Flickr

www.flickr.com
Hot Rocks' Hot Rocks Jewellery 2012 photoset Hot Rocks' Hot Rocks Jewellery 2012 photoset

Pages

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Coal Miners Daughter

I wanted to share with you, the story behind one of my newest creations called,
Coal Miners Daughter.

At the entrance to every underground mine, there is a tag board. This is a board that is used to indicate who is in the mine. Each time a miner goes underground they must tag in, by placing a brass tag with their number stamped on it on the in side of the board. When the miners leave at the end of their shift, they are required to tag out, by moving their numbered tag to the out side of the board. Anybody approaching the entrance to the mine can then tell at a glance how many men are underground in the mine. This was also important at the end of the day to make sure that everybody was out of the mine.

http://kycoal.homestead.com/MiningtheCoal.html
http://kycoal.homestead.com/MiningtheCoal.html
 The miners also carried their individual brass tags with their number, to hang on the coal cars that they would fill and send out to be weighed. That way, the weigh man knew whom to credit with the mined coal.

http://kycoal.homestead.com/MiningtheCoal.html
This is a vintage brass miners tag, that I have set against a background of old lace, and set in resin, to create this piece of historic jewellery. I have also added a vintage skeleton key, and then suspended it all from a multi strand gunmetal chain...also vintage!





           Jewellery with a story to tell!
Pin It

6 comments:

BeadedTail said...

I didn't know that about the tags for the coal mines. That is certainly a great story behind your lovely pieces!

Anonymous said...

How neat! I love that you encased it in resin too- it reads as a relic now. Gorgeous!

Catherine said...

Very cool!

Did you get a dump of snow? Did you send it my way? Haha!

Keep warm my friend!
xo Catherine

Lin said...

VERY cool! I knew about the tags because there are lots of old mines where we go on vacation. rough life those guys lived. Yikes.

I am loving your new necklaces!

Lin said...

I can't wait for your shop to open again--I would really like something with one of these tags! Save me a good one!

BumbleVee said...

What a horrible, hard life it must have been for the poor miners....

Featured on:

World Artisan Gems

Sizzling Sales and Promos!

Would you like to be notified of sales and promos at Hot Rocks?
If so send me your email address, and I will add you to my mailing list.
contact susan@hotrocksglassjewels.com