The pendant hanging from the chain, from the front: the burnished silver net and the purple amethyst in the gold bezel

Collection Marte·Pendente

Oxidized silver and gold Marte pendant with faceted amethyst and three colored stones

Name: Oxidized silver and gold Marte pendant with faceted amethyst and three colored stones
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: P584ampv
Price: 1300.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Four carats fifteen of amethyst inside a forty-five-millimeter net of oxidized silver.

€1.300,00 P584ampv

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

The body of the pendant is a sheet of silver opened into a net of irregular voids: no hole resembles the one beside it, and the outline closes no figure. As in the other Marte pieces, the silver is oxidized in the recesses and re-polished only on the edges of the voids: the design comes forward by contrast. At the center, inside a yellow gold setting folded onto the stone by hand, is the amethyst, its crown checkerboard-cut — the light does not leave in one body, it divides among the small squares. In the silver, set apart from one another, three small stones each held by its own gold claws: pink, green, orange. At the top the bail is yellow gold, pierced with the same design as the body. Edge-on you can see that the sheet is not flat: it curves.

The faceted amethyst is four carats fifteen; the three colored stones — citrine quartz, peridot, pink amethyst — come to thirty points of a carat in all. Beneath there are two metals that do not work the same way: eleven grams ninety of silver and three fifty of eighteen-carat yellow gold, and every joint between the two is a point where the flame has to stop at the right moment. The pendant measures forty-five millimeters by thirty-two; the chain that appears in the photographs is sixty-three centimeters long.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

11,90 gramsSilver 925‰

3,50 gramsYellow gold 18kt 750‰

4,15 carats Amethyst · faceted, checkerboard crown

0,30 carats Citrine quartz, peridot and pink amethyst · round

Metals: Silver 925‰ and yellow gold 18kt 750‰
Dimensions: Pendant 45 × 32 mm · chain 63 cm
Technique: Made by hand: the silver sheet opened into irregular voids, oxidized and then re-polished on the edges, the amethyst closed in a yellow gold setting, the three colored stones set one by one on gold claws, the bail in gold pierced like the body.

The stones

Amethyst

At the center, in a yellow gold setting

Cut: Faceted, checkerboard crown
Carats: ct 4,15
Note: Natural amethyst

Citrine quartz, peridot and pink amethyst

Three stones in the silver, each on its own gold claws

Cut: Round
Carats: ct 0,30
Note: Total for the three

The pendant resting on a white stone, shot in three-quarter view

More frontal view on the stone: the pierced yellow gold loop and the three coloured stones

The pendant next to the clasp of the chain, with the small round tag

The pendant hanging on a white background: the irregular outline of the slab

The pendant from the front, hanging: the net of openings and the amethyst at the centre

The pendant on a dry branch: the black stays in the recesses, the light on the edges of the openings

Close view on the wood: the three stones set one by one on gold prongs

The pendant seen from above: the slab is not flat, it curves

Edge-on view: the thickness of the slab and the gold loop

The pendant tilted on the wood: the checkerboard amethyst and the orange stone

How it is made

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

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 while it is being opened. The risk shifts: not that a mesh comes out crooked, but that at some point the solid is left too thin, and the piece gives way from exactly there. Whoever does it holds together two things that go 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 re-polished only where the light has to come back. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the light on the raised areas: 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. Mounting 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 stays sealed under the gold.
Checkerboard cut: On the crown the facets do not converge towards a point: they cross in a grid of squares, like a chessboard. It is a cut that does not look for sparkle but for the depth of the color, and for that reason it is used on quartzes and on gems where the color is the subject.
Amethyst: Amethyst is purple quartz, and the purple does not come from a pigment: it comes from a few iron atoms that ended up in the lattice in place of silicon and were then struck by the natural radiation of the rock. That is why the color is almost never spread evenly — it arranges itself in zones and bands, deeper on one side and lighter on the other — and orienting the stone properly under the lap is exactly what serves to distribute it. It is as hard as citrine, the seventh degree, and it is worn every day with no care about scratches; but that purple is the most delicate thing it has. Strong continuous light fades it, and heat wipes it out completely: an amethyst heated enough turns yellow, and that is how a good part of the citrine on the market comes about. Purple once lost does not come back.

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