Cellar Hoard

Made some more pewter amulets based off my reproduction of the Trendgarden mold.

The original mold was made in 10th century Denmark and is well known for its molds for a Thor’s hammer, two style of crosses and ingots.

However, I modified some of the Thor’s hammers to recreate the “anchor” pendants found in the Jorvik and Hedeby sites.

I felt the need to make another soapstone oil lamp. This is based on a find from Iceland, 1000AD.

I’m using olive oil here, as fish oil seems prohibitively expensive here.

The wick is Hoof tree fungus ( Fomes fomentarius ) carved into a cone shape and soaked in oil. This process allows for a stable and tall flame creating more light than the traditional linen wick draped over the lamp edge.

Hoof fungus has a long history of being used as tinder for fire making. There is evidence that hoof fungus was used in the Viking age town Hedeby (Haithabu on German). I find that it has a long burn time as a wick, but can producers black smoke - great for longhouses and outside -not as great in a modern room.