The Arts, Sciences & Services of
Lady Cailleach Dhe ingen Chiarain
Art as Service: My SCA Exploration.
Brooches of the Merovingian-Frankish 6th Century
Whorl and Wheel
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Lady Cailleach Dhe ingen Chiarain
MKA Karyn L Driscoll
220249@members.eastkingdom.org
January 10, 2021
Extent Brooches: About
The particular brooches I fell in love with are held by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The wheel was found in a grave in Northern France; Stanislas Baron, Paris (Met). It is made from gilted silver and garnet, is 7/8ths of an inch in width, and one-quarter inch in depth (Met). There were many similar wheel-style disc brooches found throughout Europe, dating to that time period. The whorl was found in Bréban, Marne, France and is one-inch in width, and one-quarter inch in depth. Both brooches were found in the nineteenth century, and were gifted to the Met by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1917. Bréban and its vicinity in Northern France were the site of a large grave group, which resulted in finding many items from the Frankish Merovingian era (Wiki).
This style and quality of jewelry is believed to have belonged to a woman of high-status, as Sartorial laws only permitted women of high ranking to wear such things (ClevelandArt). The wheel was found as a single brooch, whereas the whorl brooches were a pair. They are thought to be functional or clothing fasteners along with a single brooch for decorative purposes. The bow brooches shown below were found at the waist, with the intent to keep a coat closed.
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​The woman who was buried at Bréban, went to the grave in all her finery
in the pagan fashion. Her jewellery consists of: a pair of gold earrings inlaid
with garnets and glass; a pair of gilded copper-alloy radiate-headed brooches,
with garnet inlays and friezes of bird heads (found at the woman's waist); a pair
of gilded silver quatrefoil brooches; a single gilded silver and garnet disc brooch
found on her chest; amber beads, which were worn at the neck; and a bracelet
of glass beads, from her left wrist; and a hairpin, jet ring, buckle and silver
cosmetic implement. At the woman's feet were the iron hoops and handle from
a wooden bucket and an iron spade-end. (MerovingianDynasty)
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Photo: British Museum
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Brooches such as these, with a flat back, may have molded a simple round of silver, then cut
and filed to a circular disc shape. The finishing details of the spokes were made in relief, using
a sharp-edged metal tool, called a graver (Britannica). The red background is a foil with crushed
glass that was ground into a fine powder, then mixed with metal oxides to create different colors.
That concoction was then mixed with an adhesive and melted over a flame or in a furnace allowing
it to fill and remain in the divots created in the metal. This brooch also has a garnet in the center,
which may have been first affixed with an adhesive, and the image (Met) shows evidence of a gemstone
secured with a bezel setting technique that was commonly used during this time period (Britannica).
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Reproductions: About
At an Arts & Sciences competition in 2018, I met a gentleman who was working with metal casting. His work was magnificent and it absolutely inspired me. He gifted me the knowledge that I could, in fact, cast pewter in my very own kitchen! It has a low temperature melting point, unlike silver or bronze, and can be liquified right on the kitchen stove! In the interest of not destroying granite counter-tops, I chose to use an electric casting furnace instead.
Prior to this, my main artistic outlet was butted ring chainmaille, and while the technique technically period, is not considered so in the application I use it for. I knew nearly nothing about metal work, let alone casting. But, of course, there was a piece I wanted to reproduce, and his advice gave me the means to follow through.
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I began researching different metals and means of forging and casting, along with a plethora of extent finds. Drawing is not my strong suit, so I began looking for something that had simple shapes to follow, while working my way up to a more complex piece. I stumbled upon this 6th Century Merovingian-Frankish whorl, or quatrefoil brooch and the more I got to “know” it in my research, the more I fell in love.
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Reproduction by Lady Cailleach, Oct. 2020
I began looking into the history of the time period, the clothing and the culture of this brooch. I was fascinated at how so very long ago, the people were able to conceptualize and create jewelry with such advanced techniques as enameling, cloisonné techniques, gilding, glass paste, foil backed stones, filigree and such detail!
After I completed my Frankish Whorl brooch in October, I found that I absolutely love working with this medium. I am typically prone to acts of service in our Kingdom rather than showcasing my art, but I found that I wanted to dive right into this next project. I looked into the history of the time period, the clothing and the culture of the other brooch and found the wheel disk brooch. I was fascinated at how so very long ago, the people were able to conceptualize and create jewelry with such advanced techniques as enameling, cloisonné techniques, gilding, glass paste, foil backed stones, filigree and such detail!
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My initial purpose for the wheel brooch was to adapt it to echo our East Kingdom's Order of the Silver Wheel medallion (sca.org). The first one cast (below, left) has been given to my partner in life, who is so very deserved of the honor of being inducted into the order. I will be donating others to the Kingdom to be given to other Silver Wheel inductees. In keeping with the spirit of arts and sciences, I also decided to recreate the “garnet” brooch to pair with my whorl brooches.
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Reproduction by Lady Cailleach, Jan. 2021
As part of this Merovingian exploration, I am creating an ensemble of proposed clothing that a Lady would have worn in that time and place, which will include a Wheel brooch (both decorative, functional, and to be worn as a member of the EK Order) and a quatrefoil Whorl brooch (de Ricci), per a grave find in Le Pré-la-Guerre (British Museum). I will be attempting to create the bow brooches from this grave as a future project. Unfortunately, I have not found much documentation in the way of extent clothing from this era, so much will be conjecture based on a woman buried at the Barbares Grave 12, or that of Arnegunde, a Merovingian Queen. This ambitious project will be displayed in full once completed.
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My Process:
I began by using soft Sculpey clay, rolled it to a uniform thickness with a tube. I then took a circular stencil and traced the outer edge with an Exacto blade. I used the blade to create the rest of the shape free-hand, using a photo of the extent brooch as my guide. I used a round-end tool to create the depth for the “glass” to sit in, and then baked my clay to harden it.
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I used metal files to shape and round the edges of the clay, and took a sharp edge to lightly carve the double circles into the face of the shape. When my hands gave up, due to limited fine motor skills, I used a Dremel tool with fine bits to deepen the grooves and smooth out any ridges or sharp edges. This tool proved to be the best for me to work with, and was also used on the wheel.
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Once happy with my design, I mixed the two parts of MoldMax 60 silicone together and poured them over my clay to make a mold. By affixing the back of my sculpt to the bottom of the container, I created an open-back mold where I could pour the metal directly in, without needing a sprue. After allowing the silicone to cure, I used an electric casting furnace to melt pewter and used a dipper tool to gently pour the metal into the mold. Once cooled, I was able to easily pop the finished brooch out and add a pin or necklace bail to the back using a quick-drying water-proof glue. My “glass” is an oil-based pearlescent paint applied with a paint brush and allowed to dry.
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The first round of casting the whorl produced very thick, heavy brooches. I went back and did a second pouring where I was able to better control the amount of metal used to make sure the brooches being given were functional, as pewter is weighty. Some pours from the second round were incomplete. I then created a two-part mold of the whorl to be able to better control the amount of pewter used, and best create a uniform thickness.
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For the wheel brooch, I applied everything I learned from my first project and the first round of casting could not have been better! Both sizes produced with very little flash, and were nearly as clean as they could be with only minor buffing and shining required. I used the same "glass" paint, and added a flat-back faceted Swarovski crystal to represent the "garnet" present in the original.
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To view a step-by-step photo essay of my process, please visit my blog.
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Final Thoughts:
While I recognize that how I created these brooches is not period, it is my application of anachronism within our Game. My process is a modern combination of lost wax casting and sand casting, which "can be traced back to earlier than 1000 B.C." (Metaltek). Unlike lost wax, I am creating a two-part mold, rather than a one-piece, to capture the entire sculpt with a sprue to pour the metal into. The benefit of the silicone process over sand casting is that I am able to reuse the mold multiple times, whereas with the sand, there is some waste with each use and the positive of the piece must be molded each time you want to cast.
Pewter casting has been a great learning experience, an amazing outlet for myself using a new art form, and a way for me to continue my path of "Art as Service", producing medallions as a donation to Kingdom largess. Going forward, I would like to further my knowledge and experience and recreate these pieces by melting bronze or fine silver in a crucible over flame, then casting into delft clay, or by carving soapstone and to align closer to the period methods.
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Materials used:
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R98 pewter alloy
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Pebeo oil-based paint
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Electrical casting furnace
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Swarovski 5mm flat-back crystal
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Sculpey firm oven-bake clay
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Fibula-style brooch back, aluminum wire
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Exacto blade, metal files, Dremel tool
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Glue-on bail (medallion)
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MoldMax 60 Silicone
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Water-proof all-purpose glue
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Works Cited:
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“Bréban.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Aug. 2020,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%A9ban#cite_note-2.
Gdonley. “Movable Pieces.” Cleveland Museum of Art, 17 Aug. 2016,
www.clevelandart.org/magazine/cleveland-art-2010-highlights/movable-pieces.
“Image 31176001: British Museum.” The British Museum,
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/31176001.
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“Metalwork.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,
www.britannica.com/art/jewelry/Metalwork#ref14072.
Metmuseum.org,
www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/464840?rpp=20&pg=6&ao=on&ft=frankish&pos=105.
Metmuseum.org,
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Ricci, Seymour de. Catalogue of a Collection of Merovingian Antiquities Belonging to J. Pierpont Morgan. Paris: C. Berger, 1910. no. 172, p. 38, pl. VI.
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ThemeFuse. Order of the Merovingian Dynasty,
www.merovingiandynasty.org/details.php?id=dynasty_ralics.
“What Is Sand Casting and How Does It Work?” MetalTek, 10 Dec. 2020,
