Blue topaz
One stone per earring, at the center of the corolla
- Cut
- Round brilliant
- Note
- Described by the company as a «natural stone»; the carat weight is not stated
Collection Creazioni in Argento·Orecchini
Silver flower-shaped stud earrings with blue topaz
Ten millimeters of corolla, and the two flowers do not come out the same: each one is born from its own wax.
€90,00
OL6301top
Drawn and built by hand at the bench, in Tosi.
A silver flower a centimeter across, with irregular petals: inside they stay satin and carry the veining that was in the wax, while the edges roll over on themselves and are the only parts mirror-polished. On some edges a round granule settles, the size of a pinhead. At the center, raised on four claws above a box setting open underneath, sits a round brilliant-cut blue topaz: the blue is pale and the stone stays transparent right through, so much so that under the facets you can see the air inside the setting. The two earrings are not copies of one another — the petals fall differently, and side by side you can see it.
Silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths, two grams and sixty: the company states that figure once only, without saying whether it is for one earring or for the pair, and we do not decide that in their place. Ten millimeters wide, just enough to cover the lobe without going beyond it. The body is cast, not cut out: the model begins in wax and the wax is lost in the mold, and it is the only way to get a curled petal with the undercut beneath it. The company states the topaz as a natural stone; in fairness it should be said that in jewelry the blue of topaz almost always comes from the irradiation and heating of colorless rough, and it is a declared and accepted practice in the gem trade. The carat weight is not stated, and we do not add it. Behind, a post and a butterfly back.
The material
Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.
2.60
gramsSilver 925‰
- Metals
- Silver 925‰
- Finish
- Satin-finished inside the petals, polished on the rolled edges and on the granules
- Dimensions
- Width 10 mm
- Technique
- Lost-wax cast and finished by hand: the inside of the petals left satin with the veining from the wax, the rolled edges and the granules mirror-polished, the topaz set in four claws, the post and butterfly back fitted at the rear.
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.
- Blue topaz
- Topaz is an aluminum silicate, and in nature it is almost always colorless. The blue seen in jewelry almost always comes from a treatment: the colorless rough is irradiated and then heated, and the color that comes out is stable and does not fade. Blue topaz of natural origin does exist, but it is rare and usually very pale — on a saturated blue stone, treatment is therefore the rule and not the exception, and it is a declared and accepted practice in the gem trade. For whoever does the setting something else counts: topaz cleaves along a clean plane, parallel to the base. A knock given in the wrong direction does not chip a corner, it opens the stone in two — that is why it is held on claws that take it around the edge and leave it free, and why on a topaz already in its seat a bezel is not pushed over.
- Post and butterfly fastening
- The post goes through the lobe and behind it a butterfly back holds it, two metal wings that grip the post by themselves. It is the simplest fastening there is, and precisely for that reason it has to be done well: the post has to be soldered square to the body of the earring, because if it starts even slightly crooked the piece hangs askew on the lobe and there is no straightening it by wearing it. The butterfly back, on the other hand, is the part that gets lost: it holds by friction, and friction falls off over the years until one day it no longer holds. You check it by pinching it lightly between two fingers, and when it has stopped offering resistance you change it — it costs little, and it costs far less than the earring.
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.
