A Mad Hatter style hat for a costume party
Ages ago I posted the construction details for a Mad Hatter style hat for an event – however I ended up getting sick right before the event, and never finished off the last few details of the rest of the costume – and ended up not attending the event. Continue reading
Bird Lunula made from shrink plastic after baking and shrinking (larger than life!)
Since I was quite happy with the results of my first & second Lunula pendants, I decided to make a third, a bit more elaborate.
I started with inspiration from a Pinterest pin – which included three different Lunulae – and I chose the more complicated and detailed of the three. Of course, so much of Pinterest leads to Tumblr.. and Tumblr is like the wild-west of copyright violations and lack of credit/attributions… so I had no idea of the original source.
After I had already made my version though, and was just wandering around the web… I found what I think might be the original source – or at least a website selling the item pictured on Pinterest. Visit the “Slavik Paganism” page of Dragonscale.com if you’d prefer a metal (Bronze or Sterling Silver) version to my plastic one… (I would!)
Dragonscale.com describes the design as:
“Bird Lunula – Also called a lunitsa – Crescent moon shaped woman’s charm found in ancient Slavic and Norse cultures – shaped in the double bird image found in Scythian art – a reproduction of one found in a 8th century burial in Nitra-Lupka, Poland”
The bird lunula before shrinking
Like my previous shrink plastic projects, I used Grafix brand matte shrink plastic which starts as transparent and shrinks down to white in colour. I traced the design to both sides of my plastic and used black, bronze, and silver Sharpie markers. I didn’t sand the plastic before colouring, and found that large areas of colour weren’t as solid as I wanted.
Since my original Lunulae had short (about 1″) long ‘stems’ which folded over to create the ‘bail’ to attach the pendant to a chain or cord – and the resulting fold over was only enough to go around a toothpick… I made the ‘stem’ substantially longer on this version so it could easily go around a chopstick instead – and thus a larger cord.
Although the finished shrunk plastic pendant was ok – the colours were nice and bold… I didn’t really feel that it looked metal. Like the other pendants, I opted to emboss this as well, using silver embossing powder.
Pendant covered with embossing powder before knocking off the excess powder
When the pendant was re-shaped and embossed, I decided to scratch some of the design back into the pendant, which I’m kind of fond of, though I might need to live with it for a while before knowing if it’s ‘right’.
Copper pendant along with a silver one and the bird silver embossed pendant.
I still have a few more projects to share with shrink plastic – so stay tuned! In the mean time if you have some cool inspirational links for shrink plastic – feel free to share them in the comments below!
Some of the shrink plastic projects I’ve made recently…
Lunula pendant before shrinking and after shrinking
The other day I posted about trying shrink plastic… here’s the first project!
Along with some of the other Viking and Norse-inspired pendants that I’ve been able to find from various sellers, one of the icons I’ve been looking for (without much luck in a price-point I want to spend for a costume piece…) is the Lunula.
When I first started to think of a Viking-Age costume, I made a bit of a list of what I wanted to make/find/acquire, but I neglected to create an inventory of what I already have (or could adapt…) I wanted to do a bit of a post on that – mostly for my own sake. I intend to keep this a “living” document that I can add to when I need.
| *image still needed* | White linen underdress – long sleeves, slit neckline, couched hem Needs: brooch for neckline, long enough apron-dress to cover the embellished hem |
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Blue linen/look/blend (need to look at this) underdress – t-tunic style, long sleeves, slit neckline Needs: good to go |
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Pink/purple linen/look/blend (need to look at this) underdress – t-tunic style, long sleeves, square neckline, tonal bands on arms Needs: Don’t think that the neckline is right, so maybe to be worn with a shawl or something? |
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Brown linen underdress – short sleeves, slit neckline, no embellishment Needs: brooch for neckline. Short sleeves should be worn over a long sleeved underdress unless super-hot weather, or sleeve-messing work. |
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Black linen underdress – long sleeves, slit neckline, embroidery at neckline and hem Needs: brooch for neckline |
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Navy blue linen underdress – very tight long sleeves, slit neckline, silk cuffs, neckline and cuffs embellished with trim. Needs: brooch for neckline |
| Pale green linen under derss | |
| Drab grey-green wool under dress | |
Me and some of the attendees of the costumed picnic
I joined a very small group of local costuming enthusiasts, and during the summer we had a little costumed get together – so I thought I’d make something NEW for it.
BUT.. it’s a bit of a mixed up thing – I didn’t finish the hem (with a hoop) in time. Then I finally finished the hem by adding the hoop in November (after wearing it twice without the hem being finished…) and hated it! So I took out the hoop, and am calling my once named “unfinished” costume… finished.
Unfortunately…. I originally wanted to make this for the Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge #11: The Politics of Fashion – which had already passed before I joined the challenges. I knew I’d be a bit late… but.. I had no idea HOW late I’d be in finally posting this! Continue reading
