Zaffiro Pink Tourmaline Heart Pendant

Artist Bio

Zaffiro Jewelry is the ultimate in the fine art of Granulation. Handcrafted in Oregon by Jack and Elizabeth Gualtieri, their timeless award winning designs appear in national exhibitions, books and in the collections of fine jewelry lovers everywhere.

“We want people to have not only an aesthetic connection with our work but also some kind of metaphysical or transcendent connection,” Elizabeth adds. “We want our jewelry to be a manifestation of something beautiful inside the person.”

The technique of granulation dates back to the third millennium B.C. and is a decorative process that consists of applying miniature spheres of gold to a surface creating a pattern. For centuries, scholars and metallurgists were baffled in their efforts to discover the secret for achieving granulation without the use of solder. “There are a limited number of artists because it’s so labor intensive,” says Elizabeth. “You have to do it full time to be proficient, or you lose your touch. It takes even longer to become an expert and there’s a steep learning curve.”