Zaffiro

Many of you know that we’ve been repurposing ancient bronze and silver artifacts into jewelry for years now. We source them from antiquities auction houses in the UK and focus primarily on Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Medieval European era pieces, avoiding Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Indo-European because of the high possibility of those pieces being looted. Instability, lack of government oversight and wars in North Africa and the Middle East have created a surge in the black market for those categories of artifact.

We do minimal alterations: gently cleaning them to remove dirt and then grinding off any sharp edges or rivets. Many of the pieces have rivets on the back as they were originally attached to clothing and leather goods this way.

For the first time this spring we finally!! acquired our first artifacts suitable for earrings: Viking-era silver mounts with a dot design. I photographed them with another new pendant: a Medieval-era heraldic mount with a bird design, specifically “Pelican in her piety” symbolizing devotion and self-sacrifice.

DM me if you want to know more!

It’s a garden party with a pair of new keshi pearl charms: one South Seas and one Tahitian with blue zircons 🌸