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THE HISTORY OF FILIGREE |
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The art of filigree is proud of its secular and noble tradition. In fact, there is a great amount of evidence that explains this art such as precious discoveries of Etruscan jewelry that date back to the 8th century as well as Greek jewelry.
The interesting part about this art is that each thin thread of gold and silver are bent and intertwined and these threads are then united at the point of contact where they are then delicately welded.
This technique derives from the ancient Orient and then it was practiced by Venetian and Genoese goldsmith’s.
Since 1866, Campo Ligure has developed and has refined the new techniques of production and it has conserved the working of filigree, which is still done by hand. In 1884, Antonio Olivieri an expert, opened his own workshop of filigree in Campo Ligure.
His example was then followed by other artisans and 33 workshops were then built.
For some time now in Italy, only the artisans of Campo Ligure are qualified as the only heir’s to those in the past that had truly contributed to improving this art, which is created only in the Ligurian region.
HOW FILIGREE IS MADE:
Beginning with the fusion of silver and ending with the final product, two steps are involved: wire drawing and twisting.
The wire drawing is carried out by a wire-drawing machine while between the 19th and 20th century a crank draw-plate was used.
As for the twisting, you must remember that in a workshop of Campo Ligure a mechanical winger was created due to the observation of twisting textile fibers.
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