The pendant from the front, resting against white stone: the pearl in the darkened hollow

Collection Creazioni in Argento·Pendente

Open teardrop silver pendant with freshwater pearl, on a green silk cord

Five and a half centimeters of hollow teardrop, and the pearl is not wedged in: it rests in the hollow, with the black behind it as a ground.

€175,00 PL48P3ma

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

The body of the pendant is a long, hollow teardrop. A wide silver ribbon starts at the top, comes down, turns at the bottom and rises again: through the turn it hollows like a spoon, and the hollow is darkened almost to black while the edge that bounds it has been mirror-polished. Over the same path runs a second ribbon, thin, which draws a second teardrop inside the first and leaves a narrow void between the two. Inside the hollow, resting where the turn is widest, sits the white pearl: the black behind it is not chance, it is what holds its sheen — on a bright ground the pearl would have been lost against the silver. At the top the two ribbons twist over one another and the silver folds into a wide bail, through which the green silk cord runs. From the back you can see the cup that carries the pearl and, on the side of the ribbon, the fineness hallmark.

Five and a half centimeters high for the pendant alone, and seven grams and ten of silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths: it weighs little for the shape it has, because it is almost all void — the metal is on the outline, and inside there is nothing but the cup for the pearl. The pearl measures twelve millimeters by nine and a half: the company calls it round, but those two figures say that it is slightly flattened, and in the photographs you can see it. Whether it is cultured or natural is written nowhere, and we do not write it in their place. The cord is included in the price: sixty centimeters of green silk, with silver end caps, the clasp and a short chain to shorten it. It is the part that ages first, and it should be replaced before it gives way, not after; the silver, on the other hand, can always be re-polished, but not inside the hollow, because there the dark is the design. Anyone who prefers metal can ask the company to add a silver chain. The presentation box is included.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

7.10 gramsSilver 925‰
Silk Green cord with silver 925‰ end caps
Metals
Silver 925‰
Finish
Oxidized in the hollow, polished on the edges and on the bail
Dimensions
Pendant height 5.5 cm · pearl 12.00 × 9.5 mm · silk cord, length 60 cm
Technique
Made by hand: the silver ribbon bent into a teardrop and hollowed around the inside, the ground darkened and the edges mirror-polished, the second thin ribbon that draws the inner teardrop, the pearl settled into the hollow, the two ribbons twisted at the top and folded over to form the bail. The silk cord goes into the silver end caps last.

The stones

Freshwater pearl

One, resting in the hollow of the teardrop

Cut
Not cut
Note
12.00 × 9.5 mm; the company does not state whether it is cultured or natural, and the carat weight is not stated
In three-quarter view, with the green silk cord threaded through the loop
Hanging still: the silver loop and the twist of the two ribbons at the top
Close view: the narrow gap between the wide ribbon and the thin one
The drop hanging on a light background, at an angle, with the edge repolished to a mirror
The back, with the fineness hallmark struck on the side of the ribbon
The back close up: the cup that holds the pearl inside the curve of the drop
The fastening of the cord: the silver end caps, the lobster clasp and the adjustment chain

How it is made

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

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 at about 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 the surface until the sheen 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 does not pass. And you watch the thread or the cord that holds it too: it is the part that ages first, and it should be replaced before it gives way, not after.
Oxidizing
The silver is darkened on purpose, and then re-polished only where the light has to come back. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the bright on the raised areas: it is a design made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.
Silk
Silk is the thread of a silkworm, not a goldsmith's material: it cannot be soldered, it cannot be polished and under the flame it burns instead of heating. On a piece that uses it the metal is finished entirely first, and the cord goes in last into the silver end caps, which close cold around it: from that moment nothing more is soldered on the pendant. It is also the only part that ages — it absorbs sweat and perfume, it frays where it rubs against the bail, and when it gets wet it shortens and hardens — while the silver can always be re-polished. You watch where it enters the end caps, and that is where it has to be replaced: before it gives way, not after.

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.

All the creations by Anna Gioielli

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