Tradition and innovation, the essence of contemporary goldsmithing.

A DESIGN WITH MORE THAN 80 YEARS OF HISTORY

This wonderful monstrance, 99 cm long and weighing 8 kg, was originally designed and created in 1930 by Don Felix Granda. It is a piece of great beauty and symbolism for the combination of its shapes, lines and curves and for its delicate ornamentation: enamels of great prominence and plant motifs in silver, mainly the vine, symbol of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

The monstrance's potencies are ornamented with enamels in different shades of blue on silver plate. Under the virile, three figures of angels hold phylacteries on which the chant "Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus" is inscribed.

"Those objects of worship which are in immediate contact with the most holy body of Christ, should be the object of our most solicitous care." D. Felix Granda

If you want to know the symbolism behind this piece of sacred art click here. here

PROCESS INNOVATION: NEW ARTISANAL TECHNIQUES

This silver and enamel monstrance was designed by Don Felix Granda and made in our workshops 80 years ago. Today, we are making this ancient design again, applying new processes and techniques to work the silver.

"The new techniques developed allow a piece to be made in less time without reducing its artistic quality. This piece, at the time, took 1,000 hours of silversmithing alone, and another 1,000 hours of chiseling. Today, the quality remains the same and the work has been tackled in less than half the time."Juan Tardáguila, Maestro Platero, tells us.

According to the goldsmiths, the foot or base of the custody as well as the burstsThese pieces were made with hammer and chisel, not to mention the long hours of work and the great skill of the chiseler, who used sheet metal tools to bring out the volume of the metal. Thanks to innovation and the mastery of new casting and electroplating techniques, these pieces can now be made more efficiently, while maintaining the craftsmanship of the work.

The shaft, interrupted in the middle by a macolla, has been made in the same way as the old monstrance: by tapping the sheet metal. That is, creating grooves that allow the plate to bend and create edges differentiating its sides (eight in this case).

The enamels that adorn the drum (in the old custody) or the shaft (in the new monstrance) and that enrich the space between bursts, have been made in the same way as in the past, since the enamel technique remains the same as it was a century ago. The silver pieces are not solid but openwork, which has made baking difficult, causing many tensions in the materials inside the muffle, where they reach 800º.

Eight different glazes have been used, all formed from cobalt oxide, which is what provides the blue color to the vitreous enamel. These eight different shades of blue are intended to create a gradient of color from greater to lesser intensity, for which it has been necessary to work their integration and thus achieve a progressive continuity.