Collection Marte·Orecchini
Marte stud earrings, 23mm hollow silver filigree half-sphere with gold post
Twenty-three millimeters of hollow shell resting on the lobe, and thirty hundredths of a gram of gold in the one part that passes through the ear.
Drawn and built by hand at the bench, in Tosi.
Each earring is a half-sphere of silver twenty-three millimeters across, and it is not solid: it is a shell, open at the back and pierced right through. The voids do not repeat — they have different shapes and widths, and the metal left between one and the next runs in ribbons with edges thickened into beads, as though it had grown there. The recesses stay black and the raised work is brought back to polish, as in all the Marte pieces: the design comes forward by contrast. Turned over, the back is hollow: through the holes you see the oxidized inside, and a single silver crossbar closes the opening, carries the yellow gold post and the hallmarks.
Sixteen grams twenty of silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths, and thirty hundredths of a gram of eighteen-carat gold. The gold is only in the posts, and it is there for a practical reason stated by the studio: it is the part that passes through the lobe, and anyone who cannot tolerate silver has no trouble with gold. Twenty-three millimeters is a wide measure for an earring that rests against the ear, and what makes it wearable is that there is nothing inside: a hollow shell does not pull on the lobe the way a solid ball of the same size would. That same hollowness, though, is also the problem for whoever makes it, because the solid left between one hole and the next is all the structure the cap has.
The material
Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.
- Metals
- Silver 925‰ and yellow gold 18kt 750‰
- Finish
- Oxidized in the recesses, polished on the raised work
- Dimensions
- Diameter 23 mm
- Technique
- Made by hand in the maker's goldsmith studio: the hollow cap opened into irregular voids and worked back along the edges from the outside, oxidized in the recesses and brought back to polish on the raised work; a silver crossbar closes the back, carries the hallmarks and holds the yellow gold ear post, soldered to the silver.
How it is made
The words of the trade, one by one, explained to those who do not know them.
- Pierced hollow sphere
- A flat sheet is held still on the bench and opened from above; a sphere is not. The body is closed and hollow, so every hole has to be opened on a surface that slips away under the tool, and the point that breaks through comes out into empty space with nothing behind it. The inside can no longer be reached: the edges have to be worked one by one from the only accessible side, the outside. And the sphere stands up only by the solid left between one void and the next — take too much away at one point and the wall gives way exactly there, and on a closed shell there is no way to strengthen it from within.
- Irregular voids
- In a 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 link comes out crooked, but that at some point the solid is left too thin, and the piece gives way exactly there. 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 hold.
- Oxidizing
- The silver is darkened on purpose, and then brought back to polish only where the light has to return. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the bright on the raised work: it is a design made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.
- Gold and silver on the same piece
- Silver melts at a lower temperature than gold and oxidizes quickly under the flame. Setting the two metals on the same piece means heating just enough for the solder to take without sinking the silver, and cleaning the joint before the black of the flame is sealed in under the gold.
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.
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.
-
Marte faith ring in silver, 5.50 mm narrow band, pierced on a single row of empty spaces
€140,00
-
Starfish Marte pendant in oxidized and perforated silver, 38 cm chain included
€130,00
-
Marte ring in domed silver band, round perforated dome with raised dots
€150,00
-
Marte ring in domed sphere-shaped silver, perforated dotted shell
€220,00
Dalle stesse mani
See all (189)-
Sterling silver parrot head ring with blue and green enameled feathers and blue diamonds in the eyes
€650,00
-
Oxidized silver name bracelet on a leather cord
€450,00
-
Marte dangle earrings with two hollow, openwork silver spheres, yellow gold posts
€380,00
-
Open-drop sterling silver dangle earrings with freshwater pearl
€270,00
