Roman Style Bow Fibulae Broches & Penannular Brooches (Cloak Pins)

Roman style bow fibulae brooches were the first safety pins. They were used to hold clothes on. They are strong enough to be used as a cloak pin. I taught these as a basic beginners class on pins. we used hard brass wire and in one here I used a bead that I lamp worked

 http://www.uq.edu.au/antiquities/95-086a
 http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=phrygian%20fibula
 http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/196463
http://clioantiquities.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/roman-bronze-fibulae-brooches/
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections?ft=*&what=Fibulae

The second half of the class was penannular brooches (Cloak Pins) using copper wire and or hard brass wire. This style was common in the Viking era however these could be much more ornate or plain as this. These continued to be used in the Britain area though out medieval times.

http://www.metmuseum.org/search-results?ft=penannular&x=0&y=0

Medieval Wire Ring

 Here is a ring I taught in class this weekend at the Midrealm's first Fire Arts Symposium  {Barony of the Flame} [Vine Grove, KY].
It is based on a ring in the Antiquities collection of

see link below.

http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/429904

 http://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/317317

Anglo-Saxon

 Date from: Circa AD 550
Date to: Circa AD 800

 

What I find most interesting about the original find is that it is in square wire. I used cheep round German Silver plated copper wire for this one.

Here is a simpler, similar one that appears to be in round wire
http://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/43974

http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/73303