Lapel à la mode

I woke up this morning with silver at $11.23, the ground was frozen, and my dog had pee’d on the rug.  The man at the coin shop always cuts me a deal on my silver, I picked up thirty 90% silver coins and four, 1 oz .999 silver coins for $6.50 an oz of silver.  The deal is that I pick out the ugly, dented, and distorted coins.  This is no problem for me, because I bomb the coins in nitric acid and then alloy them down to sterling and pour sheets and wires.  I also picked up a handful of old wedding bands and rings, bags of broken promises and cheap gold.  It was a morning of warming my hands around the crucible and getting a workout on the rolling mill.  The goal was to make two lapel pins.

Brooches originated from fibulas, which men and women used to keep their capes drawn around their  necks.  They have served as adornment for hats, necks, and lapels.  They have been used to show rank, orientation, and allegiances.  These days brooches are not in traditional modern ornamentation.  It is up to the bold to wear pins, brooches, and fibulas,  making an avant garde fashion statement.

Lapel Pins, The Gift and The River, front and back

Left, The Gift; sterling silver, copper, 10k gold, Arizona petrified wood, and peridot cab.
Second, The River; sterling silver, copper, 10k gold, sugilite, and faceted peridot.  The last two are the backs.

In fact, I made these two today by request from a few gentlemen who have come by the shop, looking for something to add interest to a more conservative male wardrobe.
I selected peridot to accent these two, not only to offset these color-wise, but because it gleams best in artificial light and is associated with Leo and August, courage and pride.

I pulled from some older sketches of pendant ideas to get these ideas.  The first was spun around the Arizona petrified wood, transformation.  The second, sugilite, the stone of heart and loyalty.

My youngest daughter, 9 years old, was watching over my shoulder all day from sketch to polish.  I handed her the second one and she told me it was the sun and moon with a river running between them.  My jaw hit the floor.  My first concern was that she would one day become an art history major, the most worthless profession in all of mankind.  But, then I realized that she watched me sketch them and read my notes, lol.  She had went to the source for her interpretation.  I made a mental note to increase her vitamins as to promote her development and thwart any deficiencies that might lead to  art criticism  as a career.

The coolest part of making pins or brooches is making the mechanical parts on the back.  I grabbed some 10k wire that was on my bench and used it to make the pins.  I thought it would be clever to use the more noble metal for the part that isn’t seen.  I hardened the pins in the kiln and polished them well to make sure they had that spring when you opened them.

Meanwhile, there’s dog pee to clean up, and someone’s has to put all of the anthropology books away.  I love these long weekends.

Tagged as: brooches, lapel pins