When does your love for ancient jewellery date back?
I grew up close to Viterbo, in the land of the Etruscans, surrounded by ancient ruins that have fascinated me since childhood. Archaeology was my first love. But I’ve always had good hands, too. So I combined my passion and my talent and became what I am today.
What techniques do you specialise in?
I use fine dust granulation and filigree in 22 carat gold. Granulation consists in welding gold spheres to a surface, according to a pre-determined design. Filigree is the same, just with wires. The smaller the elements, the more exquisite the result: my spheres are less than 0,07 mm in diameter, my wires between 0,1 and 0,2 mm.
©AndreaCagnetti
What is the most difficult part of your craft?
The hardest part is to weld small parts invisibly to the gold background. For this, I delved into ancient alchemist books and developed my own “secret potion”, a kind of glue, made with natural ingredients, that works much better than any modern one.
What’s your aim when you design jewellery?
I want it to be beautiful. Beauty is far too mistreated today: people are getting used to ugliness. My jewels can be “demanding”, even difficult to wear: I don’t expect people to buy them for everyday use. But they will bear witness to my lifelong work and studies.