The Houses of Parliament 'New Dawn' jewellery collection - Pin

'New Dawn' pin

Part of the collection of jewellery for The Houses of Parliament

Drawing of the pin. Front and side elevation

A journey in making mostly in pictures

The pin was a simple jewellery item to design but presented a few issues in regards to construction. The silver wires had to be attached to the aluminium without soldering as aluminium cannot be soldered to silver so they were inserted through a drilled hole in the centre of the disk. The tight fit and bend in the wire is secure but enables some movement in the disk without it becoming loose or falling off.

     The sketches were painted to get a feel for what they would look like when resist printed onto the aluminium.

       Strips of aluminium were resist printed then dyed in dye baths of industrial aluminium dyes.

Each disk was cut to a specific size using steel cutting tools and punched out using a cast iron Denbigh bench press.

Each pin required a length of silver wire to be cut and filed one end it to a point and the opposing end had a tiny silver disk soldered to it. The silver disk acts as a stopper to keep the pin in place. Each one was individually soldered.

The back of each disk was  patterened with a sanding disk and then the pins were inserted from front to back.

The pins were bent to secure them and stoppers added.

   Finished pin in presentation box