Deus Ex Machina
Who I am
and The Origin of DECEM
Skull jewelry and vintage silver jewelry
DECEM is not a jewelry brand.
It is a sacred language forged in metal.
Each creation is a symbol.
Each symbol, a threshold.
Each threshold, a gesture that tells who we are — before words ever arrive.
There is no audience. There are those who listen.
There is no trend. There is a calling.
My objects do not follow the market.
They ignore it.
They pass through it.
My name is Paolo.
DECEM is my ritual name, not a commercial one.
I create with slow hands, guided by a thought that burns long before the metal exists.
Each of my works is born from silence, nourished by archetypes, sacred architectures, forgotten liturgies.
I do not draw. I listen.
Each object arrives when it is ready.
My work is not to decorate, but to reveal.
DECEM was born the day I stopped asking what would please the public,
and started creating what truly spoke to me.
Since 1988, Paolo Grillo has been forging Relics in Venice. With DECEM he created a Temple that transcends jewelry: each creation is a symbol, a memory sculpted in silver and gold. The Medusa ring, together with other icons, embodies myth, hyperrealism, and dark elegance.
I founded DECEM with a simple conviction: jewelry should not imitate the past or chase the market, but embody a language that endures through time.
In a world saturated with ephemeral objects, I chose to create symbolic relics in silver and gold, sculpted inside and out, capable of guarding invisible stories. My “Dark Side Method” is not a technical whim, but an act of sincerity: even what is hidden deserves the same beauty as what is revealed.
Each creation is born for those who recognize the difference between an ornament and a symbol. Not for everyone, but for those who are ready to listen.
DECEM is not everywhere: it lives in my studio in Venice, on my website, and in a few carefully chosen places. This is how it remains what it must be: rare, exclusive, intimate.
To wear a DECEM jewel means to guard a part of my research, my obsession with detail, my faith in art as a temple.
Not a brand to flaunt, but a secret to share with those who truly matter.
“I don’t create jewelry. I sculpt narrative relics.”
For press inquiries and interviews: press@xdecem.com
INTERVIEW
THE CURIOUS STORY OF
PAOLO GRILLO
ART MASTER E
FOUNDER OF DECEM
Paolo, first of all welcome and thank you for opening us
the doors of your studio, in
a decidedly suggestive location like the Venice Lido.
The first question is trivial, if you like, but definitely
ritual: how did your passion for jewelry come about?
Since I was a child I have always had a great predisposition for drawing and manual skills. I remember endless afternoons in my father's garage, where I could give vent to my creativity and make it three-dimensional, through the creation of objects.
Dad was a municipal employee, but he always had the gift of dexterity, although he never cultivated it. When he wasn't spending his free time building models and painting them, he devoted himself to gardening, expressing his skill with his hands in many ways.
I probably inherited this ability, putting it to good use, from him and my grandfather. Unfortunately I never met him but I know he painted and, in my own way, I'm happy
to have highlighted this talent, making it not only a job, but my whole life.
What do you mean "my whole life"?
For many years I have kept my passion for the dark world in the shadows, making rather common, anonymous, if you like, jewels that do not convey any differentiating message if you wear them, they are simple (albeit beautiful) ornaments.
Being able to give free rein to my true and deep passion makes this work an integral part of myself.
I studied for a long time to undertake this path, attending the Art Institute, where I learned fabric processing, printing, graphics and, in my specific field, I learned the art of working metals and goldsmithing, a real own forge of talents, very concrete and linked to the artistic trades.
But, sorry to interrupt you, aren't we talking about the art school?
No, it was really an institute where all the professions related to the world of craftsmanship and art were learned, expressed through different forms, such as fabrics, gold, etc. Unfortunately, it has now been transformed into an art school, just for lack, before everything, of artisans who taught such particular and precious trades.
dfter five years, I graduated as Master of Art with specialization, a beautiful qualification.
I'm honest, I'd like young people today to always find a way through which to express their artistic talent.
At 21, I took the plunge and opened my own business with a partner, as a general goldsmith's shop, where
we went from solitaire to the chain for communion.
The experience in Vicenza, the beating heart of jewelery and goldsmithing
Collaboration with an important company that produced high-end manufacturing chains, made with mechanical processes, but with a predominant component of manual skill and design, opened the doors to a world where everything moved at a different pace.
I understood more complex dynamics, production processes, I had the opportunity to forge very valuable relationships in that much bigger world than my small artisan reality.
These skills and knowledge allow me today to make my jewels even more unique, through the availability of beautiful precious stones.
There was a particularly difficult moment when you realized
how complex is it to work through one's artistic expression?
There have been several moments, not least the pandemic which however, absurdly, opened the doors to the complete realization of my dream, that is to express the art I love most, the one with dark atmospheres.
In reality, the most difficult moment ever was a theft we suffered during our activity in Vicenza: about 8-9 kilos of gold, a significant amount, even if there were four of us. For me, who was the person with the least financial resources, it was the coup de grace. I dropped everything and went back to my business in Venice, a bit light-hearted actually, to finally stop take a long commute every day.
Have you resumed being a craftsman then?
No, actually not. I was now alone in managing the shop, also because it was quite large, divided into three floors. I relied on a well-known brand that produces steel jewelry.
In practice, I had locked up my expertise and passion for goldsmithing, for creating jewels, to keep my dark soul company. That's probably where they met.
I wonder if they ever thought they could finally go out together in the sun and give life to my current brand [laughs].
Until at some point the shop was closed, right? How did you
get out of this difficulty too?
The shop itself had some structural features that made entry more difficult of tourists (trivially a few steps, useful for high tide, are enough to create a real "wall").
When the activity ceased, I found myself starting again, for the umpteenth time, and I found work as a salesman in high fashion. Sounds weird, right? But I must say that always
it is an art form, so they were pleasant years, in which, at the same time, I was also able to start over some small work as a craftsman.
Did you finally get your "prisoners" out of the basement?
Actually only one: I made jewelry for new mothers. Bracelets, pendants, with stylized names, initials and children. Yes, I know that compared to what I do now it seems hardly credible, but the love for goldsmithing and for creativity could not
to separate from me and so I sold online, through a website, these jewels always very appreciated by the general public.
I was chasing trends, market demands.
I was actually running away
from what I really wanted to do, but it took me a while to figure it out.
I ask you an uncomfortable question. You experienced it as a sort of compromise
No, I would say no, I was very serene. You know, the truth is that mine
dark soul was expressed in my passions, clothing, literature, photography, art. It filled my time free, as happens for my clients, people who want to express their personality through my jewels.
I probably felt, deep down in my soul, the need to translate everything I had enclosed in my mind into jewels, but it had not yet emerged on a conscious level.
Until something happened that brought you to where you are now.
I was too handcrafted and probably too expensive for the kind of jewelry new moms buy.
So, thanks to the pandemic and the end of work in the shop, I realized it was the right time.
THE ATELIER
I opened my laboratory here on the Lido, because I live on this particular and suggestive island. that was
also inhabited by well-known names in literature, such as Goethe, Byron and Thomas Mann.
A truly unique place, just as unique is the route, a real pilgrimage, to get here from Venice.
By the way, your working method is called Dark Side. Why?
It has a double meaning. The first is to express the atmosphere that has finally come out of the famous basement, and has decided to permeate the whole environment and all the jewels I produce. The atmosphere we breathe is me and the people who decide
to be represented by my jewels, clearly expressing their identity. The second represents the particular workmanship of the rings, which are also carved on the inside, the one that remains obscure.
Last question Paolo, a curiosity. Why Decem?
THEl ten, which in Roman numerals becomes one X, to me is very fascinating. The X, if you think about it, is specular, always the same and true to itself, with a precise center.
It has always struck me on a symbolic level. Moreover, for me it has an even more important value. I love my city, Venice, especially in what was its heyday, when it was "La Serenissima", a maritime republic, at the center of the world.
The doge, lord of the city, at the time had ten advisers to whom
he relied on people of enormous culture and experience, who made the complex decisions that had to be taken more balanced, above all for the security of the state. I don't think it was ten by chance, given
that it is a number that recalls balance and that, since Pythagoras, symbolizes perfection.
Perfection that I seek
throughout my process
of creation and that I want to pass on to people who fall in love with my jewels, to ensure that they really wear something unique, which tells a story,
that expresses a complex and fascinating identity, from
all its sides.
_Paolo Grillo