WEAR THE EARTH

Each piece in the “Wear the Earth” jewelry line is entirely molded and decorated by hand. They are exquisite actual miniatures, painted with painstaking patience using extra-fine brushes. For their creation three firings are required: the first to obtain the biscuit from the clay, the second to melt glazes and color pigments, the third to set the pure gold onto the glaze. The jewels are drawing inspiration from Nature – with its flowers, its animals and its colors – and from my dreams.

The pieces are first shaped by hand, then go through a first firing process, after which they are immersed in a bath which is the priming base for the decoration: a non-toxic, lead-free mineral glaze on which I proceed to apply the decoration with color pigments that are also mineral-based. I like to clarify that, while this is widely adopted by most as a standard step in the process of majolica decorating – especially in case of small objects – I don’t use the technique of “spolvero” stencil as a template for the decoration, but directly draw and paint each piece freehand, thus creating literally unique pieces each time.

Then the pieces go into the kiln for a second firing; this process vitrifies the glaze, giving the surfaces their characteristic shine. The final touch is the “lustratura” in the third firing by applying brushstrokes of 24K pure gold, which embellishes the objects with accents and outlines that bring out the details. This phase is called the “third fire,” which completes the first elaborate sequence of jewelry creation.

The settings, individually crafted by an expert creator of high-end "One-Of-A-Kind" bijouterie (unique pieces created individually and entirely handmade) using high-quality materials that guarantee a long life and are hypoallergenic. In particular, the hooks and studs on the earrings and most of the metal elements on the necklaces are in GF gold (14K or 18K), an affordable alternative to solid gold which, unlike plating, can last for decades without altering its look. In GF gold, a core of non-precious metal is covered and fused together with a layer (equal to at least 5% of the total weight) of 18 or 14 carats solid gold; while gold-plated items only have a superficial layer (equal to about 0.05%) of gold, which – being just a very superficial coating applied by galvanic bath – is easily rubbed off, thus revealing the underlying base metal.