shape, and into that void the molten silver is poured. To get the piece out the mold has to be broken, so every casting uses up both the wax and the mold, and the model you started from no longer exists. It is the way to get what the saw and the file would not — 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 you start again from the wax.
- Oxidizing
- The silver is darkened on purpose, and then re-polished only where the light has to come back. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the bright on the raised areas: it is a design made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.
- Hook earwire fastening
- The hook passes behind the lobe and closes by itself. It goes on with one movement, it has no screws to lose and it carries the weight without pulling.
- Pearl
- The pearl is the only gem produced by a living animal, and it is not a mineral like the others: it is aragonite — calcium carbonate — held together by conchiolin, an organic substance the mollusc lays down between one layer and the next. That organic part is its weak point. On the hardness scale a pearl sits at about three: it scratches with a fingernail, and the metal of another piece of jewelry marks it at the first contact. But the scratch is not the worst damage: being a carbonate it dissolves in acids, and sweat, perfume, hairspray and vinegar corrode the surface until the sheen goes out. It goes on last, after the perfume, and comes off first; it is cleaned with a barely damp cloth and put away dry, never shut in a bag where the air does not pass. And you watch the thread or the cord that holds it too: it is the part that ages first, and it should be replaced before it gives way, not after.
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.
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.
Della stessa famiglia
Due modi di cercare quello che somiglia a questo.
