Click on the photograph to view our complete Bean Ri Collection.

Win a beautiful Bean Ri Silver Pendant for Mothers Day. 

Bean Ri (She King) collection is inspired by the ancient warrior queens of Ireland, designed for todays mothers, sisters, friends.  Enter our on-line Mothers day Competition to win this timeless silver pendant.

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Enter by subscribing to our mailing list.

Already a Subscriber?  Then you're already in the competition.  

Closing date for entries for this competition is midnight Mothers Day, 26th March. 

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Our Bean Ri collection was inspired by the mythological and historical queens of ancient Ireland, mothers of a culture and a nation.  

Modelled on Bronze Age spear heads displayed in the museum of Ireland, we looked to create a collection that celebrated the ancient craftsmanship of our forebears. The Bean Ri collection available in Sterling Silver and Gold has the Irish Hallmark of purity. The earrings and pendants are beautiful and feminine, reflecting the vision and passion for life, of modern women everywhere. A perfect Mothers Day gift!

View the Island Links Collection by clicking on the photograph.

Win a gorgeous "Island Links" handmade sterling silver & 9 carat Rose gold necklace from the Martina Hamilton Collection this St Patrick's Day.

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Enter by subscribing to our mailing list:

Already a Subscriber?  Then you're already in the competition.  

Closing date for entries for this competition is midnight on Friday March 17th.

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Island Links. A contemporary Irish jewellery collection that is forging special links around the world.

Our St Patrick's day competition 2017 is all about connecting people, about linking with loved ones and family, with people far from home, and people right beside us. Ireland is the renowned as the island of 1000 welcomes. With that spirit in mind St Patrick's day is an opportunity to celebrate what is unique and distinctive in every modern culture, and to find ways to link and celebrate the diversity of all cultural identities. 

Contemporary Irish Jewelry designer Martina Hamilton lives and works in Sligo, along Ireland's wild Atlantic way. A recent discovery of her own ancestral connection with the tiny island of Dernish, which lies just of the north Sligo coast, inspired her to create the Island Link's collection. The jewellery pieces in hallmarked precious metal, feature rose gold and silver links and bars, which are connected by sterling silver chains. 

“As I watched an incoming tide quietly encircle Dernish island one morning, some weathered iron mooring loops on the harbour wall caught my attention. I began to think how these old metal moorings were my link to the living past of the island, to my own family who had come from there generations before. I was moved by how tenuous all our living connections can be, with the past and indeed the present, how I almost wound up never knowing that this small island had played a significant part in my own heritage. 

"For me Island Links is about celebrating and reaffirming the loving connections we make in our lives with people and places” - Martina Hamilton.

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Jewellery designer Martina Hamilton explores her recently discovered ancestral roots with Dernish Island just off the Atlantic west coast of Sligo in Ireland in this short film directed by Susan O'Keeffe.

Martina Hamilton Collection shinning brightly in the Arnotts all new Irish Jewellery Section.

As you can probably tell... I am delighted to continue my association with the Irish Jewellery Designers Counter at Arnotts in Henry Street Dublin. The section has just been given an amazing upgrade in terms of floor space and gorgeous new display cabinets. Arnotts are making a major positive impact at the moment for Irish designer / makers from all over the country with their profiling and support for new and established artisan brands. This support extends across the whole Irish craft sector, not just in my area of designer jewellery.

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2017 - 2027 Into the future.

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First Assay Office Cert from 1987

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This one is my 1997 renewal

We're Certifiable! (For at least another 10 years ) 

Not sure if I should be revealing my age to this extent but a little bit of history in our blog today. Above are the certificates of ten year renewal on my Irish Assay Office Makers mark. My mark MCG is based on my initials Martina Catherine Gillan when I first registered it with the Assay Office in Dublin Castle in 1987.

How it works is when we create a jewellery piece here, be it a one off commission for a customer or pieces for our own collections, we stamp everyone of them with our MCG mark. Then it goes to the Assay Office in Dublin who sample the metals that go into each piece and hallmark them as sterling silver or a particular carat gold. The metal has to be of the highest quality before it gets an Irish Hallmark. It means when you see jewellery with an Irish hallmark on it you know you are buying quality metals.

I do sometimes think about the number of pieces that will have gone out into the world with the MCG mark on it, as everything we've made since I first registered has been assayed. I do love to see pieces I have made in the past come back to me for a shine up.

Common Irish Assay Office Hallmarks

(Courtesy of the Assay Office of Ireland website) 

The Dublin Assay Office Mark - Hibernia

Hibernia mark may be considered as a special mark of the Dublin Assay Office. It was only used on Irish manufactured articles up to 2002 while the boujet was used on imported articles. Since 2002 it is used on all articles assayed and hallmarked at the Assay Office irrespective of their origin

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The Fineness Mark – The Harp Crowned

The harp crowned was prescribed as the fineness mark.  It was applied to 22 carat gold and sterling silver up until 2002.

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The Date Letter

In 1638 a date letter system began with the foundation of the Dublin Goldsmiths Company. This date latter denotes the year in which a piece was made or hallmarked and is changed now on 1 January each year. The date letter “A” is for the year 2011. On 1 January 2011 the 17th alphabetical cycle since the foundation of the Company began.

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So the fineness mark for 9 carat gold for example is the numeral 9 with the addition of the fineness expressed in parts per thousand. So JE here is a makers mark. The Lady Mark is Dublin Assay Office mark, the letter refers to the year (G = 2017), the 9 refers to the carat gold in this case and the 375 is a fineness mark expressed as parts per thousand.