Eileen Moylan | Eileen Moylan

Family Crest Brooch

04.03.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

Last week I posted photos of a brooch I made recently. The design brief was that it would incorporate the crests of the two family names. Unlike most family crest jewellery the customer wanted the crests executed in a contemporary design.

This was a really nice job to work on, not only were the crests lovely but the customer was so appreciative of my designs and sketches. The crests were a bird and a fish so I had to figure out how to incorporate these into a fun design.

Click here to see the making process.

I was really happy with the finished product. I decided to mount the crests in a frame design and make them in gold so they would contrast against the silver. I also added some flowers in silver. I had planned to keep it all polished silver but when I experimented with the surface the black oxidized finished worked better. Anyway here’s the finished piece.

Made in Ireland

11.08.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This week I was featured in the Radio 1 series ‘Made in Ireland’. Each week Ella McSweeney looks at a different craft or skill in Ireland. So this week was the turn of the silversmiths!

As well as calling to Dublin based silversmith Seamus Gill, Ella came down to my workshop in Cork. We discussed the different tools used by silversmiths, the properties of silver and women in the history of silversmithing.

If you want to have a listen to it click on the link below.

Made in Ireland, Silversmiths

Video Blog on Annealing

02.11.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

One of the basic techniques you learn as a silversmith is how to anneal metal. Annealing is the process of heating your metal to soften it after it has been work- hardened with steel tools. It is necessary to anneal metal through the different stages of making so you are not working with a piece of metal that is too hard. This could result in the metal cracking or if you have a solder joint in your piece this could split.

Most people think that you just need to heat your silver and then quench it in water to anneal it, but there are a number of things you need to do to correctly anneal your metal. Using a piece of silver wire I will show how to correctly anneal metal and the difference in the malleability before and after annealing.

In this video you can see the benefit of having your metal correctly annealed. Not only does the metal ‘behave’ itself but it also makes hammering the metal much easier on you and your ears!