Origins: Tale of Two Tapers, The Spiral Pendant
The spiral pendant is perhaps one of my oldest designs that I make. For my last year of my three year metal artisan course I worked for myself as work experience. I sold a variety of items I make from hooks and candelabras to iron jewellery... including the Spiral pendant. The photo on the right is of me and my sister at the 2002 Rääkkylän Kihaus Folk music festival in Finland. You can just about see an early spiral pendant on the top right!
The spiral type I make is a logarithmic spiral. It is often found in nature. If you follow the spiral from the middle it will continuously get thicker the further out you go.
In blacksmithing terms, this is called a long taper. And when we forge it out, we say "Drawing out a taper".
The type of spiral more common in blacksmithing is an archimedean spiral. This one, too, starts from the point, but the taper is very short. For the most of the spiral, the metal is the same thickness. This type of spiral is much faster to make, as most of the bar does not need drawing out.
When something is faster to make, it will cost less in labour and therefore it can be sold cheaper and it is easier to make in a larger quantity.
Our commercial world often values efficiency and affordability over art that is time consuming and intricate, this is why shortcuts like this are common. I feel like we may have lost something fundamental in the aesthetics of the material culture we surround ourselves with.
To me art is not just about the result or the concept behind it. It is about the journey, skill and the process. It is the time spent out of a mortal life and the culmination of the skill acquired during that life, that gives a piece of art or design its soul. This is perhaps why many pieces of modern art or AI generated art feel hollow to me.
I wanted to stand out as a blacksmith and jewellery maker by focusing on the process. Sometimes it can be hard to communicate it and explain why my logarithmic spiral costs more, but I know some of you out there can instinctively understand the difference. If it were otherwise it would not be one of my best selling pendants!
Few years back I was approached by Nicholas Wicks, a blacksmith who was writing a book about forging. He asked if I was interested in including some of my jewellery in the projects. This little spiral was included as well as the Viking dragon pendant that is a sort of evolution of this pendant. The book is called The Everyday Blacksmith. (We get a small commission if you buy the book via this link!)
