Visigoth jewelled weaponry

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Hello,

I have start to make some things in order to do a germanig chieftain impresion on V century.

The germanic people in that time use some jewelled pieces for ornate the belts, fibulae, and the pommel of the weapons. The decorations consist in use garnet inserts or enamel (cloisonne, o make into cellars).



Now i'm probing to get the aspect of such jewelled pieces. That's my first attemp:



Opinions, please?

[brennivs - tony drake]

Lvcivs that is an excellent first attempt.This type of sword has Fascinated me and one day I hope to study the construction of such pieces.Is the intention to recreate the above sword I may have other pics of such swords if you wish me to post keep us posted of your progress.
Regards Brennivs

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Thanks.

Oh, please, if you can post pictures, do it. All the information is always little...

[Tarbicus]

Wow. Great work.

I must ask if the edges on the original are neater?

Laudes, regardless.

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Yes. The border are straight.

I have maked that quickly, only to know if the aspect of garnet could be imitated.

Lookat the enamel, it have some little points, trying to copy the irregularity of the garnets.

[Tarbicus]

Top stuff Cesar.

[Caballo]

Lovely work, Cesar.
By coincidence, I was looking today at some garnet Saxon pieces in the Ashmolean Museum , Oxford. Sadly, most of the collection is not displayed due to building works. Still, here are a few pieces that may be interesting.

http://johnevans.ashmolean.org/british/1909-517.html

A beautiful buckle
http://johnevans.ashmolean.org/british/1909-455.html


http://johnevans.ashmolean.org/british/1909-453.html

Cheers

Caballo

[Robert Vermaat]

Cesar, that is just great work... A laudes to you.

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Second probe, as Tarbicus suggested, more neater:

[Tarbicus]

And that's another laude

[caiusbeerquitius]

If you put in the enamel in thin layers which you heat up one after another you will get better results, without the holes. Also don´t use opaque enamel, rather transparent one to imitate Almandine. Put in a thin folded gold layer under the first layer, the same was made under the Almandine stones, see the little squares under the stone:

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Almandine it's a preciou stone, and have a lot of tonalities. Some of the pieces are translucid, but there are some more opaque. See the example posted by Caballo.

Thanks all for your comments.

[Iagoba]

Great stuff!
I thought some time ago in simulating enamel with handcrafts tin foil and the enamel of Humbrol, or the plastic "plumbing" tubes...Not very historical, but cheap for me...
I´ll have to continue this more seriously :roll:

[Salvianus]

Looking good to me, Cesar, laudes.

I always liked this one from the Germanic National Museum at Nürnberg:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... fibula.jpg

[Olibrius]

Very nice!

Me too, I make a little.
Here, a buckle with garnet.