Poundbury is an urban extension to the county town of Dorchester and is a part The Duchy of Cornwall which was established in 1337 and funds many public, charitable and private activities of Charles, Prince of Wales.
Permission to make one replica was sought and granted from the Poundbury office of the Duchy of Cornwall.
The original piece was made in silver, with green enamel and blue stone (possibly chalcedony) along with marbled glass sections of creme/purple and two shades of Greens.
As for my close replica, I again used sterling silver and oxidised the piece. The “major” change from the original in which I had to make, was to use Aventurine instead of the Green enamel.
I haven’t had the experience of enamelling with stones in place and since being in lock down if anything had gone a little “pear shaped” I wouldn’t have been in position to rectify it. Additionally, with my gemmology hat on, Chalcedony turns red in heating (though I wasn’t sure at what temperature that would happen I couldn’t take the chance) maybe something to experiment with in the future.
The Aventurine, along with the blue chalcedony was cut to each shape from the original scale drawing (a very slow job).
The inner marbled glass sections was another story! A mix of Creamy ivory colour and a dark purple with a very tricky combination of a petrol-blue with a greenish yellow. (I would like to thank Nicola Leggett for her valuable contribution and patience in tweaking the numerous variations of glass sections to get to the best conclusion).
The finishing of the piece was to enamel the orange sections, then oxidise and set all the stone and glass sections into place.
