Peridot
At the center of the flower, one per earring
- Cut
- Round faceted
- Note
- Stone declared natural. Carat weight not stated
Collection Creazioni in Argento·Orecchini
Flower earrings in sterling silver with round faceted peridot
Eight petals lost-wax cast in ten millimeters of flower, and a round peridot held by four claws.
€90,00
OL6301per
Drawn and built by hand at the bench, in Tosi.
Each earring is a single flower, ten millimeters wide, with eight petals open around the stone. The petals are not cut out of a sheet: they are cast, and it shows. Each has its own thickness, the edge curls and folds where the wax had folded, and inside run parallel veins that start at the center and reach the tip. The edges have been mirror-polished and the inside has stayed satin-finished, so every petal has a light outline around a matt ground; in the hollows between one petal and the next sit small silver spheres. At the center the peridot is round and faceted, green with a yellow note inside it, and four claws hold it, rising from the base of the flower and folding onto the edge of the stone. Behind, the flower is smooth and domed, and from there comes the straight post that the butterfly back holds on the lobe.
Ten millimeters the flower, two grams fifty-five the silver: on this weight the company does not say whether it is that of the pair or of the single earring, and we report the figure as it writes it without choosing one on their behalf. It is little in any case, and it is the reason a flower this wide sits on the lobe without pulling it. The peridot is declared natural; the carat weight and the name of the cut are not stated, and we do not add them. On the hardness scale it sits between six and a half and seven, lower than a quartz, and it is afraid of acids and of sudden changes of temperature: the four claws are closed pressing a little at a time, because the force that settles a quartz on a peridot is already too much. Behind is the butterfly back, which is the part meant to wear out — it holds by friction, and when between two fingers it has stopped resisting, it is changed.
The material
Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.
2,55
gramsSilver 925‰
- Metals
- Silver 925‰
- Finish
- Petal edges mirror-polished, petal insides satin-finished with engraved veining
- Dimensions
- Flower width 10 mm
- Technique
- Made entirely by hand. The flower is lost-wax cast and then finished one by one: the veins gone over inside each petal, the edges mirror-polished against the satin ground, the small spheres settled into the hollows, the peridot closed between four claws and the post soldered perpendicular to the back.
The stones
How it is made
The words of the trade, one by one, explained to those who do not know them.
- Lost-wax casting
- The model is built in wax, coated in investment plaster and then heated until the wax runs out: what is left is a void of the exact shape, and molten silver is poured into that void. To get the piece out the mold has to be broken, so every casting consumes both the wax and the mold, and the model it started from no longer exists. It is the way to get what the piercing saw and the file would not do — ribbons that overlap, undercuts, voids closed on every side — but if the metal does not reach the end of a thin branch the piece comes out incomplete, and it cannot be mended: it is melted down and started again from the wax.
- 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 it is turned — it has no good axis and bad axis — and it stays always that green with a yellow note inside it that no other gem repeats in the same way. The difficulty is in mounting it: between six and a half and seven on the hardness scale it is softer than the quartzes, it is afraid of acids and of 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 pressing a little at a time: the force that settles a quartz is already too much on a peridot.
- Post and butterfly fitting
- The post goes through the lobe and behind it a butterfly back holds it, two metal wings that grip the post by themselves. It is the simplest fitting there is, and precisely for that reason it has to be done well: the post must be soldered perpendicular to the body of the earring, because if it starts even slightly crooked the piece hangs askew on the lobe and there is no way of straightening it by wearing it. The butterfly back, on the other hand, is the part that gets lost: it holds by friction, and friction drops over the years until one day it no longer holds. You check it by squeezing it lightly between two fingers, and when it has stopped resisting you change it — it costs little, and it costs a great deal less than the earring.
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.
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.
Della stessa famiglia
Due modi di cercare quello che somiglia a questo.
