2020 update

One of our new Vintage offerings.

It’s been a wild ride since lockdowns began in March. I moved to making fabric face masks for a while, while we were locked down and I couldn’t access my jewellery bench. I am still making fabric masks and feel free to contact me if you are looking for some.

Since restrictions lifted in Toronto, I have been able to get back to jewellery making with a few blips here and there when covid related precautions needed to be taken at my studio.

I have certainly not caught up on the nearly 2 months of work I missed but I am slowly making progress.

For the time being my suppliers are open and with caution and care I am able to work as I normally would. It’s been a very challenging year for sure. My partner and I had covid in March, and he has experienced many of the long-hauler symptoms over the last 7 months, so it has been especially difficult. I am happy to say that he does seem to be solidly on the mend now.

There have been a few fun new developments though. I was able to partner with a friend in order to bring you a remarkable selection of Vintage rings. I encourage you to have a look through them. They are both unique and spectacular.

I am working on a few new designs to add to my collections for the upcoming gift giving season. Jewellery can add a much needed mood boost in these stressful times. And earrings and necklaces can make you feel like you’ve made an effort, even when you are on a zoom call.

The best way to stay up to date on all my new designs as they come out is to follow me on Instgram or Facebook where I post regularly.

Another fun new development has been a budding partnership with Sorbet Sapphire, to use some of their colourful gemstones in my upcoming designs, so look for those pieces, coming soon.

I hope you and your families are weathering the storm as best you may be. I hope to be bringing you more information rich blogs in the near future.

Aurora

All about (medieval) belts

It’s been a long time since I blogged, over a year in fact, but I’m going to try to clean up my act and get back on the horse, starting with a little post about medieval belts, since as spring comes, I am starting to think about my upcoming projects for the reenacting season.

I love reenacting the 14th century so much, in part because the possibilities for belts and bling are pretty much infinite.

Knights were often known to wear two belts at a time, a fancy one, and one to hold up their sword. Medieval folks also used things like horn baldrics, sword scabbard suspension rigs, armour closure straps, garters and more, so the need for belt like objects when reenacting the medieval period is near infinite. No one has asked me to make really fancy medieval horse furniture yet, but hope springs eternal.

A lot of my belt research has come from visual art sources from the period like paintings, manuscripts and effigies, but I’ve also been lucky enough to examine a few originals or photographs of originals from museum collections, and I even have a small collection of original belt plaques and buckles which have given me great insight. I’ve also found the book Dress Accesories, 1150 c to 1450 c - Medieval finds from excavations in London to be an invaluable resource.

Knights wearing belts in battle

Example of an effigy

More knights, with many fancy straps.

Most outfits for men in the 14th century included a belt, to hold purses or weapons, and to cinch the loose over-garments they often wore. Women wore belts more situationally depending on whether they were dressed in formal wear, or working clothes. The belt was often used to raise long skirts off the ground when a woman needed less restricted movement and were used to support purses, the pockets of the 14th century. They were also used to cinch loose over-garments, just like for men.

Some fancy lads wearing belts in the Giron le Courtois manuscript.

A nice lady wearing a belt from Tacuinum Sanitatis

Sometimes belts were tablet woven to create bright patterns in fabric instead of leather. I had the pleasure of working with a friend to create one of these in silk a few years ago. She did the weaving and I assembled the metal fittings which I then sewed on.

Tablet woven silk belt with extra bling

The full ensemble.

Belts were often decorated. Sometimes with a texture embossed into the leather, sometimes with closely spaced metal fittings. They were usually brightly coloured, either in dyed leather or woven fabric. I have a bunch of reproduction embossing stamps I’ve made in brass, and hammering a stamp into wet leather is deeply satisfying.

Belts were sometimes used to denote status, as with the heavily decorated knights belts. Sometimes they had enamelled heraldic plaques riveted or sewn to a backing or heavy, all metal plaques that are often seen on Germanic effigies from the period. Plaques could be made in a copper alloy, and either left alone, or plated silver or gold. But they were also made in more precious metals such as silver, or even gold for high status people. It was a great display of wealth and there have even been accounts of knights removing a belt plaque to use it as currency.

Another fancy lad from Giron le Courtois

Original heraldic enamelled belt plaques

A reproduction belt I made with enamelled plaques on silk velvet.

A very serious plaque belt I reproduced in 2018

I’m proud to say that I’ve recreated all kinds of belts from the medieval period, and I enjoy it so much I have started making modern belts as well. Sometimes they draw on elements of historical belts for a modern twist on an historical theme. I own around 3 medieval belts of my own and I’m working on a 4th. Really, you can never have too many belts.

An embossed belt I made myself a few years ago. It’s been in some rainstorms since then, and it’s a little worse for wear now.

Next time, I’ll talk about how to care for belts, and leather in general. Hopefully it will be in the next 2 weeks rather then over a year from now.

If you’d like to see a selection of my modern and historical belts, head over to my etsy store

If you want to stay up to date with what I’m doing on a day to day basis, you can check out my Instagram or Facebook.

If you want to learn more about my historical reenacting organization, click here.

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Feel free to leave a comment if you have any thoughts or questions.

2018 year in review.

In 2018, I’ve really felt myself grow as a crafts-person. I’ve made many things that I feel indicate that I’ve leveled up from where I was a few years ago.

This being my 10th year since I graduated from jewellery school I guess It’s no surprise, I’ve definitely put the hours in, but it’s really nice to see the progress of skills as time goes on.

I was lucky enough to get to work on some incredible commissions this year. Projects that wouldn’t be possible without someone ordering them. These projects can be so challenging, but they also really give me a chance to stretch myself and expand my skills so they are usually incredibly rewarding as well.

A few of them probably deserve their own blog post, but since 2 blogs per year is generally the best I do, I’m just going to consolidate into one post. I’ve broken it down into Modern, Historical and Engagement so you can skip to the parts you’re interested in, as you see fit,

Modern:

I had a strong aptitude for wax carving when I started playing with it, back in the day. It’s nice to start with an aptitude, it definitely helps motivate you to keep up with something, but you still have to put the hours in to really become expert.

Not that I would say I’m an expert, there’s still a lot of improvement I can do on my precision wax carving, but I feel like I’ve been making some excellent progress. Some of the pieces I am most proud of for this year are the lapis pendant ( which technically I started in 2016 but I only completed this year.) My acorn bracelet, which was crafted from medieval style acorns I originally carved ages ago for reenacting, and my leaf pendant and earring set.

The lapis necklace is inspired by the same Norse knotwork, found on a coin at Terslev that originally inspired my logo. I love the symmetry of this aesthetic, how centered it is, and the fact that it’s not what people classically think of as “Viking” style knotwork. I have a propensity to go out and find stuff that is weirdly obscure, which actually isn’t a great marketing tactic, because people don’t really understand what it is, so they can’t be like “ oh yes Vikings, I love Vikings”

Instead they have to be excited by the pure aesthetic, which is always a risky business, but this pendant has sold ok, so I feel like I’m not completely off base.

The acorn bracelet is just one of those ideas who’s time had come. Acorns are awesome, and so emotionally and spiritually resonant, and they just look great on a cuff style bracelet. What’s not to like?

With the Kyla leaf and earring set, I FINALLY found a home for the trilliant white sapphires I purchased in 2016. They are super difficult to bezel set, so that always partly held me back, but at the beginning of the year I got excited about upping my gem setting game, so that has been excellent practice. I am generally happy with the aesthetic of the earrings and the pendant. I feel like they express a genuine aesthetic of mine, without being too off the wall, which is always a tricky balance to hit, so it’s nice when I manage it.

Historical:

All four of my favorite historical projects were commissions. It’s rare for me to be able to afford to really do something epic when it comes to historical projects without a commission.

I crafted, a reproduction of the so called “ Robin Hood ring”. A fascinating medieval brooch that was quite tricky set with a sapphire and a garnet. I made what I think is my most historically authentic, plaque style knights belt, and a repro of the seal ring purported to have belonged to the Black Prince, Edward the Third.

The Robin Hood ring was interesting, in that I needed to get the lapis, custom cut. I finally found a lapidary in Toronto who was able to cut gems to my specifications, which is quite exciting, since it opens up a realm of medieval designs that wouldn’t have been possible before, simply because one can’t get the stone shapes pre-cut. Carving the setting was a good challenge. I’ve done it before but only with rounded cabochons, so the octagonal lapis was a cool change. Doing the engravings on each side, of a very medieval looking Baby Jesus, and the Virgin Mary, in such a small space was pretty tricky. I definitely had a hard time with the proportions, but they turned out well enough. It was cast in 10k gold which was very satisfying, since, nothing else polishes up quite as nicely as gold.

The brooch was based on a really interesting original. It took me a little while, and some help from a friend to figure out what I was seeing in the photograph I was copying. The original actually has three dimensional lobes which raise proud of the back frame. This make it possible to have a very three dimensional aesthetic without making it super heavy in terms of metal weight and actual weight on your fabric. Once we figured out how it worked, we found a bunch more examples, and it really just filled me with inspiration about the cleverness of the crafts people of the past and the fantastic ways they solved problems. I also really enjoy the way Medievals used different coloured gems together. It’s playful and visually interesting and very different from the modern aesthetic. I completed this one in 10 k gold as well, and it looks pretty phenomenal when worn on the silk hat of its owner.

The plaque belt was really something. All told, it took me over 20 hours to complete. After I carved the wax for the plaques, and had them cast in brass, I had to solder attachment frames to every single plaque. I got a pretty good system going by the end but man, it was a lot of work. Then they all had to be laboriously polished, and then I had to create two sets of hinges so the belt could be worn with and without armour. The plaques are based on a small, silver original which I have. I made the plaques bigger, to match some larger existing belt depictions, and I made a small aesthetic change so the plaques were a bit closer to the heraldic motif of the client. We also weren’t able to make the belt in silver as that would have put it out of the range of affordability.

The plaques are mobile on the leather belt and they can slide on and off with a bit of fiddling. This is not only based on how the original was attached, but also matches some of the accounts we have of knights using their belt plaques as currency. The ability to slide them off means you could pay someone with one, and get another made easily. This can’t work with riveted plaques, which definitely also existed, but not in this shape and style.

The ring of the Black Prince was requested by a client who found me online. He wanted the writing to be changed to a motto which was personal to him, but to leave the rest of the aesthetic the same. I was also super fortunate to be contacted by a TV show called, History in the Making just before I was to craft this ring. The show does spots on historical artisans, and it turned out that this ring was a good fit for their show. This is a network show so I can’t provide you a link. But if you follow me on social media I will try to let you know when it’s going to be aired.

Carving this ring was just a super intense challenge. It has letters all around the face in intaglio, and then letters all down each side of the band in relief. Letters are always tricky to begin with and tiny letters are extra fun. I pulled it off with relative ease though, and that was one of those moments when you really know your skills have improved. I did a simpler repro of this ring for my partner a number of years ago, which he still wears, and, as much as that ring is fun, it’s amazing to see the progress of my skills since then.

I also had to carve the face of the sardonyx the client chose, with a tiny felled cyprus. I use diamond bits on a rotary tool for this, and it was super hair raising. One slip and you have to scrap the stone and start from scratch. I didn’t slip this time, but I can tell you my adrenaline was way up. I finished it in silver, as the client requested, and did a black patina to bring out the letters. It’s possible that the original might have had enamel in the spaces between the letters on the band, but if it did the glass has all since chipped out.

Here’s the simplified version I did around 5 years ago.

Engagement:

As I mentioned above I set myself the goal of getting more comfy with stone setting this year. I took a course on it back in school but there were certain types I was either scared of, or simply didn’t do enough of to get good at so I had to kick my own butt a bit to get over it.

This year I claw and bezel set a lot of faceted stones myself, rather than having a dedicated gem setter do them. It was surprisingly not as hard as I had convinced myself and I’m excited to do a lot more of it in the coming years.

I also just wanted to make more engagement designs for people to choose from, so they don’t have to start from scratch every time.

The top center ring at the beginning of this post is a custom ring I did for some friends who are getting married this very evening. It was nice to be able to facilitate the desires of my client on this one, using a diamond she already had and some aquamarines for the halo. She took the photo herself and I really love how it turned out.

The bottom right is a claw set, stacking wedding and engagement combo, which I think really turned out nicely. It’s simple and elegant and hopefully will appeal to clients who are looking for something special.

I haven’t really seen much feedback on my new engagement ring styles so I don’t know how successful I’ve been, but at the very least, I set a professional goal and completed it, and that feels good. I’ll probably end up rephotographing most of them, that’s one thing I definitely have a lot of work to do on improving.

I have some exciting plans for 2019. I want to do more work in gold, as finances allow, I also have a block of jade, which I’ve owned since 2007 which I plan to get cut up into stones, now that I know a reputable gem cutter. I’ve also ordered some really fun, big labradorite and moonstone so I want to see what I can do with some bigger designs.

I plan to set a lot more faceted gems, and I’ll try to improve my booth display so I can participate in larger scale craftshows in the future.

I have lots of projects lined up for the new year and I’m looking forward to being back at my bench once the holidays are over.

Here’s to a creative and fun 2019.