Freshwater pearl
One per earring, hanging below the fish's mouth
- Cut
- Uncut
- Note
- Round and white, diameter 8.27 mm; the maker does not state whether they are cultured or natural
Collection Creazioni in Argento·Orecchini·Sea theme: one fish per earring, its body arched and its tail folded back over it
Oxidized silver fish earrings with freshwater pearl and a gray diamond for the eye
Thirty-five millimeters in all: a gray diamond in place of the eye, and the 8.27-millimeter pearl hanging from the mouth.
€250,00
ODD1p
Drawn and built by hand at the bench, in Tosi.
The fish is caught at the moment it folds back on itself: the body rises from the head, arches backwards and the tail comes back over the spine, so that between the spine and the tail an oval void is left that can be seen right through. The back is covered in overlapping scales, each engraved inside with fine lines; the head and the belly have no scales but a close grain, struck with the punch, that leaves them matt. The fins are thin plates with the rays drawn out with the burin, and some rays end in a polished bead. The silver is oxidized: the black has stayed in the recesses and under the scales, while the curve of the tail, the edges of the fins, the lip and the setting have been brought back to polish, and they are the only light things in the piece. In place of the eye there is a gray diamond closed in a round silver setting: a polished circle on a dark cheek, and that is where the eye goes before it even recognizes the fish. Below the mouth, hanging from a link, is a white freshwater pearl. Behind, the post and the butterfly.
Thirty-five millimeters from the post to the pearl, eight grams sixty of silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths. The pearls are freshwater and measure eight millimeters twenty-seven in diameter; the maker does not state whether they are cultured or natural, and we do not add it. The diamonds are natural, brilliant cut, one per eye, and their color is gray: eight points of carat in all, as the maker declares them, without specifying whether the figure is for one earring or for the pair. The gray here is not a fallback. On oxidized silver a white diamond would make a point of light foreign to everything else, while the gray stays in the same family as the metal and reads as a look rather than as a stone. The pearl is the soft part of the piece: it sits around the third degree of hardness, it scratches with a fingernail and dissolves in acids, so the earrings go on after the perfume and come off first. And the butterfly is the part that gets lost: it holds by friction, and friction falls off over the years.
The material
Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.
8,60
gramsSilver 925‰
0,08
carats
Diamonds · the eye, one per earring, in a round silver setting
- Metals
- Silver 925‰
- Style
- Sea theme: one fish per earring, its body arched and its tail folded back over it
- Finish
- Oxidized in the recesses and under the scales, polished on the curve of the tail, on the edges of the fins, on the lip and on the setting
- Dimensions
- Overall length 35 mm · pearl ⌀ 8.27 mm
- Technique
- Made entirely by hand. The fish is lost-wax cast in silver 925‰ and worked over by hand — the scales and the rays of the fins engraved one by one, the head and the belly struck with the punch — then oxidized in the recesses and brought back to polish on the raised work. The diamond is closed in a round setting in place of the eye; the pearl hangs below the mouth on a link. Post and butterfly fitting.
The stones
The diamonds
Natural. Position, cut, carats, colour and clarity.
The eye, one per earring, in a round silver setting
0,08ct
Brilliant
—Diamonds declared natural, gray in color · total, as declared by the maker, who does not specify whether the figure is for one earring or for the pair
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 refractory plaster and then heated until the wax runs out: what is left is a void of the exact shape, and into that void the molten silver is poured. To get the piece out the mold has to be broken, so every casting consumes both the wax and the mold, and the model you started from no longer exists. It is the way to obtain what the saw and the file could not — 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 begun again from the wax.
- Figurative subject
- A fish is not recognized by its scales: it is recognized by the line that runs from the snout to the tail, and here that line is bent into a hook, with the tail coming back over the body and leaving a void in the middle. It is the void that makes the shape, and it is the part that does not forgive — if the curve closes too far the fish becomes a ring, if it opens the fish stays straight and merely set askew. On earrings the problem doubles: there are two, they are seen on either side of the face, and each has to be the reverse of the other. A curve half a millimeter tighter is not visible on a single piece; on the pair it is.
- 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.
- Burin engraving
- The burin is a goldsmith's small chisel, pushed by hand. It does not scratch: it lifts a shaving of metal and leaves a clean furrow that catches the light. It is the mark that for five centuries has set the Florentine goldsmiths' school apart.
- 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.
- Brilliant cut
- Fifty-seven facets calculated so that the light entering from above comes back out on the same side. It is the cut that makes a diamond sparkle, and the reason a badly cut diamond stays dull.
- Post and butterfly fitting
- The post passes through the lobe and behind it a butterfly holds it, two metal wings that grip the shaft 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 to straighten it by wearing it. The butterfly, on the other hand, is the part that gets lost: it holds by friction, and friction falls off over the years until one day it no longer holds at all. You check it by pinching it lightly between two fingers, and when it has stopped offering resistance you replace it — it costs little, and 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.
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