Paired Garnet Pins
So I made a thing.
The original is a pair of gold garnet-topped pins from a 7th-century bed burial at Trumpington Meadows, outside Cambridge. The girl buried with them was probably between 14 and 18, likely nobility or royalty, and one of the earliest Christians in Britain. No direct parallels for these pins have been identified anywhere.
I made mine from silver, fabricated from melting scraps, and sized them up to fit the garnets I had on hand. The original was 140mm tip to tip; mine are larger. I’d do a few things differently next time — fine silver bezels instead of sterling, for one — but the full breakdown of what I did, what I’d change, and the historical context is in the documentation.
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