This die measures 3" X 3" and features the components for making a Rams Head with Celtic Knots Penannular Brooch.
 
This Rolling Mill Component Die is a mild tool steel die that can be used in a rolling mill that can accommodate 3" wide by 1/8” thick material plus your metal and craft foam.  The design can be used for making a brooch that is used as a fastener for knitted or crocheted shawls or crossover sweaters. If you want make a brooch that can be used on tighter knits or woven fabrics you will need to saw the stick pin part of the brooch thinner, or saw out only the handle of the pin and solder a wire with a pointed end onto the back of it.
 
The brooch body measures 1-61/64" wide and 1-7/8" long.
The brooch stick pin measures 3/8" wide and 2-9/32" long.
The loop for the back of the stick pin measures 1/8" wide and 7/8" long.
 
Tutorial for Making a Penannular Brooch.
The tutorial in our Inspiration section shows how to solder the loop on the back of the stick pin and how to position the brooch to fasten clothing.
 
The Celtic brooch, more properly called a penannular brooch, and its closely related type, the pseudo-penannular brooch, are types of clothing fasteners, and are often rather large. Penannular means formed as an incomplete ring. They are especially associated with the beginning of the Early Medieval period in the British Isles, although they are found in other times and places—for example, forming part of traditional female dress in areas in modern North Africa.
 
Beginning as utilitarian fasteners in the Iron Age and Roman period, they are especially associated with the highly ornate brooches produced in precious metal for the elites of Ireland and Scotland from about 700 to 900. They are popularly known as Celtic brooches or similar terms. They are the most significant objects in high-quality secular metalwork from Early Medieval Celtic art, or Insular art, as art historians prefer to call it. The type continued in simpler forms such as the thistle brooch into the 11th century, during what is often known as the Viking Age in Ireland and Scotland.
 
Both penannular and pseudo-penannular brooches feature a long pin attached by its head to a ring; the pin can move freely around the ring as far as the terminals, which are close together. In the true penannular type, the ring is not closed; there is a gap between the terminals wide enough for the pin to pass through. In the pseudo-penannular type, the ring is closed, but there are still two separately defined terminals, which are joined by a further element. The penannular type is a simple and efficient way of fastening loosely woven cloth (where the pin will not leave a permanent hole), but the pseudo-penannular type is notably less efficient.
 
The brooches were worn by both men and women, usually singly at the shoulder by men and on the breast by women, and with the pin pointing up; an Irish law code says that in the event of injury from a pin to another person, the wearer is not at fault if the pin did not project too far and the brooch was worn in these ways by the sexes.
 
These Rolling Mill Component Dies are for ROLLING MILL USE ONLY. We tested them with a hydraulic press and we were able to get impressions. However, we also found that after the first couple of pressings the plates became dented. This happened because the type of tool steel necessary for use in a rolling mill is softer than the type of steel used in a hydraulic press.