The ring in three-quarter view: the pearl on top and the silver scrolls that rise to hold it

Collection Creazioni in Argento·Anello·Floral motifs on the shank

Sterling silver floral scroll ring with 12.81mm gray Tahitian pearl

Name: Sterling silver floral scroll ring with 12.81mm gray Tahitian pearl
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: AA232p
Price: 380.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Twelve millimeters eighty-one of gray Tahitian pearl, held by the silver scrolls that make up the whole shank.

€380,00 AA232p

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

The pearl sits at the top, round and large, gray with a warm brown undertone; a band of light runs across it, and towards the bottom the color deepens. It is not closed in a setting: it is held by the silver scrolls that rise from the shank and draw in around its base like petals. And the shank is not a solid band: it is a ribbon of silver bent into scrolls that widen as they climb towards the pearl, and between one scroll and the next the void remains — looking at the ring head-on you see right through it. The silver is polished to a mirror everywhere, inside the curves too; there is no oxidized part, and no stone other than the pearl.

The pearl measures twelve millimeters eighty-one in diameter. The silver weighs nine grams eighty and is the only metal in the piece: there is no gold anywhere. The studio declares it a natural gray Tahitian pearl — the gray is therefore not a dye, it is the color the nacre took on as it grew in the black-lipped oyster. It remains the soft part of the ring: it sits around the third degree of hardness, it scratches with a fingernail and dissolves in acids, so it goes on last, after the perfume, and comes off before washing your hands. The scrolls that hold it are silver too, and silver is soft: if one opens it has to be closed again by whoever made it, because bent cold twice it work-hardens and snaps.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

9,80 gramsSilver 925‰

Metals: Silver 925‰
Style: Floral motifs on the shank
Finish: Polished
Technique: Made entirely by hand. The shank is formed of silver scrolls that open out and climb around the pearl, closing on its base; the silver is polished inside the curves as well, and no part of it is oxidized.

The stones

Tahitian pearl

At the top, among the silver scrolls

Cut: Round
Note: Natural gray pearl, diameter 12.81 mm

Front view: the curls open beneath the pearl and grip it at the base

From the side: the scrolls run down along the shank and leave openings between one and the next

The ring standing, from the front: it can be seen through the shank

From above, at an angle: the dark reflection that runs across the pearl

Three-quarter view from the other side: the open loops of the shank

The ring on the finger in three-quarter view: how far the pearl projects from the hand

The ring on the finger, the pearl from the front

How it is made

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

Tahitian pearl: The pearl is the only gem produced by a living animal. It is not a crystal grown in rock: it is nacre, which the oyster lays down in very thin layers around a nucleus, one over another for years, and the light seen at the surface is the sum of those layers. The gray of Tahitian pearls is theirs from birth: it comes from Pinctada margaritifera, the black-lipped oyster, and it is not a dye. But nacre is soft: it scratches with a fingernail, and perfume, hairspray, vinegar and sweat corrode its surface until the luster goes out. It is put away dry, and never shut in a bag where the air cannot pass.
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 a 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 its 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 the air cannot pass. And the thread or cord that holds it is worth looking at too: it is the part that ages first, and it should be redone before it gives, not after.
Open scrollwork: The shank is not a pierced band: it is a ribbon of silver bent into scrolls that touch only where they need to, and the voids between one and the next are what is left, not what has been removed. Every point where two scrolls meet is a solder that has to disappear from sight and at the same time take the grip of a hand: skip one and the scroll works on its own, and in time it opens. And the polishing has to be carried inside the curves, where the cloth does not reach by itself — anyone who gives up on that leaves the one mark that will later be seen.

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 ring is made to the size of the person who will wear it: we settle it together 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