This Dundurn Pictish ring has been quite popular in our shop lately! It’s based on an Early Medieval casting mould fragment for a Pictish clothes pin which was found in Dundurn hillfort, Perthshire. While we do make pins based on the mould, Nicholas realised that this design works really well as a ring too.

Which other historical jewellery do you think could be repurposed like this? Let us know in the comments!😊

Here we have a wee selection of our Insular brooches inspired by Pictish artefacts. Some of these brooches, such as the St Ninian’s Isle Dragon one, are quite large and must have been used to keep heavy cloaks in place. Nowadays, they can be centre pieces on a pretty scarf.😉 Which is your favourite? Personally I really like the smaller Loch Glashan brooch in the 5th photo.✨

The last two photos show the original artefacts at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The gorgeous wooden Birsay Box is handmade by @eindridewoodwork

It’s #marchmeetthemaker month, so we’re taking this opportunity to introduce ourselves to again!😁

We are Nicky and Fausta, the only people behind Caledonian Forge. Having had a strong interest in the artistic side of things as far back as we can remember, we met at Nicky’s end of the year art exhibition in college, many years ago. Little did we know that we’d become lifelong partners in life AND in work!

Nicky has always been passionate about historical jewellery which has led him to teaching himself various goldsmithing techniques, both ancient and modern which he is passing on to me, Fausta, on my workshop days. This passion evolved into our wee business today. Follow along for more behind the scenes, new projects, and everything in between.😊

For today’s #marchmeetthemaker prompt, Behind the Scenes, here’s a part of the process which is not often obvious. For complex pieces like this miniature carrion crow pendant, Nicky sends away his wax carvings to be lost wax cast - a method of casting which we don’t currently have space for in our wee workshop. Once the pieces are cast, we finish them off with the same kind of tools which we use for finishing sand cast work.

Photos of wax copies of Nicky’s carving were kindly provided by @jewellerycastingscotland

What other parts of our process would you like to see?

The vast majority of what we make is inspired by the Early Medieval period with our most popular jewellery usually being Anglo Saxon. However, we absolutely love the Picts and the treasures they have left behind.

In these photos you can see some famous examples of Pictish art, turned into jewellery in our workshop: Double Disc and Z-rod along with the Pictish Salmon pendants are inspired by carvings left on standing stones in Scotland by the Picts. The Norrie’s Law Plaque (picturing another double disc and z-rod with a beastie carving at the bottom) and the Pictish Pennanular Ring at the bottom are based on real precious metal artefacts.

We’ve also got an Anglo Saxon hammer and a spear here next to a Viking Valkyrie, a tiny stamped and a chunky Viking hammer with runic innoscription. Finally, the large cross in the corner is the magnificent Galloway Hoard Cross which has been very popular!

So that’s what we have on the bench today, being finished off for sending near the end of the week!