Pages

12 June 2012

The making of a Spike Tiara

I know this looks like an awesome Psychadelic tiara, but this is what you get when you use polymer clay that was donated to you, and it is thrown into a bag all together. The actual colors don't matter, as I ended up painting the whole thing gold anyways. Each spike element is made separately, where I start with the largest middle piece and work outward. I use a piece of wire and poke holes into each polymer clay piece, bake it in the oven, then string it on wire. Beads are used as spacers between each clay piece.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/91043673/princess-victoria-russian-spike-tiara
This one is much larger than the previous one I made, and it is much more precise. It almost continues in a complete crown around the head. 

I love using color backgrounds in my tiara photos. The gold color pops, and the details of the tiara can be clearly seen.

The inspiration for my Princess Victoria Spike tiara, the Crown Princess of Sweden herself!

Classical Winged Tiaras and other Classical Designs

A tiara made out of wire, acrylic rhinestones, and opalescent blue/pearl paint.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/101992839/ice-blue-wing-tiara
A close-up of the center part of the tiara. It takes a long time to bend the wire to exactly where I want it.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/101992286/blue-wing-mercury-tiara?ref=v1_other_2
Another blue wing tiara, this ones is completely wire, with a coating of gloss blue paint. Very Mercury-esque.


https://www.etsy.com/listing/101993399/queen-of-hearts-crown
Another Red Queen of Hearts Tiara!

Lightweight, with "papier-mached" hearts, which are made from white tissue paper around a wire frame, and then painted red and gold.

A photo of myself wearing the bronze Pinecone Rose Flower tiara! I feel so clever when I can make something from a pinecone, where most people wouldn't think to pick up a pinecone off of the ground.

The wire star tiara is quite large, as is evidenced in this photo. It is rusted and then sealed with a varnish.

08 June 2012

Imperial State Crown...lampshade?

I was originally making this wire crown to sell either on Etsy or Ebay, but then I realized that it wasn't going to be a very comfortable accessory to wear, and it is so large! My boyfriend gave me the brilliant idea of turning this thing into a sort of lampshade! I used white tissue paper, and put it in the inside of the wire crown frame, and I plan on actually hanging it upside down (I know, crazy, right?!) from my ceiling. I also plan to put some colored LED lights into it, which will show through the translucent white tissue paper, giving off a cool rainbow effect. If I can't find a colored strand of LEDs, I'll just use the white ones and paint the white tissue paper in various rainbow shades. The whole thing is about 12 inches high!

I do want to make more crowns, so far I have only made one Queen of Hearts crown that sold last Halloween. Crowns are so much harder to make than tiaras, and to get the arches the same size, and to look symmetrical, it is so much harder than you can imagine! I love this dark-colored wire that I used to make it. It is a gauge that isn't so thick that it's hard to maneuver, but it has a strength that allows me to do pretty much whatever I want with it. It was also ridiculously cheap, where I bought this huge coil of it at my college bookstore! And the tissue paper is rescued from an old gift someone gave me! Basically, most of my tiaras only cost me time to make, I get most of the supplies donated, I find some of them (literally, I pick them off of the pavement), some of it I've had for years. I know a lot of artists, and most artists are like bag ladies, keeping tons of supplies that they never end up using. I've gotten polymer clay, costume jewelry, paint, charms, varnishes, spray paint. The cool thing about polymer clay is that it doesn't matter what color it is, you can always spray paint it (or paint it by hand), and that color is normally gold, or glittery. I absolutely love to make tiaras! Most of them only take me about 2 hours to make.

Butterflies and Darkness

 I love coming up with new tiara designs, and finding new things to make tiaras out of. Melinda from the Etsy shop BeesOnPie did an item exchange with me, and one of the things she sent me were these life-sized feather monarch butterflies. I've also been experimenting with real leaves. I've been making tiaras since I was about 16, and most of the ones I made back then were made with dried ivy leaves and dried roses, which I would coat in varnish, paint a pretty color, and then I'd have an interesting tiara. Back then I think I used mostly dried leaves and flowers because I didn't have many other supplies at my disposal, but now I realize it's a new medium from which to make interesting tiaras.
A top view of the tiara. It fits on the head more like a headband. Because the ivy leaves are coated in a flexible varnish, they are are not crunchy and easily breakable, but they are slightly flexible. From my own experience with real dried leaves, the permanence of this piece is at least 5 years, probably more, as long as it is handled with care.

The ivy leaves and butterfly are coated in a sparkling clear glitter, which is coated again in high-gloss varnish to prevent the glitter from falling off.

I quite like this piece, and it reminds me of morning frost on leaves, or even sugar coated confections.

My "steampunk" style crab claw tiara! These are real crab claws, which I found on a beach in Seattle. They are all from the same crab, too, I found his remains in the sand, where I also found a piece of his shell.

A cool Halloween accessory!

This tiara reminds me of the one Maleficent wears in that Disney movie, was it Snow White or Sleeping Beauty? Well, whatever, it is a Dark Empress tiara nonetheless!

The large sequin charms shine brilliantly in the sunlight.

Barbie Doll Tiaras!!!

I have thought about making Barbie tiaras for a long time. I loved playing with Barbies when I was a kid, and I am sure I would have loved to have had a ton of different tiara/crown accessories for them! I am still considering whether I should sell these on Etsy, or rather, TRY to sell them, as I don't know if there is any market for these things. I guess I could always try Ebay, there might be a larger market for Barbie accessories there.
My Scary Spice doll (these dolls are the exact same size as Barbie Dolls) wearing a homemade gold wire heart tiara.

My Victoria Beckham doll wearing a regal piece. I thought it made her look like the Posh snob that was her Spice Girl character!

A rather nice, solid design, in the middle of which I have stuck an acrylic rhinestone. I think I like the Sporty Spice doll best, since she has the nose piercing and looks the most like me!

Baby Spice wearing a simple gold spike style tiara.

Ginger Spice wearing a gold wire "festoon" style tiara, or scroll type tiara. Something like that. But I think it looks rather nice!