Regalia chain 'work in progress' images.

Just after starting this chain for the Mochdre Community Council Regalia I acquired a new camera, which meant that every little thing I did had to be photographed. :-D So here is an overview of the stages involved in making a chain, obviously I've missed things out - otherwise it would be pretty repetitive. In between each stage more or less the same thing happens, the silver is cooled, pickled to remove the flux, and rubbed over with a toothbrush and pumice powder to clean it up.


So to start with I needed, uuum, lots of little round links (can't remember how many!) which entails making a long spring-like spiral around a mandrel, then cutting along it's length to make the links. They they're soldered, pickled and pumiced to get them to this state.


I wanted the chain to lie flat against the wearers body, so these little links were to be squished in the jaws of the parallel pliers, then put through the rolling mill to give them a flat reflective surface (and also to flatten off the uneven shape).


Then I needed some medium sized links, not so many though this time. They were made in the same way as the small ones, soldered together, then pickled to remove the flux and put through the rolling mill. Next I cut a slit along the join to open them up again, this will allow me to slip the 'squished' links onto the round link without having to worry about re-forming the circle afterwards. They can then be re-heated and the solder will flow again closing the joint. It's THAT easy, and no I didn't swear once... no really I didn't!


Here are the 'squished' links soldered to the medium round ones, six on each except for the ends which have three and a hook to be added later.


Next step was to make the large oval shapes, this was done by making large round links the same size, they were then soldered together to make the forming of the oval easier. After some fiddling with a jig, and some tweaking by eye, I had eight ellipses more or less the same.


The large ovals after being soldered and pickled, ready to be flattened in the rolling mill, again to give them a more reflective profile.


The large ovals after they've been through the rolling mill and cut open again ready to be assembled.


The last bit of assembly and soldering - it's easy to loose concentration and solder the wrong bits together here!


The finished chain, in all it's shiny glory after being pickled, pumiced and polished. :-) I've found this quite useful, who knows, if I'm organised enough to actually have the camera in the workshop with me next time there might be more where this came from!

Mochdre Community Council Regalia

This is Mochdre Community Council's Regalia, I've just finished making it and handed over earlier today, it was designed by a local schoolboy. It's made from Sterling Silver and is oxidised to emphasise the details.


The front of the medal shows Llangwstennin Church, Constantine (reflecting Mochdre's roman past - hence the name 'Cystennin') and the swan is taken from the Swan Buildings, which although it doesn't seem much today is one of the oldest buildings in Mochdre, it stood on the main road - the 'Old Highway', and was probably a coach house/inn. The little boy that designed the medal originally included a lot of other ideas, but I think this captures the main things he was interested in.


Sheffield Assay Office did the laser marking for me, and I love the way it turned out.


Lastly the hallmark reads like this:

• The mark on the left is my makers mark (WLD)
• 925 is the silver standard.
• The rose is the Sheffield Assay Office's mark
• The lion denotes Sterling Silver
• The K is the year (2009)
• The Dragon is specifically for work made in Wales.

This has been a long project because I've had so much going on (working in the theatre, teaching, doing my PGCE and trying to do other commissions along the way), people laugh at me - 'you're STILL working on that medal?!' but that's how it's gone. I was in need of a run of solid workshop days to finish it, and I just never get that. Having said that it has allowed me to think things through in great detail at each stage, the only part I've struggled with is making someone else's design - I would have tweaked the design so much during the making process that it wouldn't have looked anything like the original design if it were mine!

I'd love to do another one to my own design, something less restrictive that I can pour myself into. Maybe I will - to see what it could have been! A piece of regalia for some made-up society, laden with symbolism that means everything and nothing. Hmmm, can you tell my mind is bursting with ideas (good AND bad) now that I'm free of this commission! :-) That's not to say I haven't enjoyed it at all, in fact I'm really grateful that they asked me to make it, I've just been looking forward to getting stuck into my own work again.

So for now I'll be dreaming about my next project - working on some work that will hopefully be included in an exhibition in South Wales next year with an astronomy/time/cosmos theme, I'll share my ideas as they progress on here. One free evening I would also like to sit down and write up the process I went through when making this medal, and think about what I could have done to make it a better/quicker process. I've taken some step-by-step pictures of the chain as I was making it (acquired a new camera just at the right time!) so I'll post those as well in the next few days.

So, it's finished and I'm happy. Things go through my mind whilst working on a piece, this one has been filled with thoughts of family, memories, a sense of my place in this town and history, but most of all my Aunty Sue who has done so much for Mochdre over the years, she is missed.

One thing bugs me - there should be a clock on it!

Mochdre Council Regalia - Wording

I finished cutting this out yesterday and thought I'd put a quick image up here. The medal was designed by a boy from Ysgol Cystennin, I'll post an image of the winning design alongside the medal when it's finished.

'Mochdre Is A Team' was drawn out using Adobe Illustrator, then printed and fixed to the metal for piercing. It took about three hours to cut out, and is a bit fragile at this stage because I used 0.5mm silver. When it's soldered to the back plate I can start deburring and polishing.