The Vixen

She began as money. Now she runs wild.

More than a century ago, this silver had an entirely different life.

It travelled through pockets.

Crossed counters.

Passed anonymously from one hand to another.

Then its life as money ended.

The silver remained.

And somewhere inside that old coin, a fox was waiting.

The Vixen is one of my defining Hairy Growler Signature pieces, individually cut, carved and engraved by hand from historic British silver.

No casting.

No mould.

No identical copy.

One old coin. One pair of hands. One wild creature released from the silver.

A Hairy Growler Signature Piece

There are certain animals that seem to belong naturally in old silver.

The fox is one of them.

Perhaps it is because both carry history.

Perhaps it is because silver and foxes both seem to change completely depending upon the light.

Or perhaps it is simply because I have always liked things that refuse to behave exactly as expected.

The Vixen has become part of the visual language of Hairy Growler.

Old material.

Wildlife.

Traditional hand skills.

Folklore.

And a little refusal to become too domesticated.

Old silver made wild.

Before There Was a Fox

There was a coin.

A large old British silver crown, dating from around the turn of the twentieth century.

It was made for an entirely practical purpose.

Money.

People held it.

Spent it.

Counted it.

Put it away and took it out again.

All that handling left evidence.

Small marks.

Softened detail.

A surface that could never be convincingly recreated in new silver.

Eventually the coin ceased to be useful as currency.

But that doesn’t mean the material had finished.

The coin’s first life ended. The silver’s did not.

The Fox in the Coin

I don’t melt the crown down and pour it into a fox-shaped mould.

That would destroy the very thing I find interesting.

The coin itself becomes the raw material.

Its surface is prepared and the vixen is drawn directly onto the old silver.

Then I begin cutting.

A fine jeweller’s saw moves slowly around the outline.

Silver disappears.

Legs emerge.

A back begins to curve.

The ears appear.

And finally that extraordinary tail is released from the metal.

I don’t cast the fox onto the coin. I find her inside it.

The Vixen

There is something particularly compelling about the female fox.

She doesn’t need the physical dominance of a larger animal.

Her strength lies elsewhere.

Awareness.

Adaptability.

Patience.

Instinct.

The ability to read what is happening around her and respond.

A vixen survives because she notices things.

Strength does not always arrive making a noise.

The Trickster

Foxes have occupied folklore for centuries.

Again and again, the fox appears as the trickster.

Not necessarily wicked.

Not necessarily good.

Simply clever enough to understand that the obvious path isn’t always the best one.

When strength fails, the fox thinks.

When one route closes, she finds another.

When the world changes, she changes with it.

That makes the fox a powerful symbol of intelligence and resourcefulness.

When the path disappears, make another.

Between the Wild and the Familiar

The fox occupies a curious position in our landscape.

She lives alongside us.

Yet she has never really become ours.

You might see her crossing a field at dusk.

Standing beneath a streetlight.

Moving along the edge of a woodland.

Or watching silently from the end of a garden.

Then she is gone.

That ability to move between the human world and the wild one has given the fox an almost liminal quality.

Familiar enough to recognise. Wild enough never to completely know.

Where the Woodland Meets the Edge of Light

The Vixen belongs to twilight.

That uncertain hour when colour changes and familiar shapes become something slightly different.

It is the perfect time for a fox.

Not quite hidden.

Not quite revealed.

The engraving across her body behaves in much the same way.

In one light it almost disappears.

Move the necklace and suddenly the carved lines catch.

Another pattern emerges.

Another surface.

Another fox.

She moves where the woodland meets the edge of light.

English Scrollwork

Across the silver runs another old language.

Traditional English scrollwork engraving.

Leaves curl into one another.

Lines divide.

Shapes flow across the fox as though woodland growth has become part of her coat.

The pattern is cut directly into the old silver by hand.

Not printed.

Not laser etched.

Not mechanically repeated.

Each cut requires the engraving tool to be guided through the metal.

Pressure changes.

Depth changes.

The line changes.

The decoration grows rather than repeats.

The Tail

And then there is the tail.

A fox without a proper tail would be a terrible waste of an old crown.

So the Vixen’s tail becomes one of the defining parts of the piece.

Large.

Flowing.

Decorative.

A surface for carving and engraving.

It gives movement to the whole animal.

Even when she is perfectly still, the tail makes her look as though she is about to leave.

Which is exactly what a fox should look like.

The Second Look

From across the room, you see a silver fox.

Then you get closer.

You notice the engraving.

The little carved details.

The changing surface.

Then somebody tells you what she used to be.

A century-old British coin.

Look again.

Perhaps part of that first life is still visible.

An old mark.

A softened area.

Some small interruption from history.

The second look changes the piece.

The Coin Is Not Erased

I could remove every trace of the original material.

I deliberately don’t.

The old marks are part of the reason for using historic silver in the first place.

I want you to be able to look at the Vixen and understand that this silver existed before the jewellery did.

The past doesn’t need to dominate the finished piece.

But neither should it disappear completely.

Transformation is more interesting when you can still see what came before.

Choose Her Markings

Each Vixen can be given her own character.

The engraved decoration can vary, allowing the old silver and the pattern to work together rather than forcing every necklace to become an exact copy of the last.

This is one of the advantages of making the piece individually.

I am not reproducing a factory sample.

I am making your fox.

The old coin will be different.

The engraving will be different.

My hand will be different that day.

No two wild things should be completely identical.

A Small Talisman

A little charm can sit alongside the necklace.

Silver.

Gold.

Copper.

Bronze.

A tiny additional symbol chosen to give the piece another layer of meaning.

I like these small details because they do not overwhelm the main piece.

They sit quietly beside it.

A little flash of another metal.

A private addition to the larger story.

The fox carries the myth. The talisman carries yours.

A Secret on the Reverse

The reverse can also carry engraved initials.

Something private.

A name.

A date.

A pair of letters that mean far more to the wearer than they do to anybody else.

From the front, the Vixen remains wild.

Turn her over and another story can be waiting there.

Not everything meaningful needs to be visible.

The Hairy Growler Flourish Chain

A Signature piece should not end where the pendant ends.

The chain is part of the necklace.

The way it hangs matters.

The way it moves matters.

Even the fastening matters.

The Vixen is completed with a sterling silver Hairy Growler necklace chain and my handmade Shepherd’s Crook fastening.

I have never liked spending hours creating a pendant only to finish it with an anonymous clasp.

So the fastening becomes another little piece of the work.

Nothing important should become ordinary at the last centimetre.

Made Slowly at the Bench

There is no shortcut to making The Vixen.

The old coin is selected.

Prepared.

The fox is drawn.

Pierced by hand.

Carved.

Engraved.

Oxidised.

Polished.

Then the necklace is assembled and finished.

Each stage changes the silver a little further.

Eventually it becomes difficult to imagine that the animal was ever anything else.

But the old coin is still underneath.

No Casting. No Shortcuts.

There is no master Vixen sitting somewhere waiting to be reproduced.

No mould is filled every time somebody orders one.

Each necklace begins again.

Another old coin.

Another drawing.

Another session at the saw.

Another set of engraved lines.

That takes longer.

It also means each Vixen carries something a cast copy never could.

The particular moment in which she was made.

The Maker Stays in the Silver

Look closely.

The engraving isn’t mathematically perfect.

The saw cut isn’t the product of a computer.

The old coin carries marks I didn’t put there.

And the finished fox carries marks I did.

I don’t want to remove every trace of either.

One belongs to the unknown people who handled the coin.

The other belongs to the bench.

The old silver leaves its marks. The maker leaves his.

A Companion, Not an Ornament

The Vixen was made to be worn.

Often.

Not stored safely away waiting for a special occasion.

She should move with you.

The silver should warm against the body.

The engraved surface should catch the light.

The necklace should slowly acquire another history.

Eventually, the fox should feel less like something you bought and more like something that simply belongs to you.

A companion rather than an ornament.

Made to Change

Old silver doesn’t need protecting from every sign of life.

Raised areas will become brighter with wear.

Engraved recesses may darken.

Little marks will appear.

The surface will become increasingly yours.

Years from now, I don’t want your Vixen to look exactly as she did when she left my bench.

I want her to look kept.

Travelled with.

Lived with.

Old silver carrying new evidence of a life.

A Future Heirloom Made from the Past

The strange thing about making heirlooms from old coins is that the material already has history.

You don’t have to wait a century for that part.

The silver has already travelled.

I simply interrupt the journey for a while at my bench.

Then I send it onwards again.

Perhaps you will wear The Vixen for decades.

Perhaps eventually somebody else will.

By then the engraving may be softer.

The silver may carry more marks.

And another human life will have become part of the object.

The fox keeps moving.

Product Details

• Hairy Growler Signature Piece
• Original Vixen design
• Handcrafted from a historic British sterling silver crown coin dating from around 1900
• Historic coin silver more than a century old
• Approximately 50 mm x 35 mm
• Vixen individually drawn onto the old silver
• Entirely hand pierced using a traditional jeweller’s saw
• Individually carved and hand engraved
• Traditional English scrollwork engraving available across the body and tail
• Oxidised details create depth and contrast
• Hand polished to reveal changing highlights across the silver
• Choice of individual Vixen decoration
• Optional engraved initials on the reverse
• Optional small talisman charm
• Charm available in gold, silver, copper or bronze
• Sterling silver Hairy Growler necklace chain included
• Choice of necklace lengths
• Handmade sterling silver Hairy Growler Shepherd’s Crook fastening
• No casting
• No mass production
• Every Vixen is individually made and therefore subtly different
• Fox symbolism includes intelligence, intuition, adaptability, independence, resourcefulness and transformation
• Handcrafted and recycled in Cambridge
• Includes a private Signature Piece Passport for its owner

The Vixen

Once, she was money.

Silver passed from one stranger to another.

Spent.

Saved.

Forgotten.

More than a century passed.

Then the old coin reached my bench.

I drew a line across its surface.

Then another.

I threaded a tiny saw through the silver.

And slowly began removing everything that wasn’t fox.

Legs appeared.

Ears rose.

A tail swept behind her.

Then came the engraving.

Leaves.

Scrolls.

Light.

Shadow.

Until the money had disappeared.

But the history had not.

Now she moves again.

Not through pockets.

Through woodland.

Through stories.

Through another human life.

The Vixen.

She began as money. Now she runs wild.

Size : Approx 50 mm * 35 mm