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Lately, We have been busy in the workshop working on a new batch of Croatian traditional filigree earrings, so sharing a couple of photos of the finished earrings.

These earrings ( locally known as “košarice” ) are part of the 17th century traditional Croatian jewelry typical for the Split region in Dalmatia.

They were traditionally made from sterling silver and solid 14k gold. Either plain or adorned with small beads of Mediterranean coral or natural freshwater pearl. Today, we also have a gold plated sterling silver variant.

Lot of work on these earrings is still hand-made, especially on the beaded version where each pearl connects with the filigree frame of the earrings with small wire which needs to be threaded by hand.

Hello,

Shown on the above photo are samples of the large and nicely-formed Mediterranean coral branches which were on display in a jewelry gallery.

Harvesting of the Mediterranean coral is officially regulated in order to achieve non-intensive exploitation. Mediterranean coral is usually very small in size, and due to the climate-changes, prone to coral diseases and parasites. For this reason, branches such as these are old, very rare and are not being processed into jewelry making material.

Depending on the size and condition of the coral branches, they are processed either  into branch-formed pendants & earrings, or coral beads.
First steps in turning raw coral material into jewelry are always manual:  delicate coral branches in their natural state are covered with crust ( branch on the bottom right ) and they first need to be initially cleaned and inspected for structural defects. Next step is to grade and then separate the material for further processing.

This separation and processing creates a lot of waste material which is not suitable for direct implantation into jewelry, but it gets repurposed for other uses, so none of the precious material gets wasted.

Most closer-to-natural jewelry style is achieved by keeping the branches in their naturally-formed shape and turning them into pendants, earrings and necklaces made up of individual coral branches.

On the above photo, the entire process of turning the raw branches into earrings and pendants was done manually with only basic tools but with a a lot of patience and experience.

This is rewarding but meticulous and time-consuming work. Branches are cleaned, cut, formed, and polished several times until they become suitable to be implemented into the final jewelry product. Because of all this, jewelry made from Mediterranean coral is unique and valuable.  Coral branches that we have on offer are either fine polished to high-gloss finish or polished to satin finish for closer to natural surface look.

Best regards
Dino

Hello, Dino here

I am current owner of the Traditum jewelry craft which I have inherited from my parents.
My father started to design and create jewelry in his teenage and has continued doing this for nearly 50 years along with my mother.

Same as with the jewelry for which We were rewarded with an “Authentically Croatian” certificate,  our former “brick-and mortar” jewelry shops were also handmade. They were custom-designed by my father, and hand-built by my family.

Our two shops were located in Dubrovnik old town, and a small istrian town called Grožnjan. Dubrovnik shop was open for 15 years before it was closed two years ago.

Due to its location inside of the old building with preserved stone arches, and custom-designed interior, Dubrovnik shop was one of the most uniquely-designed shops in the old town.

On the two collage photos which I would like to share with you, you can see the initial state of the interior which was no more than bare walls.

However, shopping habits have changed and online-shopping has taken-over the habit of shopping in small physical shops.
So We have decided to build our online-presence and offer our jewelry creations through our WebShop as well as on the online-marketplaces which specializes in handmade items such as Etsy.

Thank you for reading this and with best regards from Croatia
Dino