Two years ago on a trip to Rome and Venice, I found myself completely in awe of the jewelry I saw there. In particular, I was taken with jewelry which looked to me as if it were made of spun gold thread. Upon closer inspection (of the jewelry – I didn’t dare look at the price tags!) I learned that what I was seeing was a particular metal finishing technique called Florentine finish. Most modern Florentine finishes involve a cross-hatch pattern (you can read about this here, as well as learn tips for repairing a piece of jewelry whose Florentine finish has worn away), but these pieces of jewelry were exemplary of the much more demanding Florentine finish technique where the engraved lines run parallel to each other.
While I can’t give credit to the designer of the pieces above since I don’t know who he or she is, I am happy to give credit to my mother, Sharon, who took the lovely picture.