Fiore d'Inverno earrings in silver with rhodolite, 13 mm corollas

How it is made

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

01

Corolla from a single sheet

The corolla is not an assembly of petals: it is a single sheet, hollowed into a shallow cup and left irregular at the rim, with the folds starting at the center and going outwards. The wavy rim is not corrected twice — stretched silver does not come back — so the first fold is the one that stays. In the middle of the cup is the only point that has to stay flat: it is the seat of the stone, and if the cup has moved there the setting does not sit.

02

Rhodolite

Rhodolite is not a mineral species of its own: it is a garnet grown halfway between pyrope and almandine, with more magnesium and less iron. The red is made by iron, and where iron abounds the stone closes and in transmission goes almost to black; here there is less of it, and the red stays open and turns to pink and to wine. Garnet is cubic, and light passes through it the same way from any direction: the color cannot be corrected by orienting the stone under the lap, as is done with amethyst. Only the thickness is chosen, and there the margin is short — a little too much and the stone dies, a little too little and it empties out. Between the seventh and seventh and a half degree of hardness it is worn every day, and it is one of the few materials on the bench that arrives as it was born, with no firing and no treatments; but a sudden change of heat cracks it, and for that reason the setting is closed cold and the flame stays away from the seat.

03

Shepherd's hook fitting

The hook passes behind the lobe and closes by itself. It goes on in one movement, it has no screws to lose and it carries the weight without pulling.