The two earrings seen from the front, resting: the oval cabochon turquoise inside the silver bezel and the four diamonds in gold bezels around each one

Collection Marte·Orecchini

Marte earrings in oxidized silver with oval cabochon turquoise and eight gray diamonds in gold bezels

Ten grams seventy of silver hollowed into craters, and one gram of gold that goes entirely into the eight settings of the diamonds.

€680,00 O504bTu

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

Each earring is a sheet of oxidized silver pierced right through: round and oval voids of different sizes, the edges thickened into beads, the recesses left black and the raised work polished back. It is the surface that gives the collection its name. At the center sits the turquoise, an oval cabochon, blue turning to green, domed and polished without a single facet: the light does not go in, it stops on the curve, and close up you can see a few darker veins crossing the dome. Holding it is a silver setting closed all round, with the beads flattened by hand onto the rim. The diamonds do not make a halo: there are four per earring, one on each side in the voids around the stone, and each has its own four-claw yellow gold setting. They are the only points of gold you see from the front. Behind, the post and the butterfly.

Ten grams seventy of silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths, and one gram of eighteen carat gold: almost eleven times less, and it is only in the eight settings. Here the gold does not carry the structure, it only holds the small stones, and it is where the eye goes. There are eight diamonds, four per earring, natural and gray in color, brilliant-cut: the studio states them at twenty-seven hundredths of a carat. The turquoise is stated to be natural, and it remains a soft, porous stone — it scratches easily and drinks up whatever it touches — so the earrings come off before creams, perfume and hairspray: blue that goes out does not come back on.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

10,70 gramsSilver 925‰
1,00 gramsYellow gold 18kt 750‰
0,27 carats Diamonds · four per earring, in the openings around the turquoise
Metals
Silver 925‰ · Yellow gold 18kt 750‰
Technique
Made by hand in the company's goldsmith's studio. Silver body pierced and hollowed into craters, oxidized in the recesses and polished back on the raised work; the turquoise held by a silver setting with the beads flattened onto the rim, the diamonds in four-claw yellow gold settings. Post and butterfly fitting.

The stones

Turquoise

At the center of each earring, in a silver setting

Cut
Oval cabochon
Note
Natural, one stone per earring

The diamonds

Natural. Position, cut, carats, colour and clarity.

Four per earring, in the openings around the turquoise 0,27ct Brilliant Natural gray diamonds, each in its own four-claw yellow gold setting · ct 0,27 as declared by the studio, which does not say whether the figure is per earring or for the pair
The pair standing on the polished surface, with the reflection beneath: the jagged outline of the pierced silver can be read
Three-quarter view with one earring open: the gold post, the butterfly back slipped off and the diamond bezels seen from the side
The earring worn on the lobe, showing its real size when worn

How it is made

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

Turquoise
Turquoise is a soft, porous stone: it scratches easily and drinks up whatever it touches. That is why it is not faceted but cut down and polished into a dome, and why it is set last, on a setting that is cold and finished: under the flame turquoise turns green, and it does not come back. Almost all the turquoise on the market is stabilized with resin precisely so that it will stand up to cutting, polishing and setting. Whoever wears it has one rule: the piece comes off before perfume, creams and detergents, because acids, cosmetics and heat put out its blue, and blue once lost does not come back.
Oxidizing
The silver is darkened on purpose, and then polished back only where the light has to return. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the light on the raised work: it is a drawing 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.
Brilliant cut
Fifty-seven facets calculated so that the light entering from above comes back out the same way. It is the cut that makes a diamond sparkle, and the reason a badly cut diamond stays dull.

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.