Photo copyright Catherine Beyer
My coin jewelry pieces for Reminted Jewelry have slowly been getting more complicated. The first one was never actually for sale; it’s meant for steampunk conventions (whether I’m vending or not). It’s three strings of amethyst and crystal featuring a Victorian shilling. It’s completely over-the-top, which is my usual steampunk style.
Photo copyright Pixel Productions
I made the second one as part of my application portfolio for art fairs. It features three 4th century Roman coins. Which were, incidentally, the very first coins I was using to create coin jewelry.
Photo copyright Pixel Productions
The third coin jewelry showcase piece was created partly out of boredom and partly so I could have a showcase piece for my booth. I didn’t consider it likely to sell, but it showed off a lot of the things I could do. It featured a Moroccan coin from the 1950s, which bears a pentagram and absolutely gorgeous arabesque details.
Photo copyright Catherine Beyer
This piece sold at Art Street in Green Bay a couple weekends ago, which made me very sad because I would have totally claimed it as my own if I chose to give Reminted Jewelry up after this year.
So I created a new piece before the last weekend of the Bristol Renaissance Festival. This was a double strand of dragon blood jasper stones featuring a Roman coin of Caracalla.
Photo copyright Catherine Beyer
The Moroccan, 4th century Roman, and Caracalla necklaces all sold this weekend at the Bristol Renaissance Faire, leaving me without any showcase pieces. (I leave the amethyst piece at home because it is not for sale.) So I did what any good entrepreneur would do: I built one in my tent. Not in my canopy. My tent.
Like many people at Ren Faire, I sleep on the fair grounds. Short of stock, I put a card table and lawn chair inside the sleeping tent and created coin jewelry by lamp light. The result was the lapis lazuli piece with Victorian florin. Which also sold.
But I digress: A florin was a silver coin worth two shillings, or one tenth of a pound. Created in the Victorian period, it was an early British attempt to move to a decimal monetary system. The coin was not popular, and the UK didn’t move to a decimal system until 1971.