Brief Summary… 

• Recycled silver Florin coin circa early 1900’s
• Meticulously hand cut, carved and engraved
• Made using only traditional hand tools and techniques
• Flourish Necklace chain included, various length options
• Optional free engraved details on reverse
• Optional Silver, Copper or Bonze wee charm
• Hairy Growler Shepherd’s Crook Necklace Catch: Sterling Silver
• Size : Approx 30mm * 25mm
• Symbolism : Love, togetherness, affection, loyalty, honour, warmth and joy
• Handcrafted & Recycled in Cambridge
• Made carefully with love

A little more detail…

The Same Branch

Two Lovebirds. One Branch. An Old Silver Half Crown.

Some pieces begin with a drawing.

Others begin with an old coin and the question:

How much of a world can I fit inside this circle?

For this one, the answer became two birds.

A branch.

Oak leaves and acorns.

Flowers.

Little curling stems.

And tiny points of pure gold catching the light between them.

All emerging from an old British silver half crown.

Two souls. The same branch.

A Hairy Growler Signature Piece

The Same Branch belongs to the more intricate side of my work.

It is one of those pieces where the closer you look, the more there is to find.

From a distance you first see the two birds sitting together.

Come closer and the woodland begins to appear around them.

Leaves overlap the old coin.

Acorns hide amongst the branches.

Flowers grow through the composition.

Feathers appear one tiny cut and engraved line at a time.

And amongst all that silver are little nuggets of 24ct gold.

A miniature woodland love story made from old money.

A Pair of Souls on the Same Branch

The birds are the heart of the piece.

Not flying.

Not separated.

Not facing away from one another.

They have chosen the same branch.

There is something wonderfully simple in that.

Love is often represented with hearts, initials and declarations.

But sometimes the quieter image says more.

Two creatures choosing to sit beside one another.

Through spring.

Through winter.

Through whatever weather arrives next.

The Same Branch

I like the idea that the branch itself is part of the symbolism.

These two birds remain individuals.

Each has its own shape.

Its own feathers.

Its own place within the design.

But beneath them is something shared.

A branch strong enough to hold them both.

Perhaps that is as good an image of lasting love as any.

Two lives. Growing separately. Resting on something built together.

Lovebirds in the Old Silver

The story becomes more interesting because these birds have not been made from new sheet silver.

They were hidden inside an old British half crown.

The coin had already lived another life before it reached my bench.

It had been money.

Carried.

Spent.

Handled by people whose names we will never know.

Eventually its life as currency ended.

But the silver survived.

I rather like that for a piece about enduring love.

Something old becoming the beginning of something new.

The Coin Remains

I deliberately leave parts of the original half crown visible.

The old rim survives.

Fragments of its former design remain around the new composition.

Look closely and you can still see that this intricate little woodland was once a piece of British money.

That matters to me.

I could simply melt an old coin and turn it into anonymous silver.

But then its first story would disappear.

I would rather let the old life and the new one occupy the same piece.

Cut, Not Cast

The lovebirds are not cast and soldered onto the front of the coin.

The woodland is not stamped into it.

The original half crown becomes the design.

I begin by drawing the composition onto the old silver.

Then tiny holes are drilled into the areas that need to disappear.

A very fine jeweller’s saw blade is threaded through one of those holes.

The first opening is cut.

The blade comes out.

It is threaded through the next.

And the process begins again.

Between birds.

Around leaves.

Under branches.

Beside flowers.

Through the tiny spaces that allow light into the design.

Slowly, the half crown stops being a coin and the woodland begins to appear.

The Second Look

This is very much a second-look piece.

At first:

Two birds.

Then you notice the feathers.

The leaves.

The little heart hidden beneath them.

The acorns.

The flowers.

The curling stems.

The remains of the old coin.

Then sunlight catches something warm amongst all that silver.

Gold.

And you look again.

24ct Gold Flower Stamens

The flowers contain one of the smallest details in the whole piece.

Their centres are individually inlaid with 24ct gold.

I wanted the gold to be restrained.

Not a large gold element competing with the old silver.

Just tiny points of warmth amongst the leaves.

Almost like sunlight finding its way through a canopy.

The difference in colour is subtle from a distance.

Up close it becomes unmistakable.

Little drops of pure gold hidden in the woodland.

A Woodland Growing Around Them

The birds do not sit inside an empty frame.

The woodland is slowly reclaiming the old coin around them.

Leaves push inward from the edges.

Branches curl around the pair.

Flowers appear amongst the foliage.

Acorns sit beneath oak leaves.

The entire composition feels as though it has grown rather than simply been arranged.

That is deliberate.

Nature rarely respects perfect symmetry.

Neither should a tiny silver woodland.

Oak, Acorn and the Long View

Amongst the foliage are oak leaves and acorns.

They bring another layer to the story.

The oak has long carried associations with strength, endurance and longevity.

And the acorn contains something almost impossibly large within something very small.

Potential.

A beginning.

The promise of what might grow.

Placed around the lovebirds, those ideas feel particularly appropriate.

Love is rarely one grand moment.

It is thousands of small ones allowed to grow.

The Hidden Heart

Beneath the birds sits a tiny heart.

It could have been larger.

More obvious.

But I prefer it where it is.

Almost concealed amongst the branches and flowers.

You have to come close to find it.

Some things do not need to shout to be important.

Made Slowly

There is no quick way to make this necklace.

And there shouldn’t be.

The half crown has to be selected.

The design has to work around the surviving coin.

The piercing is done section by section.

The birds are refined.

Feathers are individually engraved.

Leaves are given veins and texture.

Flowers are worked.

The gold is inlaid.

Edges are softened.

The old silver is finished without erasing the character that made it worth using in the first place.

It takes the time it takes.

The Maker’s Hand

Look closely and you will find evidence that this was made by hand.

One feather will not be perfectly identical to another.

One leaf will turn differently from its neighbour.

Engraved lines vary fractionally.

The old coin itself brings marks that were there before I ever touched it.

I don’t want to remove all of that.

Perfect repetition belongs to machines.

Character belongs to hands.

The Hairy Growler Flourish

A pendant this detailed needed a fastening with a little character of its own.

So The Same Branch is completed with my handmade Hairy Growler flourish necklace chain.

The fastening is deliberately visible rather than something to hide behind the neck.

Hand formed in silver, it curls into the distinctive Hairy Growler flourish and is finished with the little heart detail.

It turns something normally treated as purely functional into another part of the piece.

Even the clasp gets made at the bench.

A Piece About Love Without Writing the Word

There are no names across the front.

No dates required.

No message engraved in large letters.

It doesn’t need them.

The two birds say enough.

This could mark a wedding.

An anniversary.

A partnership measured in decades.

A new beginning.

Or simply one person looking at another and thinking:

I’d still choose your branch.

For the People Who Stayed

Perhaps that is what I like most about these two birds.

They aren’t symbols of the dramatic beginning of love.

They feel like something quieter.

The love that stayed.

The person who was still there when life became complicated.

The one who saw the difficult years as well as the easy ones.

The one who knows the whole story and sits beside you anyway.

Same tree. Same branch. Still here.

An Heirloom Already Carrying History

Most jewellery begins its history on the day it is made.

This did not.

The silver had a life before the necklace existed.

The half crown passed through other hands.

It belonged to another Britain.

Now it begins again as something far more personal.

And perhaps one day it will pass into another pair of hands.

A daughter.

A son.

A granddaughter.

Someone who knows the story of the two people the birds originally represented.

By then the necklace will have gathered another generation of marks.

Old silver becoming a new family story.

Product Details

• Original Hairy Growler Signature lovebirds necklace
• Handcrafted from an old British silver half crown coin
• Two lovebirds individually hand pierced from the original coin
• Intricate woodland composition incorporating branches, leaves, flowers and acorns
• Oak leaf and acorn details incorporated into the design
• Hidden heart detail beneath the birds
• Feathers, foliage and botanical details individually worked and engraved by hand
• Flower stamens meticulously inlaid with 24ct gold
• Original coin rim and surviving historic details retained where possible
• Traditional fine jeweller’s saw piercing techniques used throughout
• No casting or mass production
• Each old coin brings its own individual wear, patina and history
• Each finished pendant will therefore have subtle individual differences
• Completed with a silver necklace chain
• Handmade Hairy Growler flourish clasp and heart detail
• Designed and individually handcrafted at the Hairy Growler bench

The Same Branch

Once, the silver was money.

It passed between strangers.

Crossed counters.

Sat in pockets.

Changed hands.

Then one day its life as currency ended.

Years later it arrived at my bench.

I drew two birds inside it.

Not flying away.

Not searching.

Together.

I cut away the silver between them.

Grew branches around them.

Added leaves.

Acorns.

Flowers.

A tiny hidden heart.

Then, amongst all that old silver, I placed the smallest touches of pure gold.

And something that once passed anonymously between countless hands became something intended for just one pair of them.

The Same Branch.

Two souls. One branch. Old silver. A little gold. And the long way home.

Size : Approx 30 mm * 25 mm