LA GRANDE ONDA
THE POWER OF WATER TAKES SHAPE IN SILVER.
Katsushika Hokusai’s Great Wave becomes a sculpture to wear.
The composition unfolds in bas-relief, enclosed within a geometric frame. Along the sides, grooves and hollows evoke the action of water on rock, as though the wave itself had shaped the ring.
A tribute by Paolo Grillo for DECEM, Venice.
A TRIBUTE TO HOKUSAI
In The Great Wave off Kanagawa, boats and their crews face a sea that towers over them. The crest rises, poised to fall. In the distance, Mount Fuji retains its stillness.
Between the movement of the water and the mountain’s unmoving presence, a profound tension emerges: human vulnerability before a powerful natural world, capable of inspiring both wonder and fear.
DECEM’s LA GRANDE ONDA brings this tension close to the wearer. Water leaves its marks on the ring’s setting, like the experiences that pass through our lives and transform us.
Inside, the koi carp offers an intimate response: the will to swim upstream, persevere and choose one’s own path.
The tribute to Hokusai thus meets Paolo Grillo’s vision: to recognise the strength of what surrounds us and hold, within ourselves, a sense of direction.
THE SHAPE OF WATER
The upper frame draws a clean outline around the wave. Along the sides, grooves and hollows open across the surface, like rock shaped by flowing water.
Erosion guides the eye along the ring: the deepest marks gradually give way to smoother surfaces towards the lower part of the band.
The movement continues beyond the bas-relief. The silver holds the trace of a force that has passed through the material.
THE FORCE MOVES THROUGH YOU.
THE DIRECTION IS YOURS.
AGAINST THE CURRENT
Inside the ring, a koi carp swims up a waterfall. A circle encloses the scene in an intimate space, close to the skin.
For DECEM, this movement expresses the will to persevere and transform. Alongside the force of water stands a personal choice: to keep climbing, even when the current resists.
This is the work’s Dark Side. A presence reserved for the person who wears the ring, carried as a reminder of their own direction.
WAX, FIRE, SILVER
LA GRANDE ONDA is made using lost-wax investment casting, a technique with roots stretching back thousands of years.
The wax model is enclosed in a refractory mould. Heat removes the wax, leaving a cavity into which molten silver is poured.
The metal takes on its form: the profile of the wave, the marks of erosion and the scene hidden inside. An ancient technique gives substance to a contemporary vision.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
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Material: 925 sterling silver.
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Shape: horizontal signet ring with a rectangular face and a substantial sculptural setting.
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Front: Hokusai’s complete Great Wave composition in bas-relief, without cropping the sides.
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Frame: geometric structure protecting the bas-relief.
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Sides: grooves and hollows inspired by water eroding rock.
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Interior — DECEM Dark Side method: circle, waterfall and koi carp swimming upstream.
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Technique: lost-wax investment casting.
