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10 September 2012

Halloween is getting near!

A custom tiara I made for an Etsy customer. It is made all out of wire, with a red gem in the center. It is my imitation of Esmeralda's tiara from the Hunchback of Notre Dame Disney movie.

Esmeralda wearing the tiara. Mine isn't exactly like it, not as thick for one, but I think it's a fairly good real life representation of it.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/109103514/halloween-tiara
My Halloween or Day of the Dead tiara. I am trying to make some cool Halloween-inspired tiaras, so this is the first. I got these really cute carved stone skull beads in different colors, and this tiara features a white one.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/109103947/pearl-princess-tiara?ref=v1_other_1
A simple Pearl Princess Tiara. I found these super awesome faux half pearl stick ons, and this tiara is the first to use them. I saw them before in the craft supply place near where I live, and I finally decided to buy them. They are really the neatest thing I've seen. I also wired them on, because adhesives don't work so well off of paper. But the fact that they stick on means you can place them wherever you want, and they don't move around!

Such a cute, understated piece!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/109105296/red-glitter-bouquet-hair-comb?ref=v1_other_1
I've been wanting to make more hairclips and combs. Small, petite pieces that can be worn whenever. This one utilizes red sparkling craft findings and red netted tulle material. Two long handmade wire combs come out it, allowing you to easily stick it into a ponytal.

I've got a high ponytail in my hair, and the clip looks rather cute when put off to the side of your head.

A dark Halloween-y tiara with sparkling rhinestones sprinkled all over it. I love gothic-inspired pieces, and since Halloween is coming up, thought I may as well make some!

The tiara design is sort of 3 different elements that are each a sort of tangle of wire. The piece is painted black with a gloss varnish. It's a rather cool piece, I think!

07 September 2012

Fantasy Tiaras that are perfect for Halloween!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/108870532/borg-queen-tiara
I've been wanting to make a Star Trek Borg inspired tiara for a long time, and I finally got around to doing it. This is the sort of tiara I imagine the Borg Queen would wear if she wore a tiara. This is also Seven of Nine inspired, obviously, as I've got the additional eye piece that is a part of the tiara. I want to make another one of these for Halloween for myself, as I want to be a sort of Borg Bee Fairy (I couldn't decide what I wanted to be more for Halloween, so I combined all three). I think I could do it gold or maybe striped black and yellow like a bee. I'll have to see. This one is made all out of wire, and I've painted the wire black, and then dry brushed a metallic turquoise paint over the top. I could do any color, I would just have to mix it up!

The tiara part fits like a headband, and because the eyepiece is connected, the headband just needs to be adjusted so that the eyepiece rests on top of your eyebrow.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/108871147/red-devil-claw-horns?ref=v1_other_1
I went beach combing at Ocean Shores, Washington, a few weeks back, and I found dozens upon dozens of dead crab arms and claws. I scavenged up a bunch of them, pressure cooked them a couple of times, dried them out in the oven, and then finally they were ready for craft uses. These crab claws are attached to a metal band that I made, and the whole piece is sprayed with a nice high gloss read spray paint. They ended up looking like Devil horns, or mean bull horns, or something equally as lovely. These are perfect for so many Halloween costumes!


These crab claws have many sharp spikes on them, and I do not recommend them for children.

30 August 2012

New Tiaras! Finally!

I was originally making this for a little girl, but it turned out rather large, and I'm making a smaller tiara now, that still uses mostly the same elements. It is pretty much made completely out of wire, spray painted gold, and there are some pink acrylic hearts and gold faceted glass beads adorning it.

I've been wanting to making this tiara forever! It is one of those Burlesque-style mini crowns that lay off to one side on your head. It is based off of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. This thing took quite a long time to make, let me tell you!

I think this tiara turned out magnificently. It even has very nice, real freshwater pearls on it!

05 July 2012

Custom Princess Tiaras

I love to make custom pieces, and I get contacted 3 or 4 times a year to make custom tiaras. They are normally "Princess" tiaras from movies, but sometimes someone gives me an idea, and I go with it. People are always so happy to get my custom pieces, it is very flattering. Plus, doing custom works forces me to work outside of the work that I just feel like doing, which is good for me, creatively. I just got finished with 2 custom princess tiaras, and I sent a message to the Etsy buyer who requested them, so I don't know yet whether she likes them. Let's hope so!
My version of Princess Aurora's tiara from the old Disney Sleeping Beauty.

The tiara is lightweight, as is just a wire frame with painted masking tape and floral tape. I painted the tiara gold, as I thought it would be weird to make it yellow like it is in the cartoon. They didn't have the ability to make "gold" color in a cartoon back then!

My interpretation of Princess Rapunzel's tiara from the recent CGI movie Tangled. The three large gems are made from Epoxy glue, while the rest is made from wire, sequins, beads, and acrylic gemstones. 

I had to hand paint all the wire and ribbon gold, as spray painting it would have been too messy, and would have gotten all over the clear gemstones, which I attaches to the tiara frame first.

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!

30 April 2012

Horse Hair Tiara!!!

This tiara is made out of horse hair and wire. And some ribbon, that has been painted black with India Ink.

I did an item exchange with fellow Etsy shop owner Melinda of Bees on Pie (check out her blog here: http://beesonpie.blogspot.com/) She has this cool necklace in her shop, which reminds me of a "Dark Empress/Sorceress" Necklace! It was an interesting experience making a tiara out of horse hair. When I had wired all the tufts of hair to the tiara base, I had to trim the hair with scissors to make it even. Well, I was sorta drinking my morning cup of coffee while working on this tiara, and in the process of trimming the hair, I sort of got horsehair in my coffee. Worse still, I didn't want to waste my coffee, as it was an almost-full cup, so I tried to drink it anyways...it was rough going down and I don't recommend it! Lesson learned.

22 April 2012

New Tiaras I made in April!

After a very busy couple of weeks at school, I finally had some time to make some tiaras! I had drawn out some designs that I thought up in my head, and I actually made all of them, which is awesome for me, since I normally draw a lot of tiaras that I never end up making. So here are my 9 new tiara designs:
My Snow Queen Tiara
A very Halloween-y black Spiderweb Tiara, made simply out of black wire and paint.

Gold Lace Tiara. Very lightweight, tall, and elegant.

A beautiful green silk flower tiara, which has literally been dusted with gold pigment powder.

My large and awesome Ice Queen Tiara. I love this one, and I may want to make one for myself come this Halloween.

A simple wire, glitter, and crystal heart Sweetheart Tiara.

A very simple tiara made out of wire, covered with glitter, and there are some faux pearls added. It is a mini tiara, with an attached wire comb.

Russian Spike tiara!!! I love spike tiaras, and I have 4 now in my tiara shop.

This is one of my most original and unique tiaras to date. The green leaves are actually real , dried ivy leaves, and the yellow flower is a silk flower that I painted, and a vintage plastic bead sits in the middle of the flower. The whole piece has been thickly coated in clear glitter, giving it a frosty, ice-covered look, and it sparkles like sugar crystals in the sunlight.