Circlet making supplies are arriving! Quite a few years ago I bought some very pretty but very expensive gold plated flowers which I used to make a circlet for myself, but they were far too expensive to get more and then the Etsy shop stopped stocking them. Well, I've found somewhere that sells them. At cost price. 

I ordered one packet in case they were cheap rip offs, but when they arrived, they were identical, so I ordered a heap more with the idea of making some circlets to sell. I've found a source of garnets which is also cost price and the same for nice freshwater pearls, so I'm all set! 

I will be having an epic crafting day soon over the Xmas break and will sell them next year before the festival or at the big festival. 

The upgrade on this circlet was a real headache. Not quite literally, but almost.

The issue I had with this project, is that when I originally made the circlet, I wired the brass closed at both ends and equally spaced out the metal flowers and fittings. The design used alternating decoration, which looked really lovely.

Unfortunately, the Lady's head was even smaller than mine because I usually wear a hairpiece to bulk out my hair as she doesn't. I needed to cut about an inch out of the circlet for it to fit her well. Here lies the problem. If I had have used the same decoration all the way around and not alternating decorations, I could simply cut out a section and rejoin it with no disruption to the design. By taking an inch out of it, the decorations then had two the same butting up together, which just wouldn't do at all.

After a painful thought process, I thought that the whole thing could be dealt with in a less than perfect, but perfectly adequate way, by adding a central element which is different to both of the existing ones. The large silver rose in the middle now is flanked by gold cups with carnelian flowers and then small silver flowers which echo the rose, but in a much smaller way.

I had to remove the circlet lining to cut the circlet itself, so after the decoration was in place, a fresh one needed to be glued into place.

It really isn't what I originally intended, but it solves a problem, and it's not for a re-enactor anyway, so it ticks all the requirements and looks very pretty too.

 

 

I've been charged with sorting the Opening Ceremony for a medieval festival and in the mix are three allegorical Ladies- that is, three personifications of virtuous traits. Lady Valour needed some clothing and since it's not re-enactment garb, I was able to have a little fun with it and take a few short cuts to make a fancy dress outfit which would be easily seen against a dark grey castle wall, and be blingy.

I've used a cotton brocade with a pattern similar to some 15th century artworks, but it's not a reproduction. I've added some gold braided trim around the hem and applied "red coral" and "pearl" beading, both not actual gemstones in this case.

 

The cream "pearls" sort of disappeared into the trim, but the red popped quite nicely. Sadly, it needed to be hand beaded and that took quite a bit of time. The end result was well worth it, though, I feel.

Finally, I added some large, gold-coloured disc buttons which are sometimes seen on effigies.

 

Since the outfit was not for re-enactment purposes, I didn't worry too much about matching the actual button design from the effigy which for all the world looks like it has tiny, little cats in the centre section. The picture above shows a test placing trialing garnet beads for the centres. In the end, I went with matching "red coral."

Once the entire outfit was finished, I did a fitting with one of the women who will be wearing it and discovered that the proposed circlet didn't really work, so I guess I'll need to make a matching one as well!

 

I love making things and I wanted to make a little something for a young friend who had recently married. I just couldn't decide what, exactly. Something she didn't already have. Clearly, more bling was the answer, but what kind of bling?

I pondered for exactly 5 seconds before I knew that a circlet was the answer! Something hand made and a little bit special. I had a few bits and pieces already, but could I make something nice? I was going to try!

First I gathered my tools and looked at the base items. I silver circlet, gold-plated roses and freshwater pearls. I already had a plan to attach the roses with pins through the pearls and roses and bend the backs over, which is a reasonably medieval technique. I felt that some colour was in need, and remembering that the young lady has a gorgeous orange silk kirtle, decided a deep orangy red carnelian would make a nice contrast to the silver and gold and match her dress also.

The pins have large, flat heads on them to secure the pearls and carnelians. Here's what the underneath of them look like when they're waiting to be added. I carefully punched evenly-spaced indentations with a hammer and nail then drilled the holes into the circlet itself. Nail-biting stuff as I was anxious about scratching the silver circlet.

Once the holes were drilled, I poked the pins through and bent the backs over which is harder than it sounds, believe me. They need to be really folded down or the roses and carnelians on the front sort of sag sadly. 

Once that was achieved, I glued the band to the inside so the back of the pins don't snag on the veil and scratch the young lady's head. I'm really pleased with the results, and have another similar-but-different one in silver to make for myself

Was the young lady excited? As I write she's only seen pictures and won't receive it for another few weeks. I'm hoping she will love it!