Lindesfarne Cat Bracelet 14KY/Sterling Silver

diandwill

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Lindesfarne Cat Bracelet 14KY/Sterling Silver
This is one of my favorite bracelet designs, I've made it 4 or 5 times all in St...erling Silver. This time the cat and birds are in 14K yellow gold, on a Sterling Silver bracelet. Engraved carpet knot inside. Probably my last piece before ArtFest 2012! This design was taken from the Lindesfarne Gospels, one of the first of the Irish Illuminated manuscripts., from around 450AD. This is from the great Initial page of the Gospel of Luke, folio 139. Finished today!
 

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Tira

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Beautiful! I like the gold on the front very much and the engraved back is very cool too. It's a beautiful bracelet.
 

Doc Mark

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What a wonderful interpretation of elements from an Illuminated Manuscript! You could do an extensive series of bracelets based on the Book of Kells. Lovely work.
 
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diandwill

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Thanks for the comments. It looks even better in real life. I can see the flaws, as I'm sure most of you can, but viewed life sized, it looks mighty nice.
Doc, I use the Book of Kells for quite a few designs, from pendants to rings, to bracelets and barrettes. My jewelry niche is Celtic, and even though I do all types of jewelry, repairs, appraisals etc., people know me for the Celtic.
I was so relieved to find out that the Gemanii were a Celtic people that lived across a river from the Teutonic peoples. That half, plus my 1/4 Irish makes my heritage 3/4 Celtic. The other 1/4 English, which any good historian knows is Scandinavian, closer to the Teutons than the Celts!
 

rod

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A very nice contrast bracelet, and well done!

Perhaps just a little confusion on the European history? The Celtic culture spread up from rootes in India, was widespread in Europe, and known as La Tene. Examples are widespread, including in German. Celtic strands in ancient Britain compressed back into the more mountainous regions now called Scotland and Wales, when the Romans invaded, attracted by copper and tin deposits in Cornwall. The Irish Celts, a different strain from the Scots 'Picts', came to what is now Scotland when Saint Columba exiled himself from Ireland, first to Oransay, and then Iona, Scotland, where the Book of Kells was created, and after surviving many a close shave, being buried in a bog, eventually came to rest in Dublin, where some bookbinder in Trinity College sliced up the precious vellum loose pages to conform and bind into a book (!). The English were very late arrivals to Britain, as invaders from Juteland and northern Germany. That said, wonderful Anglo Saxon art and metal work, splendid Celtic chased work in Denmark, and also great art work in metal in the Viking culture.

My own theory about the Book of Kells ... Columba, knowing that art work was loved by the Scottish Picts, embellished the gospels written in the Book of Kells, first to draw in the Picts with the art, and later they got interested in the Celtic Christian mythology. This is just my notion, so do weigh in?

Rod
 
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Chujybear

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Very interesting.
Your last paragraph, I am having a little trouble understanding. Might be a missing word?
Is your theory that Picts illustrated the book of Kells? Should I go to sleep and try to read it in the morning?
 

diandwill

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Rod, you may be right. Some of what I know (or believe to know) is from a book called "Where Troy Once Stood". The author is a Dutch linguist, and using the names of the main characters, locates those same names throughout Europe, from Iberia to, but just short of, Scandanavia. The continental Celts fought the King of Troy over control of the Cornish tin mines. They defeated and razed the town of Troy, and the exiles sailed south then East and settled the plague ravished peninsula that became Greece. Several hundred years later Homer wrote the Illiad, about the battle that had taken place. The remnants of that battle remain, bronze age weapons left in the field, the ruins of chariots, the large ramparts thrown up as a defensive measure, and it's all there to see in aand around a museum in the neighborhood of Cambridge, England. Even London was named New Troy before the Romans change it to Londinium.
Where they came from before that is a matter of much speculation, and yours is certainly one of the top possiblities. There is much eveidence that Blue eyed, Red haired people were in the area of northern India, whether as visitors or as settlers or having originated there. That part of history remains a dark shadow. Too bad they neglected to have a written language, it would have explained and solved a lot of mysteries.
 

diandwill

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I do believe that Columba, and the entire school of Irish Christianity, used the beautiful knot work to avoid immediate death or torture. The also made many of the older Celtic religious events into Christian ones, The Yule at Christmas, Eos, Goddess of the Dawn, became Easter and many more. Much like traveling salesmen, the Irish spread Christianity across northern Europe, keeping it alive. Their belief of 'a foot in the door is all I need to get started' was amazing. Then the Roman Church put a stop to the differences and tried to unify the faith, but thats a whole different subject.
There is mythological tradition that among the earliest immigrants to Eire, after the Sidhe and those forced to the underworld, came from the Basque region of the Pyrenees. The legend is held by some, in both places, and I'm told that Basque speakers and Gaelic speakers can understand some of what each other says, not speaking either, I just have to rely on what I'm told. The European Celts, forced north by the Romans, did force many tribes of 'purer' Celts into isolated pockets, Wales, Cornwall and Caledonia contain more pure celtic than the rest of England. The tribe known as the Britons (hence the name Britain) actually moved south, across the channel, and settled Brittany.
With the withdrawel of the Roman garrisons in the late 180's AD (to combat the many barbarian hordes endangering Rome) a pair of brothers from Jutland were invited to come and protect the local kings lands. Pickings were so easy and rich that they invited cousins etc., and the Anglo-Saxon 'invasion' was underway. They quickly ruled most of Southern England, up to Hadrian's Wall, until the Battle of Hastings, 1018 (?), when William 'The Conquerer' defeated Alfred and the Normans (Norsemen, Norwegians) took control of that part of England.
Not the history I learned in school, but the one gleaned from hours of study in diverse books and sources. And the education is on-going. I will never stop learning, but then I'm only 63, so have years ahead of me. LOL
 

rod

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Then again, Diandwill, you may be right. As a Scots Highlander, when I still had some colour in my hair, it was bright red, as were all five of us siblings, and I have blue eyes. Many Scots are dark haired. I have always put the red hair down to Viking blood, from when they came to raid and stayed to trade in Scotland and Ireland. So it is interesting that red hair and blue eyes were a possibility in early India.

I lived for four years in Cambridge, England, in a wee thatched cottage, when doing my research at the University. I wonder what that museum was called, probably not the Fitzwilliam? It is all good stuff, and it gets more accurate with the benefit of modern methods of testing. Probably it was Harold that took the arrow in his eye at the Battle of Hastings.

best

Rod
 
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diandwill

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I will try to find my copy of 'Where Troy Once Stood" later. we are minutes from heading out to one of the biggest art shows in Spokane, and our future as a business teeters in the balance!
I envy you your time at Cambridge, I never had time for University, always to busy earning a living and learning things!

to find the name of the museum.
 

rod

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Me too, Diandwill,

I ran away from school at age 15 to apprentice as a toolmaker, and have always earned my living, even at Cambridge, where I was on the faculty. One thing I learned to admire about Cambridge is, that it was willing to include some 'odd ducks' as salt and pepper into the academic mix. Is it not wonderful that the school of hard knocks plus a laptop can today allow us a very wonderful opportunity to keep learning. By the way, my guess is that most of us here are odd ducks?

Rod
 

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