Brief Summary… 

• Recycled silver Half Crown coin circa 1885
• Meticulously hand cut, carved and engraved
• Made using only traditional hand tools and techniques
• Necklace chain included, various length options
• Optional free engraved details on reverse
• Optional treasure in mouth of Magpie : Gold or Silver wee ring with special stone
• Hairy Growler Shepherd’s Crook Necklace Catch: Sterling Silver
• Size : Approx 45mm * 40mm
• Symbolism : sorrow and joy, luck and enduring fighting spirit
• Handcrafted & Recycled in Cambridge

 

 ⋆⁺₊⋆☽︎ ༺A little more detail… ༻☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Collect Your Treasure

The Magpie

Some treasures are found. Some are made. Some choose us.

A magpie flies across an old silver coin.

In her beak she carries something impossibly small.

A tiny ring of gold.

Set with an emerald, ruby or sapphire.

Her treasure.

Collect Your Treasure is one of my most detailed Hairy Growler Signature pieces, individually made from a large silver half crown dating from around 1885.

The old coin becomes the bird.

Every feather is individually carved.

And the creature famous for collecting treasure leaves the bench carrying a little piece of her own.

Old silver. Tiny treasure. One magnificent bird.

A Hairy Growler Signature Piece

Some pieces begin with a design.

This one began with an idea.

What would a magpie choose to carry?

Not simply something shiny.

Something precious.

Something small enough to steal away with.

So I made her a ring.

A ridiculously tiny ring, handmade in recycled gold and set with a precious stone.

Then I made the bird around it.

A flying magpie cut from Victorian silver, wings open, feathers carved individually, carrying her treasure away.

The Magpie became both collector and collected.

Before There Was a Magpie

There was a half crown.

A large British silver coin dating from around 1885.

It was made during the Victorian period to do something thoroughly ordinary.

Circulate as money.

It passed through pockets.

Across counters.

From one unknown hand to another.

Eventually time and wear made it less interesting to traditional coin collectors.

That is usually the point at which old coins like these are valued primarily for the silver they contain.

I see something else.

A surface already carrying more than a century of history.

Too interesting to melt. Too beautiful to finish its story there.

The Coin Becomes the Bird

I don’t melt the half crown down.

The coin itself becomes the Magpie.

First it is prepared at the bench.

Then I draw the bird directly onto the old silver.

A traditional jeweller’s piercing saw does the rest.

Or rather, begins the rest.

The blade moves slowly around the drawing.

Silver falls away.

The wings open.

The tail appears.

The head emerges.

Until an old Victorian coin is suddenly flying.

The money stops. The Magpie takes over.

Every Feather

Cutting out the silhouette is only the beginning.

Once the basic bird has emerged, I start carving.

Each feather is individually worked into the silver.

Wing feathers.

Tail feathers.

The smaller changes of surface across the body.

Line by line, the flat old coin begins to acquire depth.

This is the slow part.

It is also the part that makes each Magpie unmistakably individual.

No stamped texture. No cast feather pattern. Each mark made for this bird.

Collect Your Treasure

Magpies have been accused of stealing our shiny things for generations.

Silver.

Jewellery.

Coins.

Anything bright enough to attract a curious eye.

The reality is more complicated than the folklore.

But I wasn’t going to let reality spoil such a good story.

So this Magpie gets her treasure.

A tiny handmade ring carried with her as she flies.

The Wee Ring

The little ring is not simply decoration.

It is a piece of jewellery within a piece of jewellery.

Made from recycled gold.

Small enough to look as though it might fit the finger of a fairy.

And set with a precious stone.

Emerald.

Ruby.

Sapphire.

A tiny flash of colour against the old silver.

It becomes both the Magpie’s treasure and the physical connection between bird and chain.

A jewel carrying a jewel.

Choose Her Treasure

The gemstone changes the character of the piece.

Emerald brings a deep woodland green and has long carried associations with renewal, growth and love.

Ruby brings warmth, vitality and the unmistakable colour of heart and fire.

Sapphire brings the depth of blue, traditionally associated with loyalty, truth and wisdom.

There is no correct choice.

Choose the one that catches your eye.

That seems the most appropriate way to choose treasure for a Magpie.

One for Sorrow. Two for Joy.

Few birds arrive carrying as much folklore as the magpie.

One for sorrow.

Two for joy.

Generations have counted them.

Saluted them.

Greeted solitary birds.

Looked desperately around for a second.

We may tell ourselves we aren’t superstitious.

Then one magpie lands on the fence.

And suddenly we are looking for joy.

Perhaps that is the loveliest part of the old rhyme.

Looking for Joy

Seeing one makes us search for another.

We scan the roof.

The tree.

The field.

We look again.

And for a moment an old superstition has made us actively search the world for joy.

I think there are worse habits to have.

One for sorrow. Then keep looking.

He Flies as Artists Might

There is a line by T. P. Cameron Wilson that has always seemed to understand the Magpie particularly well.

Other birds fly in their own ways.

But the Magpie?

He flies as artists might.

I love that.

Flashy.

Curious.

A little unpredictable.

Attracted to interesting things.

Collecting fragments from the world and carrying them away.

There may be more than a little Magpie in anyone who makes things.

The Artist and the Collector

Perhaps that is why I feel such affection for this bird.

Making jewellery is itself a form of collecting.

Old coins.

Antique silver.

Forgotten objects.

Ideas.

Stories.

Symbols.

Things other people might overlook.

They arrive at the bench separately.

Then somehow they become part of the same object.

The Magpie collects treasure. The maker does much the same.

Black, White and Silver

The Magpie is famous for black and white.

But look at a real bird in sunlight and black becomes something else entirely.

Blue.

Green.

Purple.

Colour flashing through apparently dark feathers.

The worked silver behaves in its own way.

Darkened recesses sit against bright polished surfaces.

Turn the pendant and the light changes.

The carved feathers appear and disappear.

A monochrome bird that was never really monochrome at all.

Intelligence and Mischief

Magpies belong to the corvid family alongside ravens, crows and jays.

They are clever, adaptable and endlessly curious.

Humans tend to become suspicious of animals that appear to be thinking.

So intelligence becomes cunning.

Curiosity becomes thievery.

Adaptability becomes trickery.

And before long a perfectly remarkable bird has acquired centuries of folklore.

Clever creatures make excellent stories.

The Enduring Spirit

There is another place where the Magpie has acquired a very different kind of symbolism.

Newcastle.

Black and white stripes made the magpie inseparable from Newcastle United and generations of supporters.

Here the bird carries another quality.

Enduring spirit.

Loyalty through good years and bad.

Turning up again.

Still believing.

Still looking for joy.

It gives the Magpie another layer without changing the bird at all.

The Secret Reverse

Turn the Magpie over and another part of the piece appears.

There is detail on the reverse that I deliberately don’t show here.

That belongs to the wearer.

A small secret hidden behind the public face of the piece.

The reverse can also carry engraved initials, allowing another private detail to become part of the necklace.

Some treasure is better when not everybody knows where it is hidden.

The Flourish Chain

A bird this detailed needed more than an ordinary chain.

The Magpie is suspended from my Hairy Growler Flourish chain, finished with the limited antique patina normally reserved for the Omnia chains.

The darker finish gives the necklace depth and allows the brighter surfaces of the bird and gemstone treasure to come forward.

It also makes the chain feel like part of the piece rather than simply the thing holding it up.

A Signature pendant deserves a Signature chain.

The Shepherd’s Crook

The necklace is completed with my handmade sterling silver Shepherd’s Crook fastening.

It has become one of the recurring signatures in my work.

A small detail.

But an important one.

I have never liked spending hours making something by hand and then finishing it with an anonymous factory clasp.

The last centimetre should still belong to the maker.

The Second Look

First you see the bird.

Then the feathers.

Then the tiny ring.

Then the gemstone.

Then somebody tells you the Magpie used to be an 1885 half crown.

Then you turn it over.

And discover there is something I haven’t told you.

This is exactly the kind of jewellery I love making.

Every closer look should reward you with another piece of the story.

No Casting. No Shortcuts.

Every Magpie begins again.

Another old half crown.

Another drawing.

Another long session with the piercing saw.

Every feather carved again.

Another tiny ring made.

Another gemstone set.

There is no master bird waiting to be reproduced from a mould.

That would be quicker.

But it wouldn’t be this.

One old coin. One bird. One treasure.

A Future Heirloom Made from the Past

The silver was already old before the Magpie existed.

That means the necklace begins its life as jewellery carrying a history of its own.

Then I add another chapter.

And when it leaves the bench, you begin the next.

The polished areas will soften.

Darkened details may deepen.

The silver will gather tiny marks.

Perhaps decades from now another person will turn the bird in their hands and discover the tiny ring still held there.

The treasure will have become an heirloom.

And the old half crown will still be travelling.

Product Details

• Hairy Growler Signature Piece
• Original Collect Your Treasure Magpie necklace
• Handcrafted from a large recycled British silver half crown dating from circa 1885
• Historic coin approximately 120 years old or more
• Original coin selected because it is no longer of traditional collectible quality
• Historic character and traces of the original coin deliberately retained
• Magpie individually hand drawn onto the prepared half crown
• Entire silhouette hand pierced using a traditional jeweller’s saw
• Every feather individually carved and detailed by hand
• Made using traditional jewellery hand tools and techniques
• Approximately 45 mm x 40 mm
• Optional free engraved initials or personal detail on reverse
• Special hidden detail on reverse
• Choice of tiny treasure ring
• Treasure ring available in various golds
• Choice of emerald, ruby or sapphire gemstone
• Tiny gemstone ring forms the connection between Magpie and chain
• Hairy Growler Flourish necklace chain included
• Flourish chain finished with limited edition antique patina normally reserved for Omnia chains
• Various necklace length options available
• Handmade sterling silver Hairy Growler Shepherd’s Crook fastening
• Symbolism includes sorrow and joy, luck, intelligence, curiosity, resilience and enduring spirit
• No casting
• No mass production
• Every Magpie is individually made and completely unique
• Handcrafted and recycled in Cambridge
• Includes a private Signature Piece Passport for its owner

Collect Your Treasure

Once, it was an 1885 half crown.

Victorian silver passing from one hand to another.

Then its life as money ended.

Eventually it reached my bench.

I flattened the old coin.

Drew a bird across it.

Threaded a tiny saw through the silver.

Opened the wings.

Released the tail.

Then carved every feather by hand.

But something was missing.

A Magpie needed treasure.

So I made a ring.

Very small.

Silver or gold.

With a tiny precious stone catching the light.

And I gave it to the bird.

One for sorrow.

Two for joy.

But this one has already found what she was looking for.

Collect Your Treasure.

Some treasures are found. Some are made. Some choose us.