Experimental Archaeology: Making Reproduction Roman Earrings

[shanmonster]

About ten years ago, I studied metal arts at craft college. My focus was in the creation of jewellery and other small metal objects. I studied the history of jewellery as part of my curriculum, and we learned about ancient techniques. One of the techniques we studied was granulation. Granulation is a technique in which tiny, uniformly-sized beads of metal are affixed to a metal object in a pattern.

The early masters of this art were the Etruscans, back in the third century BCE. The precision work and the infinitesimal metal spheres they created are mind-boggling. Extant pieces show granules a mere 0.14 mm in diameter (1). It is unknown how such tiny, consistently-sized beads were created. It is also unknown how they were attached to metal pieces without melting them. Probable techniques have been determined, but there is no hard proof that these techniques are the ones which were actually used.

This photo shows detail on an Etruscan earring demonstrating a variety of granulation sizes and patterns, as well as a variety of other techniques including filigree (fine metal scrolling), chasing (hammering to create a concave surface design), repoussage (hammering to create a convex surface design), and dapping (hammering a flat piece of metal into a dome).





I did not have the skill to create such an ornate and fiddly piece, but I did want to recreate a piece using granulation. I chose the following earrings to recreate.



These are Roman earrings from about the second century CE. (I no longer have an image of the back view of these earrings, unfortunately.) As you can see, the granules here are much larger than on the previous earring, and the design is far simpler. Although these earrings are gold, I did not have the budget to work with gold, so I chose to work with sterling and reticulation silver (a form of silver with about twice the copper content as sterling silver) (2). The same basic metal working techniques are used with both silver and gold, although silver takes much more work to bring to a completion than gold. I chose sterling silver shot of similar size for my granules.

In order to copy the textured surface of the gold domes, I chose to use reticulation silver. When silver reticulates, it gets an uneven surface texture. Since it is impossible to predict just how the surface will reticulate, I applied heat to a fair amount of silver until I got exactly the texture I was looking for. Once I had the metal the way I wanted it, I carefully hammered out discs, put them in a dapping block, and hammered just enough to get the domes. If I hammered too hard or too long, I risked smoothing out the reticulation with the force of the blows.

These earrings have S-shaped posts. I used silver wire of the appropriate gauge to create these. If you look closely at the earring on the right, you can see how the wire is flat rather than round near the body of the earring. This is a simple effect to copy. I hammered, or forged, part of the wire to uniform flatness.

Once all this was done, it was time to assemble the piece. This is the trickiest part for a few reasons. Considering the thinness of the metal, there was a significant risk of melting everything into a blob. I had to work as quickly and efficiently as possible. The longer a torch is held to the silver, the more the impurities rise to the surface creating a dull, hazy appearance. And, since there are so many pieces which must be held in place, I had to use numerous third hand devices. First of all, I soldered the two domes together. Secondly, I soldered the wires in place. Thirdly, I soldered the granules in position.

Once the pieces were assembled, I cleaned them up, trimmed the wires to the correct length and bent them into place, and then I did some careful hammering and bending with pliers to match the beaten appearance of the domes.

Here is the final product.



In terms of experimental archaeology, this was not a complete success. I did not use the same equipment which would have been available to Roman jewellers. I used acetylene torches, fume hoods, dremel polishers, etc. However, although the equipment was modern, the techniques I used are ancient ones, so in this way, the project was successful.

Works cited:

1. http://www.jckonline.com/1995/05/01/granulation-reviving-ancient-technique
2. http://cloud925.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/what-is-reticulated-silver/

Photo of Etruscan earring from http://www.mmdtkw.org/ALRIAncRomUnit1Slides.html

Photo of Roman earrings of unknown origin.

Photo of reproduction earrings taken by myself.

Comments

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Those are GORGEOUS.

[the-lucky-nun.livejournal.com]

That's still really  cool! Thank you for sharing the process.

[valkryor.livejournal.com]

Etruscan work is amazing, but I've always had a soft spot for the Minoan and Mycenaean pieces. That's likely my Bronze Age preferences showing.

I am, though, incredibly impressed by the reproduction you've made. Brava!

[miss-colombina.livejournal.com]

Thank you for explaining the process - gives a whole new appreciation of the ancient piece and also your reproduction.