Traditional Jewelry

The cameo embodies the style, the philosophy and the beliefs of a given era. Over the centuries, by recounting social and historical events in its miniatures, this gem has become a bearer of values, a “story-teller” and a keeper of secrets.

An ancient art, a true art. The cameo is like a bas-relief, a painting, an image, a portrait engraved in a semi-precious stone, often compared to grandmothers' jewels. Actually, what now remains of this concept is its high value, whereas its restrictive recall to an ancient style has totally changed and it has been revaluated. It can be cleverly combined with almost all fashion moods: from the classic to the aggressive pop, from the everyday look to the Fifties’ revival.

Even today the cameo processing is carried out by hand and Campania is the region where this activity still finds a very fertile ground: indeed it has been considered the "The Cameo World Capital ".

Here the cameo processing still takes place thanks to master craftsmen, according to an ancient tradition handed down from father to son. The shells that are most frequently used to make jewelery are Cypraecassis rufa, Cassis Cornuta and Cassis Madascarensis. The latter, given the prominent contrast between its upper layer, which is very white, and the lower one, mostly brown, creates fascinating color-games between the background and the figure in high relief.

The first phase of the process consists in choosing a suitable shell for the engraving. Then the craftsman moves onto the scoppatura, that is, the cutting of the most convex part of the shell, the "cup"; subsequently he proceeds to the marking and the shaping of the piece obtained: inside the cup, the cameo contours are traced, whereas the unneeded parts are eliminated by cutting them off.

Finally, with the crimping, the artisan gives the piece the desired shape (generally oval or round,) thanks to a special grinding wheel. At this point the pieces obtained are fixed on a wooden spindle with hot mastic made of Greek pitch, wax and scagliola.

After this operation, with the peeling, i.e., the scratch of the outermost part of the shell, the layer turns clear and is ready to be engraved on its surface. The work then passes to the engraver, who draws the subject to be reproduced on the surface.

The main phase in the creation of a cameo is entrusted to the master engraver, who draws women's faces, allegories, flowers, animals and landscapes on the surface of the shell, thus embellishing the final artefact.