S925 Silver Gourd Peanut Flower Filigree Earrings

Filigree means drawing silver down into wire and then making something of it. A single wire is finer than a hair, and the work — bending, filling, stacking, weaving, soldering — is all in the hands. In the old craft filigree usually went together with stone setting, the pair known as fine gold and silver work; the coiled-wire crowns in the palace collections belong to that tradition. If the wire is drawn unevenly, everything afterwards is wasted: thick in one place and thin in another, the petals come out heavy on one side and light on the other, and soldering makes the difference more obvious. When you look at filigree, look at the wire first, then the solder, and put the pattern third.

Gourd and peanut puts two auspicious sayings on one stud. The gourd stands for blessing and salary, with a vine that runs long; the peanut is also called the long-life fruit, and old dowry chests were packed with peanuts, red dates, longans and lotus seeds for the phrase about sons arriving early. Combining the two is an older generation's habit, aiming at a complete set of good sayings. Younger wearers needn't think that far. Treat it as a round little nut that looks fresh against a white shirt.

There is a crude test for filigree: take the piece to a window and look at it from the side. Where wires cross there should be a clean solder joint, one small bright point of silver, neat and definite. If the solder has run and blurred into a patch, the heat was too high. The layering of leaves and flowers should separate as well, layer over layer, casting shadows of different depths. Filigree that has collapsed into a mass looks like crumpled foil from a distance and worse up close.

Hollow filigree is light, and the earlobe doesn't ache after a full day. That is its advantage over solid work. The price is that it dents: take it off to sleep, to wear headphones, to lie on your side. Filigree has little springback, and a crushed section is hard to restore. A smith can bring the overall shape back, but the creases in the fine wires stay. When buying, pinch the edge of a petal: if it gives, the wire is fine and the wall thin — beautiful, but needing more care. The backing should be wide, because a light filigree piece on a small backing will spin on the lobe and end up facing sideways.

Dust in the gaps is filigree's fate. Use a soft brush with a little clean water, brushing along the direction of the wires rather than across them; brushing across lifts the wire. Ultrasonic cleaning is unkind to hollow filigree, because prolonged vibration loosens solder joints, and one loose joint makes a whole section wobble. When the silver oxidises, go over it lightly with a silver cloth. Don't drop the piece into dip: the liquid works into the seams and into the hollow interior, and dries to a dark stain that comes back from the inside out.