Dark Empress and Sweet Princess

https://www.etsy.com/listing/110445581/dark-empress-tiara

 Dark Empress Tiara. This sort of follows my other black-themed tiaras, most notably my Black Swan tiaras which sold for Halloween-time last year.

The centerpiece is a rather nice vintage brooch. Little crystal charms hang from each wire point.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/110447543/dark-empress-crown?ref=v1_other_1

 This tiara is inspired off of a tiara I saw for sale in a shop in the mall. That tiara had a nice design, but it was all cheap plastic and made in China. Mine is completely handmade by me, out of wire!

It is my Dark Empress Crown, and is a very nice, large design.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/110446441/pink-mermaid-princess-tiara-reserved-for?ref=v1_other_2

 This is a custom piece for a little girl who loves sparkles and mermaids. The tiara is so sparkly, and tiny seashells which I've coated in an opalescent paint adorn the tiara.

The tiara features flower and heart-shaped acrylic rhinestones, really wonderful pink acrylic floral beads, mother-of-pearl disc beads, muscle shells, clam shells, and snail shells.

I've never personally seen this brand, but the sew-on rhinestones work best. They have the little holes in them, which makes it easy to string wire through them. I normally use acrylic rhinestones, but it would also be nice to use glass ones like the ones pictured below. 

The Queen of Hearts, She Made Some Tarts

https://www.etsy.com/listing/109922990/red-queen-alice-in-wonderland-tiara

This is a remake of a tiara I made last year around the same time. It has a central heart element that I have handmade out of cardboard and painted red. Black wire acts as a support behind the whole tiara, and tendrils that I have painted gold spring up out of the tiara base. 

A silver-tone watch face is affixed to the middle, and handmade polymer clay spade beads are positioned on either side. Glass beads surmount each space, and an acrylic bead tops the heart. 

Such a beautiful tiara, I amaze myself sometimes.

Polymer clay is inexpensive, and is an awesome medium to use when constructing handmade jewelry items.

Spiders and Bats

https://www.etsy.com/listing/109239264/bat-wing-tiara  

I had to make a bat wing tiara, as Halloween is getting ever nearer, and no one will want to buy black bat tiaras the rest of the year! It is made completely out of black wire, and a purple acrylic rhinestone is affixed in the middle of the tiara, and two dark blue metallic glass beads are on the top and bottom of the rhinestone.

It is a rather large piece, but it is very cool!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/109238768/scary-black-spider-tiara?ref=v1_other_2

 Spiders are really scary to me, but they offer such cool possibilities in the realm of art, that I couldn't resist making a Spider Tiara. It is made completely out of wire, and as a result, it is rather heavy!

It's multiple eyes are little white beads that have red painted-on pupils.

It looks like the spider is perched on top of my head, ready to spring!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.