ideas - inspiration - stuff

Saturday, January 14, 2017

the crown

i was recently commissioned to make a festive special-occasion crown for a friend of a friend. this was a first for me, and i thoroughly enjoyed the assignment. the crown had to incorporate an assortment of creatures, as the recipient is a true animal lover. given how many components were at play here, i first created a sturdy cardboard base - i cut one from the thick cardboard back of a drawing pad. i bent it into shape, stapled a short end of wide elastic to both ends (so it would be one-size-fits-all) and mounted a remnant of silk/linen on the front using spray mount. i outlined all edges with a vintage metallic ribbon, and added a row of rhinestones on top for extra bling. then the real fun began: i collected a bunch of animal figurines, some were holiday ornaments, others were plastic toys, and painted them all using my ridiculously large collection of metallic nail polishes. some of the larger animals needed to be affixed using metal wire, the smaller ones only called for a dab of hot glue. last but not least, a flock of gold painted paper butterflies were mounted on the crown's top, two silver bells were hung on either side of the bottom edge and the crown's inside was lined with a matching color felt. all of this was done while binge-watching "the crown" on netflix, i'm not kidding. my husband says the final result looks like something florence foster jenkins would have worn. what do you think?