What it Is: a pair of garnet (clothing?)pins, chained togther with a loop-in-loop chain.

Historical Context: The original is gold, with flat topped garnet, 140mm tip to tip. It dates from about 7th Century, and comes from an “early-medieval bed burial assemblage.” So that sounds interesting and worthy of far more digging into a beckoning rabbit hole, because what is a bed burial? (I’ll dig into this eventually, but for now I offer this wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_burial.) Anyway, this delightful little peice was found by a metal detectorist, along with some other fun stuff. There is no certain information about what this was or how it was used, or where it was made, but my personal presumption was that it is meant to hold a garment closed. It could have been as simple as the neckline of a gown, or perhaps a mantle or wrap, though I doubt that the garment would have been very heavy, simply because the pins are relatively short (70mm each including the head, or about 2.75 inches) and there is no method by which to hold them in place under tension.

What I did: made mine from silver, fabricated from melting scraps and formed using various tools. This is another thing I made just because I wanted to make it (also I found the stones, and wanted to use them). The original was possibly cast, but it’s just as likely that the pins were forged using heat and a hammer. Doing that takes a good deal of skill, but it’s undoubtedly easier with gold than any harder metals. I made my set a good bit larger than the original, because I made it in proportion to the stones I had (garnets). My chain was also made from scrap wire I happened to have on hand, rather than melting scrap and making wire specifically for the project. (Starting from scrap is as close as I am ever likely to come to refining my own ore, just in case anyone has any idea that this is a good idea. It is not a good idea.)

Exceptions to period practice & what I would do different:

Modern tools and equipment, as always. If i were to do this again, I would form the plate and spikes from one piece of silver, not solder them together as I have done here (and form the pins using heat and hammers, as discussed above). I would also make more wire and not have two different weights of links in the connecting chain. I might even try stone cutting to make flat faced garnets. I would definitely use fine silver for the stone bezels, not sterling, because it work hardens to the point of being very difficult to close around the stone. My chain is a more modern link chain, the original is a form of loop-in-loop chain (and I made this chain this way because I didn’t have enough wire on hand. Round link chains are not out of period practice, but they are not common until later period.

References:

https://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/446602/recordtype/artefacts

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/586813 This links to a related object, and contains a more complete description of the find, which is actually fairly significant and is considered treasure.

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/586813