The whole pendant hanging: the silver sphere on the chain, the green peridot and below the amethyst drop.

Collection Creazioni in Argento·Pendente

Silver pendant with cabochon amethyst drop and faceted oval peridot, chain included

Name: Silver pendant with cabochon amethyst drop and faceted oval peridot, chain included
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: PV1
Price: 120.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Thirty-nine millimeters of pendant on forty-six centimeters of chain, chain included: above, the green of the peridot; below, the purple drop of the amethyst.

€120,00 PV1

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

The pendant hangs from the chain in three pieces in a row, and each turns on its own small ring. The first is a silver sphere threaded onto the chain, rough and matt, with a grainy surface and a small round hollow at the center, like a pebble worn by water. Below, a faceted oval peridot held by four claws: it is the small stone, and it is the only one of the two that sparkles — the green has a yellow note inside it, and under the facets it changes intensity with every movement. At the bottom hangs the larger one: a teardrop amethyst, shaped into a cabochon and closed inside a continuous-plate silver setting that runs around its whole outline and rises over the edge by a hair. The purple does not lie evenly — it runs in darker bands and in almost transparent areas, and against the light you can see the veils — and the smooth dome sends back no sparkle but a single long reflection that shifts with the wearer. Green and purple are the two furthest colors that can be hung on the same silver thread, and here they sit one below the other with nothing between them to reconcile them.

Thirty-nine millimeters of pendant, on a round-link chain of forty-six centimeters included in the price; nine grams and forty of silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths, and the company states that weight once only, without saying whether it includes the chain. Peridot and amethyst have nothing in common but the place they occupy, and behind both of them is the same element: peridot is olivine, and the green comes to it from iron that has been in the crystal since it formed; amethyst is quartz, and the purple comes to it again from iron, but iron that entered the lattice in place of silicon and was then struck by radiation from the rock. The same metal inside the stone, two opposite colors outside. Peridot is also the more delicate of the two to set: between six and a half and seven on the hardness scale it is softer than quartz, and the pressure that settles an amethyst is already too much for it — that is why it sits on claws, which take it at four points and leave it free, while the purple drop carries a setting pushed over all the way round. The company states that the stones are natural; the carat weight it does not state, and we do not add it.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

9.40 gramsSilver 925‰

Round-link chain, 46 cm — included Silver, fineness not stated

Metals: Silver 925‰
Finish: Grainy, matt sphere; setting, claws and chain polished
Dimensions: Pendant height 39 mm · chain 46 cm
Technique: Made by hand: the silver sphere left grainy with a small round hollow at the center, the peridot set in four claws, the amethyst closed inside a continuous-plate setting fitted to the outline of the teardrop, the three elements joined by small rings that let them rotate. Round-link chain included, fitted at forty-six centimeters.

The stones

Amethyst

At the bottom of the pendant, inside a closed setting

Cut: Teardrop cabochon
Note: Stated to be natural by the company; the carat weight is not stated

Peridot

Between the silver sphere and the amethyst

Cut: Faceted oval, on four claws
Note: Stated to be natural by the company; the cut is not stated and is read from the photographs; the carat weight is not stated

Close up on a light background: the four prongs that hold the faceted oval peridot.

Resting on a white stone: the round hollow at the centre of the grainy sphere.

Foreshortened on the stone: how high the dome of the amethyst sits inside the bezel.

On a wooden trunk, with the round-link chain included in the price.

How it is made

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

Amethyst: Amethyst is purple quartz, and the purple 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. That is why the color is almost never laid evenly — it arranges itself in areas and bands, heavier on one side and lighter on the other — and orienting the stone properly under the wheel is exactly what distributes it. It is as hard as citrine, the seventh degree, and it can be worn every day without care for scratches; but that purple 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 purple that goes does not come back.
Peridot: Peridot is olivine, and the green does not come to it from a treatment: it is iron, inside the crystal since it formed. That is why the color does not depend on how you turn it — it has no good axis and no bad one — and it stays that green with a yellow note inside it that no other gem repeats in the same way. The difficulty is in setting it: between six and a half and seven on the hardness scale it is softer than the quartzes, it fears acids and sudden changes of temperature, and it almost always has inclusions that the heat of friction can open. It is polished wet and with frequent stops, and the setting is closed by pressing a little at a time: the force that settles a quartz is already too much on a peridot.
Cabochon cut: No facets: the stone is shaped and polished to a continuous dome. It is not the easiest cut, it is the cut that hides least — on a smooth surface every undulation reads with the naked eye, while among facets it is lost. And the light does not come back as sparks: it enters, crosses the depth and rises again carrying the color with it, so what you look at is the color and not the fire.
Closed continuous-plate setting: The setting does not hold the stone with prongs: it is a continuous silver band, soldered all the way round the base, which is pushed over the edge of the dome until it covers it by a hair all the way round. The band has to be cut to the exact size of the cabochon before it is closed — a tenth too wide and the stone rattles, too tight and it will not go in — and it is pushed over turning little by little, never one side at a time, because forcing on one side lifts the gem on the other. There is one more risk than with claws: here the rim of the setting is all the metal you see around the stone, so a blow out of place stays on show, and to take it out you would have to file the very plate that is holding it.

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