Ice Crystal Tiara!

This is a custom order for an Etsy user who wants this for her wedding. I feel so honored! As far as I know, this is my first tiara to be used for a wedding! Yay!

I used large quartz crystals, which are slightly foggy, and clear glass crystals, which are super clear and contrast beautifully with the foggy crystals. Every crystal is wired to the base, and then I applied large amounts of epoxy resin to make sure each one was completely secure. Clear glitter was then applied all over the base, to help cover the wire and epoxy glue, which inevitably showed.

The tiara sits like a headband rather than a traditional tiara.

Custom Tiara!

I got a request for a custom tiara. Basically the customer wanted a tiara currently in my shop, but with different colored stones in it.

I used glass marbles backed with red paint, and set into gold painted polymer clay bezels.

The original design, with cognac colored faceted crystal beads. The glass pearls are the same on either tiara. This tiara can be purchased here.

Deja-vu Queen of Time!

 I thought I'd do some posts where I compare all the different versions of a tiara design. This is a Red Queen-inspired tiara. My boyfriend jested with me about my including the black spades on the tiara, and I do agree, the Red Queen from Through the Looking Glass probably wouldn't be wearing a nemesis' emblem. But hey, I'm not the red queen, so it's fair game.

The first iteration of the design. I made it two years ago at Halloween time. It is designed more like a "crown."

When I redid the tiara, I designed it like a headband, and not like a crown. I think tiaras fit more comfortably when they are designed as such. I kept the design basically the same. I made this about 4-6 months ago.

This is the most recent incarnation. I was requested by a customer to make a fancy version of the above tiara. I knew exactly what she meant, and I put even a sparkling gold band and in-between arches in gold. The black spades are covered in faceted acrylic rhinestones, and red glass rhinestones adorn the front heart. Quite a beautiful piece! I made this a couple of weeks ago.

Hair Combs and Hair Pins

I have made a whole bunch new hair combs and hair pins. I felt very inspired to make a whole bunch of stuff after buying yet more craft items and then realizing that I haven't used the stuff I already have! So, using new supplies and "old" supplies, I have handcrafted lots of new sparkly accessories. They seem to be mostly mermaid themed, oddly enough...

Fancy Mermaid Comb

Real shells which are painted gold, with fine glass pearls and green sparkly seaweed. Very elegant!

Burlesque Peacock Hair Pin

Burlesque-style hair pins. They are bright green and blue and glittery, and contain real feather pieces from peacock feathers. There are two available.

Seaweed Hair Pins

These pins ended up looking like seaweed. They are simple, and there are 3 available.

Purple Siren Comb

I love anything glittery, and this comb screams burlesque! Bright purple glittery leaves and one of my handcrafted green glitter bezel set gems.

Ocean Siren Hair Pin

This one is like a tangle of seaweed. Nice green sparkly bits all combined into one piece.

Mermaid Princess Hair Pins

These are fit for a mermaid princess! A silver shell with a fine glass gray pearl, green leafy sprig, and a large rhinestone. There are three available.

Steampunk Peacock Pin

Peacock feather! This is a sort of steampunk-inspired  piece, especially with the gold key. (keys are steampunk, right?)

Winter Queen Crown

A mini Winter Queen crown. Very cute, has one of my handcrafted combs attached to it.

New Custom Cards!

So, I'm a graphic design student. I thought to myself, shouldn't I be trying to sell my work? I've always wanted to make and sell cards, but since getting training to be a graphic designer, I find that it is much nicer to make things digitally, plus, I'm learning new skills as I do it.

I will have more designs available in the coming months, but these are my first cards:

Unicorn Birthday Card

The name is customizable, obviously. And I could change the text to say anything, really. Happy Anniversary!, Happy 16th Birthday!, Happy Sister's Day! . . .

And of course, the Charlie reference. Find it on YouTube if you don't know what I'm talking about (search: Charlie the Unicorn).

We have the amulet, Charlie, the amulet!

Tiaras for Empresses Only!

This is the grandest of all Ice Queen tiaras! This one is completely encrusted in faceted glass beads and glass seed beads. It took me ages, but It is sparkling and beautiful. I added a small amount of glitter to the bare metal in spots, just so it wasn't so stark gold.

The front of the band is wrapped in tiny glass clear aurora seed beads. This is the third in a long custom order. The first two were the other ice queen tiaras, and were styled more like spike tiaras. This one is more reminiscent of frosty branches.

Queen Regent Crown. This is one of the grandest tiaras I have ever made! It is beautifully detailed, and features large cut glass jonquil colored glass beads. Faux pearls adorn the tiara also.

More Ice Queens and other stuff

Another Ice Queen tiara, this one very similar to the last one. The spikes are closer together, and there are no colorless clear flower beads. This is for the same lady who bought the other tiara. She wasn't quite happy with the design, but still liked the tiara, so she awesomely purchased both!

Both tiaras sit side by side.

The newer design sits in front of the previous tiara. The spikes are also a little bit shorter on the newer one, but not by much. Beautiful sparkling crystal beads dot each spike. It reminds me of those grand crystal chandeliers.

Yes, it's a little invisible in the foliage, but the weather has been freaking amazing in Seattle lately, so had to get outside!

I call this one my "Marie Antoinette Tiara." It reminds me so much of the super grandiose, gold-guilded Louis XVI era. Faux pearls line the tiara base.

The color's sorta off in this photo, but you can see that it's large, and pretty. I think the pearls make it look classy.

Lady Liberty Tiara. This is an old tiara, and a returning Etsy customer told me that although she really liked the design, she wasn't digging the previously blue base of the tiara. I don't always get it right, this tiara has quite a lot of views on it, but no one wanted to purchase it, so maybe this is the reason! I'll see if she likes it and wants to purchase it, but otherwise, it'll be interesting to see if it gets sold now. Every once in awhile, I'll go and unlist tiaras and change something about them, and more often than not, I'll notice that those tiaras then go and almost immediately sell.

The base now blends in better with the color of the round stone beads. The lizard of guilt looks on.

Remember the Borg...

 Remember the Borg Queen tiara I made some time ago? Well, a side project I've been working on for a while now is a Borg Fairy doll. I found a Barbie for cheap at a Value Village, and completely changed her. She is now the super coolest, geekiest Barbie that ever there was!

Seven of Nine/Borg Queen inspired tiara.

My completed Borg Fairy. The story is that she was just a happy little fairy, flying all around with all her cute fairy friends, and all of a sudden, the Borg invaded their land, using dirigibles to penetrate into the fairies' treetop homes. Only a few fairies managed to escape, but to where we don't know. Our sweet Hyacinthia, as she was known in the fairy realm, was one of the first to fall to the borg. She is now known as Hycutus, or One of Eight. Her delicate little fairy wings, once so agile and useful, now serve no purpose to her, and they have fallen into disrepair.

I used acrylic paint to paint over a layer of masking tape and wire, in order to get texture. Her hair is gathered up and wrapped in wire, then heavily coated in paint. The wires are painted with an opalescent blue to bring out their detail.

A Seven of Nine eyepiece is present on her, as are some gems that she wore as a fairy.

This is a fairy you won't want to run into anytime soon.

These tiaras are already gone...

 These tiaras are already spoken for, and I post them here to show more of my work...

A custom Ice Queen tiara. The spikes emulate icicles, and are adorned in crystals and snowflake-like acrylic flowers. The buyer has told me it's to go with an Ice Queen ballet costume.

The spikes are super-sturdy, and are sparkling and beautiful. I even had the perfect gold and crystal and earrings to match for the photo!

This tiara was inspired by my friend Bethann, who runs Etsy shop The Silly Sperm Shop. We go to college together, and she drew the cutest Frida Kahlo picture where Frida is wearing this lovely heart tiara. When I saw it, I immediately wanted to make the tiara, and I feel like I mostly captured it.

I gave to Bethann as a gift, and she loved it!

Another silver trinket tiara! I am so proud of this one! I love the design, and the hot air balloon charm in the middle is something my grandma sent me for crafting purposes. This tiara was just purchased by the Peacock Lady, who gave me all those peacock feathers mentioned in the previous post!

Beautiful silver tiara, very large, but not too shocking.

Peacocks Galore

 An Etsy user who bought one of my tiaras was kind enough to actually send me a whole bunch of peacock feathers! She said she'd bought them in Asia years ago and never did anything with them. In Singapore, she said, you can buy 100 peacock feathers for only $10!

Needless to say, I became inspired to make some tiaras again.

A flapper-style 1920's Gatsby-esque aigrette tiara. It's very tall, but perfect for a very elegant look.

The band is wrapped in a soft green velvet, and the tiara is incredibly lightweight to wear.

A peacock hair comb. My sister bought me that beautiful gold woven ribbon a long while ago, and I could never find the perfect thing to use it on, until now. The gem is one of my own handcrafted bezel-set marbles.

It looks awesome put off to the side of the head. Very elegant!

This hair comb uses a "faux" peacock feather - made from friendly plastic. I was worried friendly plastic didn't exist anymore, as it's hard to find, but Amaco sells in on their website, and I was lucky enough to find a fabric/crafts store near me that sold a couple of colors (all the colors above, in fact).

Super cool looking, yet not too wacky for everyone to wear.

I highly recommend friendly plastic as a long-forgotten art medium from my childhood! It's so easy to use, and it's so fancy and pretty looking!

Talking Heads: A Contemporary Take on Headdresses

A friend of mine directed me to a competition in North Vancouver, British Columbia, called Talking Heads: A Contemporary Take on Headdresses. It is at a space called Cityscape Community Art Space. The theme of the exhibit is to take an historical headdress, and make it contemporary.

I've done just that! My theme is–of course–an old European-style crown. I then combined it with the idea of a Moon Queen, and I came up with a moon-colored crown with rhinestone embellishments. Luckily, at the moment I just need to send in a CD with jpegs of my work, plus artist statement and all that. I am not sure if my type of craziness fits into the idea of the exhibit, but I should find out in a few months if my work is selected to be in the exhibit. I can also place it for sale during the show if it's selected. And if it doesn't make the cut, that's ok! In that case, it would eventually go up for sale in my Etsy shop. I'll keep you all updated via this blog.

The following are the images I've submitted for the judging (they are of course higher resolution than what I've posted here).

A front view of my crown. It is by far larger than other crowns I've made before!

It has an overall gray, silver and deep blue color theme.

Instead of the classical fleur-de-lys in between each arch, I've put a moon and star emblem, with deep blue crystal beads.

For more information on this competition, visit http://www.surfacedesign.org/events/talking-heads-contemporary-take-headdresses. The entry fee is CAN$15, which works out to be 14.78USD.