Commissioned by a very special client and passionate lover of Nordic culture in our goldsmith's studio "Schmuck-Werk" the creation of an extraordinary pendant made entirely of gold in the shape of a so-called “Thor’s Hammer” – the legendary wonder weapon of the Nordic god Thor, with which he usually fought the enemies of the gods.
This "Mjolnir“ or “Mjollnir”, as Thor's hammer is called in Icelandic or Old Norse, had been a long-held wish of our customer for more than 20 years. Now the time had finally come: his dream could now become reality and for this he sacrificed all the gold that he and his family had accumulated over a long time.
However, the Thor's hammer was supposed to keep a very special secret: In a hidden chamber in the back of the Thor's hammer, two milk teeth from his two children were supposed to be worked in so that they would be invisible from the outside - but always present for him - and thus always very close to his heart in the future being. This heartfelt wish really touched us too.
The production of the “Thor Hammer” began with melting down the many small gold objects that our customer owned. However, in order to achieve the desired size of the Thor’s Hammer, a few more fine gold nuggets had to be added to the melting mass.
After that, all the gold was first poured into a rectangular mold, as this was the only way to determine precisely whether the previously calculated gold weight was really sufficient for the complex shape of this pendant. For comparison, our customer had previously provided us with a very detailed drawing with all the required dimensions.
The following work step is always something particularly “exotic” for goldsmiths – even in the true sense of the word: The later form of the pendant is engraved into the shell of a Cuttlefish, i.e. carved of an octopus, because only this extraordinary material can withstand the enormous heat of molten silver or gold and thus one can roughly cast and make unusual shapes:
With the help of the overhead casting channel, the liquid precious metal could now be brought into its later form after reheating the small gold ingot. Here you can still see the magical glow of the gold that has just been poured in:
The raw form of Thor's hammer thus obtained still had to be superficially worked on, the typical heavy eyelet for attaching a ring made of corded gold wire attached and then the two eyelets for later attachment of a leather strap attached.
On the back, the touching mementos of his two children's childhood were placed in the small "secret chamber" and locked away forever with a small gold plate. Finally, the lower front side was given a narrow decorative frame made of wafer-thin gold sheet. Finally, Thor's Hammer was polished all around to a high gloss.
This is how a thoroughly individual piece of jewelery was created - precisely and uncompromisingly based on the detailed suggestions and wishes of our wonderfully demanding customer.
The result then obviously corresponded to his ideas so exactly that even several hours of travel couldn't stop him from personally inspecting his Thor's Hammer pendant, which has now become a reality, and agreeing with me personally on my last wishes for the final attachment of the leather strap.
I think our customer's eyes lit up like the Nordic midnight sun when they first saw their dream Mjolnir, which, as we know, never sets there... 😉
