The pendant from the front on the green silk cord: the burnished silver cone, the emerald and the white pearl

Collection Marte·Pendente

Oxidized silver Marte pendant with freshwater pearl and round emerald

Name: Oxidized silver Marte pendant with freshwater pearl and round emerald
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: PA247/1sp
Price: 450.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Thirty-four hundredths of a carat of emerald above a fourteen-millimeter pearl.

€450,00 PA247/1sp

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

The pearl is the large part: white, almost round, with one side barely flattened and the surface run through by wide, low waves, the ones mother-of-pearl leaves as it settles in layers. The white does not stay still — as the light turns, pink, green and blue pass across it. Above it takes a conical silver cap, which is not a closed sheet: it is a weave of arms, and each one runs down the shoulder of the pearl and ends in an empty ring, while between one arm and the next the silver is opened into voids that are not alike. The silver is oxidized in the recesses and re-polished only on the raised work, as in all the Marte pieces: the design comes forward by contrast. On the front of the cone, held by four claws, sits a round green emerald, with its inclusions inside it. At the top the bail is a tab of the same pierced silver, and through it runs a green silk cord.

The pendant measures twenty-seven millimeters by fourteen, and the pearl measures fourteen across: the width is all pearl, the silver sits above it and not beside it. Four grams and thirty of silver, and thirty-four hundredths of a carat of emerald. The cap does not come from a catalog: it was built onto this pearl, following its shape, so the piece cannot be made again the same. The two stones ask for the same care for different reasons — mother-of-pearl is soft, it scratches with a fingernail, and perfume, hairspray and sweat put it out; the emerald is hard but brittle, and must never go into an ultrasonic bath. The green silk cord with silver ends that appears in the photographs is fifty-two centimeters long.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

4,30 gramsSilver 925‰

0,34 carats Emerald · round

Metals: Silver 925‰
Dimensions: Pendant 27 × 14 mm · silk cord 52 cm
Technique: Made entirely by hand. The silver cap is modeled into craters and opened into irregular voids — each arm ends in an empty ring —, then oxidized and re-polished only on the relief; the emerald is closed by four claws, and the seat is fitted to the profile of this pearl and no other.

The stones

Freshwater pearl

Body of the pendant

Note: Cultured, diameter 14 mm

Emerald

On the front of the cone, on four claws

Cut: Round
Carats: ct 0,34
Note: Natural emerald

Close front shot: the silver arms running down the shoulders of the pearl and the round emerald between the four prongs

In three-quarter view, resting against a light stone: the thickness of the cone and the side of the pearl

Another angle on the light stone: the empty rings in which each silver arm ends

The pearl in grazing light: the pink, green and light blue reflections and the wide waves of the nacre

The whole necklace: the silver end caps of the cord, the adjustment chain and the round plate

The cord laid out with the clasp, and the pendant standing on the light stone

Side view against the wood: the pierced tab through which the cord passes

On the dark wood, in three-quarter view: the emerald in full light among the openings of the burnished silver

The pendant resting on the wood, seen from a higher angle: the silver cone and the pearl beneath

Shot from above on the wood; the second pendant blurred in the background is not included

How it is made

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

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 the pearl sits around 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 luster 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 no air passes. 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, not after.
Emerald: Emerald is a beryl, and almost no emerald is clean: inside it has inclusions and microfractures that the trade calls a «garden». That is why it is stabilized with oils or resins, and why it never goes into an ultrasonic bath: the vibration works on the fractures the stone already has and widens them. On the hardness scale it sits high — scratching it is not easy — but hardness is not toughness: a sharp knock on an edge chips it where a diamond would not notice. Whoever mounts it tightens the claws just enough to hold the stone and not one degree more, because the pressure that settles a diamond is already too much on an emerald.
Irregular voids: In geometric piercing the error is measured against the module that repeats; here there is no module, and every void has to be decided as it is opened. The risk shifts: not that a mesh comes out crooked, but that at some point the solid metal is left too thin, and the piece gives at exactly that spot. Whoever does it holds together two things that pull in opposite directions, an outline that has to look random and a thickness that has to carry.
Oxidizing: The silver is darkened deliberately, and then re-polished only where the light has to come back. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the pale on the raised work: it is a design made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.

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