Eileen Moylan

Jewellery Designer & Goldsmith Cork

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What to do with unworn gold jewellery?

05.28.2012 by Eileen Moylan //

This week I’m melting down a customers gold to transform it into a new piece of jewellery. Many people disregard this option as they think they don’t have enough gold jewellery to recycle. But how many broken chains and odd earrings do you have that will never be worn again? This is a perfect way to de-clutter your jewellery box and also give yourself a guilt free gift of jewellery!

Weighing Metal

Here are some photos of the melting and re modelling process. I begin my weighing the customers gold, making sure I have enough to make the requested design. I’m turning this gold into charms for a bracelet.

Melting Gold

For these charms I need a length of D shaped wire. This is done by rolling the gold through my trusty rolling mill to form a length of wire. It’s a slow process with the gold needing to be annealed ( heated to soften) after every few rolls.

Rolling Gold

Once the gold is at the correct thickness I cut it into the required lengths and start rounding it up. This also has to be done in stages and annealed as the gold wire is very thick for the size of the charm.

Making Gold Charm

I will post pictures of the finished charms next week…

Categories // My Workshop Tags // Gold, goldsmith, jewellers tools, Jewellery, Jewelry, Silver

Gold & Silver Stacking Rings Part 2

12.21.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

This is part two of a series on making stacking rings, to read part 1 click here.

Having made the silver rings I then needed to cut out the gold details and solder them on the rings.

Filing flat are on rings for gold detail
Filing flat are on rings for gold detail

I begin by filing an area on the rings so the gold triangles will be able to sit flat on the bands. Then I cut the mark out the different size triangles on my gold sheet.

Marking out Triangles (and drinking tea!)
Marking out Triangles (and drinking tea!)

Because the gold details are so small they need to be held in a ring clamp when filing and cutting them out.

Cutting out Gold Detail
Cutting out Gold Detail
Filing edges of gold
Filing edges of gold
Cutting out gold detail
Cutting out gold detail

Once I have all the gold pieces cut out I place them on the rings to make sure everything sits nicely together and they will work in a variety of positions. I stick these on with blu tack so I can move them around easily.

Checking gold detail on rings
Checking gold detail on rings

When I’m happy with the size, shape and direction of each of the gold triangles I can start setting up for soldering.

Setting up for soldering
Setting up for soldering

It’s not a great photo as the sun started streaming in the workshop window. Once I’ve finished all the soldering I’ll post pictures of the finished rings.

Categories // My Workshop Tags // contemporary jewellery, Gold, jewellers tools, Jewellery, Jewelry, Silver, silver ring

Safe Secrets: The Story of the Coggalbeg Hoard

10.24.2011 by Eileen Moylan //

Coggalbeg Hoard
Coggalbeg Hoard

Many of you may have read the story of a gold Early Bronze Age collar which was found in a skip after the robbery of a Co. Roscomon pharmacy.

Apparently when Sheehans pharmacy in  Strokestown Co. Roscommon was robbed the burglars  turned out the contents of the safe into a skip after taking the money and valuables of interest to them. What they didn’t realise was that buried in the papers was a priceless gold torc.

Following the robbery the Sheehan family told gardaí that the safe contained three items of gold jewellery. The detectives established that the papers from the safe had been dumped in a skip nearby. Because of the flat, thin nature of these gold pieces (weighing only 78 grams in total) they went unnoticed by the robbers. After trawling through the skip the gardaí found the crescent shaped collar and two small gold discs.

Gold Lunulae
Gold Lunulae

It transpires that these items had been kept in the Sheehan’s safe since 1947.  The hoard was originally found by Hubert Lannon when he was cutting turf in his bog at Coggalbeg, Co. Roscommon. It was discovered when investigating the provenance of the hoard that Mr Lannon had died at age 93  just three weeks before the robbery in March 2009. His family were able to confirm that he had found the gold in his bog and had given it to Mr Sheehan the Strokestown chemist.

Once the gold had been recovered it was sent to the National Museum of Ireland to be cataloged and dated. This hoard is extremely important as it contains the first pair of discs to be found since the nineteenth century.  The find is also important as it represents the first recorded association of a lunula and gold discs. This is very significant for archaeologists as they study the period in which collars and discs would be worn.

Last week the Coggalbeg hoard went on display in the Museum of Country Life in Turlough Park, Castlebar. This amazing find will remain there for all to see until June 2012.

What a strange set of circumstances resulted in this hoard finding  its way into public view. How many other treasures are buried in safes and under beds around the country?!

Categories // My Inspirations Tags // Bronze Age, Early Bronze Age, Gold, Jewellery, Jewelry, Lunulae, National Museum of Ireland

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