The silver sphere threaded on the leather cord, resting on a white stone

Collection Marte·Pendente

Hollow sphere pendant in sterling silver with crater perforations, on a leather cord

Name: Hollow sphere pendant in sterling silver with crater perforations, on a leather cord
Brand: Anna Gioielli
SKU: CA130
Price: 390.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Eleven grams and ninety of silver between the sphere and the hook, and forty-nine centimeters of leather.

€390,00 CA130

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

The sphere is silver and it is not solid: it is a shell pierced right through. The holes are round, of different diameters, with their rims left raised, and looking into one you see the light coming in through the one opposite — inside there is nothing. The recesses stay black and the raised work is re-polished, as in all the Marte pieces: the design comes forward by contrast. The black leather cord passes through the sphere from one side to the other, and two silver washers hold it at the center, one on each side, so that it does not slide. At the two ends of the leather there are two silver tubes pierced with the same craters: one finishes in a hook, the other in a folded eye, and that is the clasp — not a fitting bought in separately, but the same design carried through to the end.

Eleven grams and ninety of silver at nine hundred and twenty-five thousandths: that is all the metal in the piece, and it is in the sphere and the hook clasp. The rest is leather, and the assembled necklace measures forty-nine centimeters in all. There is no gold here and no stone: nothing to set, nothing to put at the center, and what is left to look at is only the relation between solid and void. On the shell the holes run to dozens and none is as wide as the one next to it; the metal remaining between one and the next is all the structure the sphere has, because inside there is nothing to hold it up. The same goes for the hook, which is pierced as much as the sphere and still carries the weight of what it closes.

The material

Weights and carats as the workshop declares them.

11,90 gramsSilver 925‰

Metals: Silver 925‰
Finish: Oxidized in the recesses, polished on the raised work
Dimensions: Total length 49 cm
Technique: Made by hand in the company's goldsmith's studio: the hollow sphere opened into craters of different diameters and pierced right through for the leather to pass, oxidized in the recesses and re-polished on the relief; the two end tubes and the hook pierced with the same design; the sphere held at the center of the cord between two silver washers.

The sphere on the leather in front of a dry branch: the craters and the edges left raised

The point where the leather enters the sphere, held by the silver washer

The whole on a light background: the leather taut and the sphere fixed at the centre

The hook clasp fastened, resting on the edge of a stone

The sphere close up: the holes pass right through and the shell is hollow inside

The clasp open: the two pierced silver tubes, the hook and the eye

The hook unfastened, with the two ends of the cord laid out on the marble

The sphere at the centre of the leather, close view on the branch

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 can be held still on the bench and opened from above; a sphere cannot. The body is closed and hollow, so every hole has to be opened on a surface that runs away under the tool, and the point that breaks through comes out into a void with nothing behind it. The inside can no longer be reached: the edges have to be worked back one at a time from the only accessible side, the outside. And the sphere stands up only through the solid metal remaining between one void and the next — take too much away at one point and the wall gives at exactly that spot, and on a closed shell there is no way of strengthening it from inside.
Irregular voids: In 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 mesh comes out crooked, but that at some point the solid metal is left too thin, and the piece gives at exactly that spot. 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 carry.
Oxidizing: The silver is darkened deliberately, and then re-polished only where the light has to come back. The black stays in the voids and the recesses, the pale on the raised work: it is a design made by subtraction, and whoever does it decides where to stop the cloth.

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