HBO Canada
How do you craft a crown fit for a king? A visit to the newly-restyled Steenson’s jewellery-making working museum in Northern Ireland can reveal what it takes.
The County Antrim artisan workshop, which has crafted a number of pieces for the hugely successful Game of Thrones TV series – including Joffrey Baratheon’s crown – has been named an ‘economusee’, or working museum.
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An economusee is a business that uses traditional craft techniques and opens its doors to the public to showcase its know-how.
Visitors to the family-run Steenson’s goldsmiths can take a tour of the workshop to see its craftspeople create high quality, contemporary pieces of jewellery from silver, gold, platinum and precious gems, inspired by the dramatic Northern Irish landscape.
The exhibition area reveals the 40-year history of Steenson’s, the process involved in gold-smithing, and explores the company’s rich historical design heritage, the origins of gemstones and the workshop’s film connections.
Steenson’s is the fourth economusee in Northern Ireland, joining an artisan workshops network across Europe that offers visitors the chance to see and understand the skills behind the crafts.
Steenson’s is located in the picturesque village of Glenarm on Northern Ireland’s spectacular Antrim coast, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The village sits on the Causeway Coastal Route, which is considered to be one of the top driving routes in the world, at the foot of Northern Ireland’s famous nine Glens of Antrim.
Further along the Coastal Route is the world-renowned Giant’s Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage site that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
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The area also attracts Game of Thrones fans from all over the world to visit the locations used in the series.
And with the opening of the Steenson’s economusee, there is now one more gold standard reason to visit this beautiful corner of Northern Ireland.