Runes...

Rune Pendants by Andrew Thornton

When I was a kid, we used to go to the flea market "fairly frequently" and by "fairly frequently", I mean, almost every single weekend.  When you don't have a lot of money, it's one of those places where that doesn't matter as much.  A dollar can be stretched amazingly far and if you're lucky, there's treasure to be found!

It's at a flea market that we first discovered runes.  Tucked in a crumbling cardboard box, we found an almost complete set in a faded rust-colored suede bag and a tatty guidebook that was about to fall apart.  The missing piece didn't phase us one bit.  We were crafty even back then that made a polymer clay replacement.  Later on, after high school art class, the polymer replacement was upgraded to a ceramic one that was almost indistinguishable from the originals.

Ever since then, I was fascinated with different systems of divination.  We were curious children and having a tool to answer questions was empowering and a small comfort.  The Runes were a form of connection to something bigger than us and opened the door to a much larger world, where a child could solve hidden mysteries and not feel quite so alone.

I decided to create a series of pendants based off the Runes.  I cut out sterling silver discs and hand-stamped them with a selection of Runes.  I then soldered them to a flame-polished, textured copper backplate.  Once the pendants are cooled, they're cleaned, polished, and burnished by hand and coated with a protective layer of Renaissance Wax that's buffed to a nice satin sheen.