The Prop Replica Weapons from "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit"!!!

Major image overload post! This one is for my geeky readers who, like me, have to see ALL THE PHOTOS if The Lord of the Rings is involved.

Gandalf the Grey's staff, Orcrist, Andruil, Glamdring, Gandalf the White's staff, and Sing at the bottom. Kili's weapon is yet to arrive!

A few months ago, I won in the Weapons category of an art contest for my favorite series of all time (Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit) judged by three of my favorite Tolkien-artists of all time! The prize is prop replica weapons from the movies! And they finally arrived!!!

(If you want to see more of the picture, see my old posts here and here).

I will be doing a more detailed description of all the swords and staffs down the line and will probably do many themed photoshoots. For now, here's enough snapshots to fill Smaug's lair to the brim!

When the boxes finally arrived after weeks of waiting, I had to wait three whole hours for Dad to get home from work. It was torture, staring at the boxes without opening them!

When we finally got them out of the boxes-- AHH! They are gorgeous, very accurate and honest-to-goodness swords. I now have a lot of respect for any warrior (or actors) who lugged around heavy swords all day!

We were all too caught up in the moment to bother with cameras much, but here's some of my family geeking out with me!

All of the swords came with these beautiful wooden plaques to hang them on the wall. The staffs have smaller resin and metal ones.

My favorites are Sting's plaque (top right, with the celtic knotwork and Fellowship brooch leaf) and Andruil's (bottom right, with the tree of Gondor). Orcrist (top left) has the same design has the hilt of the sword-- it's the emblem of the Gondolin king to whom the sword used to belong.

Thus far, I've only been able to do one quick impromptu photoshoot with two of my friends, but I know how much some of you have been looking forward to seeing the swords, so I'd thought I'd share this now! I have plans to do a costumed photoshoot sometime down the line and to get nice close-up photos of the swords and staffs (without fingerprints all over them), but that will probably have to wait until spring.

Isn't her hat cute??

It was freezing and none of us had planned on being outside taking photos, so if we look a little pale and red-cheeked, that's why. :)

Here I am, holding Orcrist, the "goblin cleaver" which was a Gondolin Elf sword used by Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit. If you aren't a Tolkienite, none of that made sense to you. If you are, OHMYGOSH isn't it cooooool?! :)

Detail of Orcrist.

We all geeked out. A LOT. Seriously-- we were holding swords from LotR and the Hobbit. What is there to NOT get extremely excited about?

This beautifully engraved sword is the replica of Gandalf's trusty blade Glamdring.

Gandalf's staff even has the "G" rune carved into it.

This sword is Anduriel, Flame of the West, the sword of the Aragorn the King of Gondor. Forged from the shards of Narsil, "Renewed shall be blade that was broken / the crownless again shall be king" and all that-- THIS IS ANDRUIL and it is HUGE and heavy!

 

The runic engraving says, in Quenya, "I am Anduril who was Narsil, the sword of Elendil. Let the thralls of Mordor flee me."

My brother, the Hobbit.

Thanks to a completely obsessed family (I must admit that I am not the most die-hard fan compared to my tween/teen brothers), he is a true Tolkienite. I kid you not. He loves Middle Earth. Yesterday I was wearing a golden skeleton key on my necklace and he came up to me, fingered it, and said in his cute five year old accent, "One key to rule them all! It's a prrrrrecioussss!" He then pestered me to read him "That funny poem that goes 'Troll sat alone on his seat of stone'!"

When I am geeking out because I won an art contest and now own actual prop replicas from my favorite movie trilogy of all time (and it's 'prequel'!), it is very difficult for me to keep a straight face. I also don't do well in front of the camera. Lots and lots of classic "Shaylynn pictures" ensued. :P

The cloak which made my friends look like Elves made me look like a Jedi.

Above is a photo of me holding Sting the 'letter opener'! It's very difficult to imagine an accurate size for Hobbits until you are holding a to-scale knife that is a long sword for Bilbo and Frodo.

Also, I was so very serious. Don't you totally see the resemblance to the warrior-like Bilbo Baggins?

Yeah, I thought so.

I can't help it, I'm too excited!

DON'T WANNA GROW UP.

My little brother kept photobombing our pictures!

While I was in the process of writing this blog post my little sister came and offered to take pictures of me "all dressed up like Eowyn or Arwen or somebody"! I need to teach her how to hold the camera steady but we had fun in the snow! 

(This is our first sledding-worthy snowfall of the season and we've spent countless hours riding down the hills. It's heavenly!)

I only used Glamdring for these shots because it was way the heck too cold to stay outside long enough in order to pose with multiple props.

I think you've seen more photos of me in this one blog post than I've ever posted before. :P

I promise that I'll take detailed close-up shots of the swords sometime soon!

Still I am a bit in shock-- the honor of winning in an art contest, and the extreme awesomeness of the prize... eeeeeeeek! 

Aurora's Circlet from 'Once Upon a Time'

This post was originally published over at Confessions of a Seamstress, my friend Elena's blog. If you like the costumes in Once Upon a Time-- or any lovely clothing-- you should go visit her website! Elena makes beautiful outfits and costume replications and I highly recommend her!

This post is a lot longer and more image-heavy than the original guest post because I've had the chance to work on a couple more of these circlets!

Image from ABC's Once Upon a Time

With the latest season of Once Upon a Time, we were introduced to an awesome new character: Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty.

I'm watching this show as much for the costumes, props, and sets as for the actual story... it's not unusual for my eye to wander everywhere except the actor's face! Right from the start, Aurora's headpiece caught my eye. ~*~*~ THE SPARKLES ~*~*~

A couple of days later, Elena recommended me to a bride who wanted a replica of Aurora's circlet to match her wedding gown! Eeep! This was my first time ever creating a replica piece, my first time ever working with rhinestones, and the first time making a bridal piece this large. I was a little nervous, but so excited.

Everything went well, though, and I can't wait to hear what the bride thinks when it arrives on her doorstep!

I started by re-watching the first episode and snagging screencaps to analyze. I analyzed it to death. :)

Her circlet is made from rhinestones and ribbon which are plaited together into a band that rests on her hairline. At least two small braids are woven around this band, creating a lovely mix of ribbon, hair, and sparkles.

Additional rhinestones are woven around her hairstyle in a very asymmetric zig-zag. This top part fits much more like a cap than a tiara, as it folds snugly over the crown of her head.

I noticed pretty quickly that Aurora seems to have found plenty of time to do her hair between scenes...  :)

The rhinestone placement is not consistent, especially at the edges, and she wears at least three hairstyles in the first episode.

At first, her braids are woven around the top, zig-zag-y part, so that the rhinestones are barely visible. Later, the braids move down and are intertwined with the bottom band. In the last scene, the circlet rests on top of the braids, above her forehead.

I wanted to make the circlet versatile enough that all these hairstyles (and more) can be worn. The bride didn't want dangling rhinestones, so I simplified the design at the edges where it wasn't consistent.

Aurora always wears the back of her headpiece tucked underneath her hair. I think the actress had her hair teased and curled and then extensions added.

(This is a beautiful crown... I'd love to be a props/costume designer, I really would. It must have been so much fun for the designers to come up with a sparkly, girly headpiece that wasn't your typical tiara. Aurora's whole costume is lovely. I hope she doesn't get put in pants like the rest of the royalty. I feel that we need at least one kick-butt princess who can wield a sword while wearing a frilly skirt!!!)

After I figured how how the circlet was made (and planned a few changes of my own to make it sturdier), it was time to get started!

First, I wove a base from silver-plated copper wire.

The next part-- making the band of braided rhinestones and ribbon-- proved very tricky. If I simply braided the strands, they would move around too much.

I used two different sizes of silver-plated rhinestones and twisted them around each other, using temporary jewelry glue to hold it in place.

After this was done, I wove the ribbon in and laced everything together with wire before removing the glue and polishing everything.

The ribbon in the show looks like a champagne or a pink (depending on the lighting and editing) but this one was requested in bright white.

The asymmetric zig-zag design was made from more rhinestone chain twisted onto freeform silver wire.

The circlet can be attached with bobby pins, or tied with ribbon. It's just heavy enough that it won't stay on without being secured in some way.

And then... it was done!

After I took these pictures, I tweaked things a bit more... I "de-fluffed" the ribbon and adjusted one point of the zig-zag so it isn't so tall and pointy. (The zig zags are slightly adjustable so it will fit any head size or hairstyle like a glove!)

The bride was kind enough to me model the circlet before shipping it!

I usually have friends model for me, but I'm the only one with long and dark enough hair to attempt Aurora's hairstyle. So one cold autumn morning, I put my hair up in braids and taught my lovely mom how to use my camera.

________

After I completed this circlet, I received two more orders for replicas of the Sleeping Beauty's crown! This one was practically identical to the first:

This next one, however, has several requested modifications that were a joy to work on!

I specially ordered 100% silk satin ribbon in a creamy champagne color. It's a vintage French ribbon line, and there is something about those words that makes me so happy to finger the shiny ribbon.

They wanted a very sturdy circlet that would not require ribbon to remain securely on the head, so I used my vise to twist silver plated wire into a strand which I attached to the plaiting. 

It holds its shape very well. I think that I will always use this technique on future circlets (or at least the higher-end ones, because it requires a lot of wire!).

(excuse my workdesk mess). Two full feet of wire and ribbon and beading to wrangle into a circlet! 

I replaced every other large rhinestone with an amethyst crystal. I really like this look, as it adds a touch of color and interest. 

Replacing all those stones in their settings was a great learning experience. Those are fiddly little sparkles, there, guys!

If you would like to request a custom item like this, don't hesitate to email me at shealynnsfaerieshoppe@gmail.com I can usually accommodate many kinds of budgets on more intensive pieces like these, depending on how much customization you want.

I'm also in the process of using the leftover odds and ends of the rhinestones to create some Aurora-inspired cuff bracelets. There are a couple on my workbench right now which are going to get colorful ribbons!

QUESTION TIME!

(Just a super quickie post to let you know that if you place an order in my shop this weekend, you can take 15% off with this coupon: VALENTINES201315     (custom orders excluded, except the Evenstar set)


The code is good until Valentine's itself, but due to the time it takes the mail to arrive, only US packages ordered this weekend will be able to arrive in time for Valentines!)

I've discovered a major oversight! I've had this blog for over three years, but have never made a FAQ page! Honestly, I always felt that these pages are for big bloggers who, you know, have thousands of fans and receive dozens of comments and emails daily. I might be busy, but I can still read through my emails in a timely manner. But I thought it was high time to put together a page with some of the more commonly asked questions-- like the ones about custom orders or why my name is spelt funny or whether I will make a specific tutorial.

However, there aren't that many questions that I receive on a regular basis. I need your helping making up some FAQ for me to answer!

If there is anything you'd like to ask me-- whether it's a straightforward question ("When did you learn to unicycle?"), a random question ("What is your favorite tea?"), or a geeky question ("Gondor or Rohan?")-- please ask!

I'm just going to make a thing of it, so if you feel like tagging me in one of those blog questionnaires, go for it!

You can leave a comment on this blog post, write on my facebook page, tweet @shealynnsfaerie, or email shealynnsfaerieshoppe{at}gmail.com!


Also, a blog post isn't a post without a random picture. Tada!

We haven't had much of a winter. The pond has frozen over maybe three times the entire season.