The two earrings from the front: the purple amethyst at the centre and the burnished silver body pierced with craters

Collection Marte·Orecchini

Marte earrings in oxidized silver and gold with faceted amethyst and diamonds

Eight carats of amethyst inside a silver crust pitted with craters.

€2.815,00 O513amb

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

The body of each earring is a crust of oxidized silver, pierced with round holes of different sizes and swollen with raised areas between one hole and the next: a surface of craters, which suits a collection named after Mars. At the center, held by four yellow gold claws, is the amethyst, its crown checkerboard-cut: the light does not all leave on the same side, it breaks up in the small squares. In the silver, around the stone, the diamonds are set one by one, and a few grains of yellow gold come back on the edges.

Eight carats of amethyst, and beneath it two metals that do not behave the same way: eleven grams ten of silver, seven sixty of eighteen-carat gold. The natural brilliant-cut diamonds come to twenty-one points of a carat in all, color F and clarity VS1. Two centimeters by two point three: the earring sits whole on the lobe, and fastens with a post and a shepherd's hook.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

11,10 gramsSilver 925‰
7,60 gramsYellow gold 18kt 750‰
8,00 carats Amethyst · faceted, checkerboard crown
0,21 carats Diamonds · in the silver, around the amethyst
Metals
Silver 925‰ and yellow gold 18kt 750‰
Dimensions
2.0 × 2.3 cm
Technique
Made by hand: the body in silver, oxidized and polished on the raised areas, the amethyst mounted on four yellow gold claws, the diamonds set one by one into the silver.

The stones

Amethyst

At the center of each earring, on four gold claws

Cut
Faceted, checkerboard crown
Carats
ct 8,00
Note
Total for the pair

The diamonds

Natural. Position, cut, carats, colour and clarity.

In the silver, around the amethyst 0,21ct Brilliant F-VS1Natural diamonds, total for the pair
The back, with the gold post and the open ear wire
Three-quarter view: the diamonds set one by one into the silver
Close-up of the crown of the amethyst, cut in small squares
The two earrings from above: the four gold prongs and the grains along the edges
The earring worn: on the lobe it covers two centimetres by two point three
The earrings next to the Marte ring with amethyst from the same collection

How it is made

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

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 light on the raised areas: it is a design made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.
Gold and silver on the same piece
Silver melts at a lower temperature than gold and oxidizes quickly under the flame. Mounting the two metals on the same piece means heating just enough for the solder to take without sinking the silver, and cleaning the joint before the black of the flame stays sealed under the gold.
Checkerboard cut
On the crown the facets do not converge towards a point: they cross in a grid of squares, like a chessboard. It is a cut that does not look for sparkle but for the depth of the color, and for that reason it is used on quartzes and on gems where the color is the subject.
Brilliant cut
Fifty-seven facets calculated so that the light entering from above comes back from the same side. It is the cut that makes a diamond sparkle, and the reason a badly cut diamond stays dull.
Amethyst
Amethyst is purple quartz, and the purple does not come from a pigment: it comes from a few iron atoms that ended up in the lattice in place of silicon and were then struck by the natural radiation of the rock. That is why the color is almost never spread evenly — it arranges itself in zones and bands, deeper on one side and lighter on the other — and orienting the stone properly under the lap is exactly what serves to distribute it. It is as hard as citrine, the seventh degree, and it is worn every day with no care about scratches; but that purple is the most delicate thing it has. Strong continuous light fades it, and heat wipes it out completely: an amethyst heated enough turns yellow, and that is how a good part of the citrine on the market comes about. Purple once lost does not come back.

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

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