VULNUS
- Material
- 925 Sterling Silver
- Stones
- Finish
- Chiaroscuro · Volcanic Ash
Handmade in Italy
LIMEN
The threshold.
- Leather
- Full-grain calfskin
- Colour
- Black
- Origin
- Calves raised in Italy
- Made
- Cut and sewn by hand in Italy
The first thing of BROKEN HEARTS anyone holds, before the piece. Full grain means the hide keeps its whole surface: it is not sanded or corrected, so no two carry the same marks. It closes with a leather tie wrapped around it.
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Full-grain calfskin · Black · Calves raised in Italy · Cut and sewn by hand in Italy
Reliquary · LIMEN
925 Sterling Silver · · Chiaroscuro · Volcanic Ash
VULNUS
AUREUM18kt gold1700 EURHandmade in Italy
REQUIEM
The forge has stopped.
VULNUS was an oval signet, its surface mottled as if time itself had worn it down: a wound no longer hidden. We chose not to open it again. It will not be forged again.
Anatomy of a wound
925 silver forged with a Chiaroscuro finish, reached through controlled volcanic oxidation. Shaped as an oval signet, its organic curve devoured by the same mottled texture that recalls the ash of Campi Flegrei, the form reading as something time itself has worn down. One of a kind: the oxidation settles differently on every piece.
Materials
Material
925 Sterling Silver
Finish
Chiaroscuro
The signature finish of the house: the light and shadow of Caravaggio, form torn out of the dark. Every surface is burnished by hand so the shadow stays in the grooves and the light catches the relief. No two pieces carry it the same way.
Made to order
Where it is born
Each piece is born in Italy, in the Oromare workshops, and finished in the Borgo degli Orefici, where metal has been struck for seven hundred years.
Why it cannot return
Not only for the size and the stone you choose. The design is ours, but the piece is born only because you asked for it: what you bring to life cannot return. By law, the right of withdrawal does not apply to goods made to measure or clearly personalised for one person alone (art. 59, para 1, letter c of Italian Legislative Decree 206/2005 and, for EU consumers, art. 16(c) of Directive 2011/83/EU). A wrong size is not a return: we resize it free, for as long as the forge stands. If, by exception, the maison accepts a piece back, it is never resold: it is melted down and the metal goes back to the crucible. And if something is wrong, write to us: a person reads every message, and the maison decides case by case. The Manifesto
Tied to a date?
Handwork can ask for a few extra days. If your piece is a gift or bound to a date, order about three weeks ahead and write to support@brokenhearts.co: it takes priority.
Anatomy of value
The hundred
One hundred new clients a month. When the hundred are reached the list closes, and opens again the month after. Whoever is already in the Register does not wait: the forge takes their piece first.
The hands
The wax burns out of the plaster at 720 degrees and the molten metal takes the space it leaves. Then files and paper, from 220 grit to 1200, until no tool mark catches the light. Where there are stones the metal is cut open and closed back over each one. Three workshops work the same piece, one after the other.
The days
The piece is made after your order, not taken from a shelf: up to twelve working days at the bench, and the date on this page is kept.
The rest is written in the Codex.
Forged one by one
Every piece is born in Italy, in the hands that forge it.
- The saw cuts the block of wax.
- The burr hollows the ring in wax.
- The metal waits in the crucible.
- The flame heats the crucible.
- The fire melts the metal.
- The tongs go into the bath.
- The flame is lit.
- The torch heats the bath from below.
- The rolling mill thins the bar.
- The brush readies the piece for soldering.
- On the back, BROKEN HEARTS and the heart.
- The fire leaves the metal dark.
- Tongs hold the signet ring.
- The cuff is still raw.
- The cross goes under the brush too.
- The bath cleans the raw ring.
- The ring, still black from the fire.
- The raw pieces rest on the block.
- Raw, side by side.
- The flame solders the parts.
- The wheel smooths the ring.
- The piece turns against the wheel.
- The wheel takes away the fire’s marks.
- The ring meets the wheel again.
- Tape guards the fingers from the wheel.
- The bracelet catches the light again.
- The saw works the band.
- Abrasive paper spins over the band.
- The paper reaches inside the ring.
- The saw follows the form, slowly.
- White dust: the form grows finer.
- The tip finishes the smallest detail.
- The wax ring goes onto the mandrel.
- The blade brings the wax to size.
- A mark shows the right size.
- The band stops at its size.
- The point marks where to stop.
- The scoop pours out the red stones.
- The cross rests on the red stones.
- The red stone finds its place.
- Tweezers choose one stone at a time.
- Blue stones pour out beside the cross.
- The blue scatters across the wood.
- The first stones enter the crack.
- One by one, they fill the crack.
- Now the crack is full of blue.
- The blue goes into the ring too.
- Each stone in its place, waiting.
- No two reds are alike.
- Green stones, each in its own slot.
- A single stone, cut as a triangle.
- Tweezers gather the smallest stones.
- Under the lens, the ring is readied.
- The graver opens the stone’s seat.
- The green goes into the cross.
- The graver closes metal over the stone.
- Pliers press; the green stones wait.
- Each green sits firm in its setting.
- Every stone is checked, one by one.
- Clamped, the ring takes its stone.
- The microscope sees what the eye cannot.
- The shellac warms over the flame.
- The piece is held in the shellac.
- The gravers wait, each with its edge.
- Fingers set the ring into the shellac.
- Heat locks the ring onto the handle.
- The eye follows the row of stones.
- The last stroke closes the last stone.
- The wax
- The fire
- The raw cast
- The file
- The size
- The stones
- The setting
