FOOLISH Fire
Belfast-based Fine SILVER JewelLery
Foolish Fire is an atmospheric, ghostly light that hovers over marshy ground, particularly in damp and misty areas such as swamps or bogs.
It has been described in folklore and literature for centuries and often led travellers off their path, believing it to be a flickering lamp or lantern in the darkness. Others attributed it to ghosts or spirits, while some even claimed that a Foolish Fire marked the spot where fairies’ gold was buried!
In reality however, the phenomenon of a Foolish Fire is caused by a chemical reaction in decaying plants that produces a small flame of phosphine gas, in a process which modern science has termed bioluminescence.
A piece of Foolish Fire jewellery is crafted from recycled silver using the actual forms of real plants and trees. Just like those little flames on the marshes which enchanted people all those centuries ago, each piece originates from plants and shines brightly, will light up a dark and gloomy moment . . . and will certainly distract people from their paths as they pause to marvel at it.
SILVER BOUGH COLLECTION
The Silver Bough Collection is a series of one-off pieces, named after the tale from Irish mythology in which Bran is brought a silver branch with white apple blossoms by a mysterious woman from the land of Emain.
She sings of her land as a ‘Land of Women’ with perpetual spring and free from sickness, hunger or despair. She instructs Bran to follow her to Emain, before slipping away.
Bran gathers a crew and embarks on a sea voyage to Emain, where he and his crew stay for what seems to be a year but is in fact many centuries.
As they are leaving, the leader of Emain warns them not to step back upon the shores of Ireland. However, as the group nears their home shores, one of the crew members Nechtán cannot restrain himself and jumps off the boat. The moment he sets foot ashore he turns into ashes.
The men then learn from the people gathered on the shore that they have become ancient history. They sail off across the sea, never to be seen again.
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NUADA COLLECTION
The Nuada Collection is a series of pieces named after the first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a supernatural race in Irish mythology. He is best known from the tale in which he loses his arm in battle and, because of the Tuatha Dé Danann tradition that their ruler must be physically perfect, is no longer eligible to remain king. He has a new arm crafted from silver by Goibniu, one of the Trí Dé Dáno — three gods of craft — and regains his kingship, for ever after being known as Nuada Airgetlám — Nuada of the Silver Arm.
Commissions
To commision your own bespoke piece of jewellery, use the contact form in the About Section.