Dress closure brooch
Brooch of Kaukola Kekomäki grave number 6 was made of gilded silver Maria pendant. Pendant is nowadays in Finnish national museum and it is 6 cm in diameter. This kind of pendants were used in Novgorod region. Women wore necklaces made of five large silver pendants. This pendant was transformed into a brooch in Karelia were it was worn hanging loop down.
Hiitola Kilpola hoard had another pendant with same origin. It was much larger and part of this kind of huge necklace (image below), which could have been worn by bishops. This kind of pendants were often decorated with gilding and niello enameling.
I did not like of the idea wearing either pendant upside down as my dress brooch. I wanted to have brooch/pendant that would look okay either way. It is made after the smallest pendant in the necklace and image in the center is from largest pendant. Instead of niello enamel, I used black tarnishing. This is my first chasing work and I did it with self made tools.
