Galloway Hoard Disc Brooch

This is a reproduction of one of the disc brooches from the Galloway Hoard, discovered in southwest Scotland in 2014. The brooch I copied is Trewhiddle style — intricate interlace, animal ornament, strong contrast between bright metal and dark inlay. The original is about 67mm across. Mine came out at 82mm because I scaled it to the silver I had on hand.

About 120–130 drilled holes, three days of sawing, a lot of sacrificed saw blades, and niello applied by heating the silver to around 900°F and touching niello sticks to the surface so they flowed like a crayon over a hot plate. I also made a design mistake — filling the interlace channels with niello, which flattened the relief instead of adding depth. That got laboriously ground back out. Lesson learned.

The back plate got remade twice. The pin assembly got completely replaced. Despite the long list of rebuilds and compromises, the finished brooch is a reasonably accurate reproduction — including some of the same sort of small imperfections that characterize early medieval work. This piece has become a benchmark for me.

Full project documentation (PDF)