A technique of decorating jewelry with gold, silver, or electrum soldered onto metalwork. It consists of creating a fine open metalwork pattern out of wire, which is soldered together and to the main body of the piece. The wire can be plain or decorative. For goldwork, the solder is normally a gold–copper alloy (82% gold, 18% copper), which has a lower melting point than pure gold. The word is derived from the Italian filigrana which is “filum” and “granum” or "granular network.” It was first developed in the Near East and was often used in combination with granulation. The technique had been mastered by the Early Dynastic Sumerian craftsmen of the 3rd millennium bc, and fine jewelry decorated in this way appears in the royal tombs of Ur. Anglo Saxon and Germanic metalworkers greatly developed the technique. [filagree, filigraine]
