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Beautiful gold Shropshire sun pendant
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amd
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Re: Beautiful gold Shropshire sun pendant
Jun 07, 2020, 09:49
This has got the cogs going on how it was manufactured and decorated. They don't say if it is solid gold throughout or has some base metal substructure.

I picked up a copy of Susan Young's 'The Work of Angels: Masterpieces of Celtic Metalwork: 6th to 9th Centuries', full of brooches, pins and bowls all featuring astounding decoration. The book has a 40 page section on techniques of the metalsmiths, and two things leapt out at me:

First was how much casting was involved in decoration, using clay moulds of models (possibly lost wax). There are examples in the book of mould remnants for penannular brooches.

Second was evidence of animal bones with fine incised decoration.

I don't think they say it in the book (they concentrate on the bones providing practice surfaces and shareable design sources) but I imagine carving fine detail into bone, pressing softer materials into it to take on the decoration, then casting the result is going to give you very crisp detail.
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Beautiful gold Shropshire sun pendant (Rhiannon)
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