The pair resting against a white stone, yellow corollas and purple amethysts at the centre

Collection Fiore d'Inverno·Orecchini

Fiore d'Inverno earrings in silver with amethyst and yellow enamel inside the corolla

Name: Fiore d'Inverno earrings in silver with amethyst and yellow enamel inside the corolla
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: OA132gial
Price: 140.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Twelve millimeters of corolla per lobe, the violet of the amethyst inside the yellow of the enamel

€140,00 OA132gial

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

Two silver corollas of twelve millimeters, each taken from a single sheet and hollowed until it becomes a low cup. The rim has been left wavy and polished, as it folded the first time; inside the cup the ground is enameled yellow, and under the glass you can still read the furrows that run from the center outwards. At the center of each, inside a plain setting, a round faceted amethyst: violet inside the yellow. The ear wire stays open behind the lobe.

Five grams thirty of silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths, for two flowers twelve millimeters across: one millimeter less than the corollas in citrine quartz and rhodolite, and the yellow ground in place of the silver left bright. The violet of the amethyst is the most delicate thing in the piece — it stands up to scratches better than the silver holding it, but it does not stand up to heat — and the enamel too is thin glass laid over a curved surface. The earrings come off before detergents and solvents, and they do not go in the ultrasonic bath. Presentation box included.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

5,30 gramsSilver 925‰

Metals: Silver 925‰
Finish: Yellow enamel inside, polished border
Dimensions: Flower diameter approx. 12 mm
Clasp: Open ear wire
Technique: All made by hand.

The stones

Amethyst

At the center of each corolla

Cut: Round faceted
Note: Two natural stones, one per earring

The two corollas side by side seen from above, with the ear wires open behind

Front view of the two flowers, the wavy silver rim around the enameled ground

Close-up: the faceted amethyst in the smooth bezel and the grooves that can be read under the enamel

The earrings among dry branches, the hollowed cup seen in three-quarter view

The pair laid out on a branch, to show the length of the earring including the hook

The back of one earring: the raw silver under the cup and the open ear wire

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 until it becomes a low cup and left irregular at the rim, with the folds running from the center outwards. A wavy rim cannot be corrected twice — stretched silver does not go back — so the first fold is the one that stays. In the middle of the cup there is the one point that has to remain flat: it is the seat of the stone, and if the cup has moved there the setting will not sit.
Ear wire fitting: The hook passes behind the lobe and closes by itself. It goes on with one movement, has no screws to lose and carries the weight without pulling.
Enamel: Enamel is glass: ground to a powder, laid on the metal and taken to several hundred degrees until it melts and becomes one surface with the piece. Before the fire it is a wet powder that a breath will move; afterwards it cannot be retouched, because correcting one spot means sending all the color already fired back into the fire, and at every pass you risk the bubble, the cooling crack and the color that shifts. The families have proper names and are told apart by how the metal holds the color: champlevé, when the color sits in hollows cut into the sheet; cloisonné, when it sits inside little walls of wire soldered to the ground; cold enamel, when in place of the glass there is a resin that hardens without fire. They are different pieces of work, and they are not attributed by eye.
Amethyst: Amethyst is violet quartz, and the violet does not come from a pigment: it comes from a few atoms of iron that ended up in the lattice in place of silicon and were then struck by the natural radiation of the rock. For that reason the color is almost never laid on evenly — it arranges itself in zones and bands, deeper on one side and lighter on the other — and orienting the stone properly under the wheel is exactly what serves to spread it. It is as hard as citrine, the seventh degree, and it can be worn every day without worrying about scratches; but that violet is the most delicate thing it has. Strong continuous light fades it, and heat erases it altogether: an amethyst heated enough turns yellow, and that is how a good part of the citrine on the market comes about. The violet once lost does not return.

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