Big Damn Crafters' Big Damn Challenge
Showing off a little here. Sorry, but I'm awfully smug about this one...
I'm part of an Etsy Street Team called the Big Damn Crafters. There are a lot of people there, doing a lot of awesome Firefly-related stuff. Not all of it costuming by any means, but you still might want to take a look.
The group's August challenge was the episode Shindig. After watching it a couple times (for research purposes, y'know) and doing a bit of digging around, I decided to do the necklace Inara's wearing during the duel.
Another piece inspired by Firefly, this one by the necklace Inara's wearing during the duel at the end of the episode Shindig.
I went about this as if I were researching a piece for the SCA. First I looked at the originals:
Those were the best shots I could find on Can't Take the Sky From Me, one of the best places I've found for Firefly screencaps and an all-around great site for Firefly fans. Not a lot to work with for the actual beads, but you can get a good idea of the general layout of the piece itself.
My choice of beads was dictated partly by my feel for Inara's fashion preferences in general and partly by which beads I actually had available. She wears a lot of purple and in fact you can see amethyst used in other pieces of hers, and I had some really awesome amethyst around so that was an easy choice. The smaller quartz beads I used as separators mostly because I had them available and they were unobtrusive enough that they didn't look wrong.
When all you've got to work with is a pair of pretty blurry photos, sometimes 'not wrong' is about as close as you can get.
The hard part was the bells. I'm not really sure that's what they are in the original though after a lot of close examination they sure looked like it. Listening carefully to the scene in which she wears the piece I don't hear any bells, but then I wouldn't have, unless they were a part of the plot.
The bells I used aren't actually shaped like the originals (if that's indeed what they are) -- the ones on Inara's necklace appear to be acorn-shaped, whereas mine have a ring at the top. A tiny cutout barely visible in one of them, though, tells me that bells are as good a guess as any. And they really do look good in the finished piece.
...I think I did okay, don't you?
Yes, that's me wearing it. I did also get a shot on the stand, but I felt that I needed a picture of it being worn to really get the full effect.
I'm awfully pleased with how it came out. The beads I had were perfect and I do like how they look with the bells. The bells chime gently when you move, not obtrusive at all. I'm sure it'd get loud if you were doing jumping jacks, but who'd do jumping jacks in a piece like this?
The one thing I changed was partly a mistake, partly deliberate. In one of the shots it looked like the center drop had only three beads, like the two on either side of it, and that the hang on the necklace made it look a little longer. When I looked at the other photo I realized that that wasn't the case -- the original has four beads there, not three -- but I'd have been short a bead if I'd made the center drop longer and I wanted to use the 10mm amethyst along the main part of the necklace as well, at least in the front.
I did use smaller amethyst beads for the rest of the necklace. You can't see that part in any of the shots I've seen of the original, and it makes sense that smaller, less valuable beads would have been used there, where they're less visible anyway.
I'll admit I'm completely smug about this piece. It took a long time, between researching the original, planning out the layout, and assembly. But, if I may say this about a piece of mine, it looks good. Damn good.
Also, kitten.
I'm part of an Etsy Street Team called the Big Damn Crafters. There are a lot of people there, doing a lot of awesome Firefly-related stuff. Not all of it costuming by any means, but you still might want to take a look.
The group's August challenge was the episode Shindig. After watching it a couple times (for research purposes, y'know) and doing a bit of digging around, I decided to do the necklace Inara's wearing during the duel.
Another piece inspired by Firefly, this one by the necklace Inara's wearing during the duel at the end of the episode Shindig.
I went about this as if I were researching a piece for the SCA. First I looked at the originals:
Those were the best shots I could find on Can't Take the Sky From Me, one of the best places I've found for Firefly screencaps and an all-around great site for Firefly fans. Not a lot to work with for the actual beads, but you can get a good idea of the general layout of the piece itself.
My choice of beads was dictated partly by my feel for Inara's fashion preferences in general and partly by which beads I actually had available. She wears a lot of purple and in fact you can see amethyst used in other pieces of hers, and I had some really awesome amethyst around so that was an easy choice. The smaller quartz beads I used as separators mostly because I had them available and they were unobtrusive enough that they didn't look wrong.
When all you've got to work with is a pair of pretty blurry photos, sometimes 'not wrong' is about as close as you can get.
The hard part was the bells. I'm not really sure that's what they are in the original though after a lot of close examination they sure looked like it. Listening carefully to the scene in which she wears the piece I don't hear any bells, but then I wouldn't have, unless they were a part of the plot.
The bells I used aren't actually shaped like the originals (if that's indeed what they are) -- the ones on Inara's necklace appear to be acorn-shaped, whereas mine have a ring at the top. A tiny cutout barely visible in one of them, though, tells me that bells are as good a guess as any. And they really do look good in the finished piece.
...I think I did okay, don't you?
Yes, that's me wearing it. I did also get a shot on the stand, but I felt that I needed a picture of it being worn to really get the full effect.
I'm awfully pleased with how it came out. The beads I had were perfect and I do like how they look with the bells. The bells chime gently when you move, not obtrusive at all. I'm sure it'd get loud if you were doing jumping jacks, but who'd do jumping jacks in a piece like this?
The one thing I changed was partly a mistake, partly deliberate. In one of the shots it looked like the center drop had only three beads, like the two on either side of it, and that the hang on the necklace made it look a little longer. When I looked at the other photo I realized that that wasn't the case -- the original has four beads there, not three -- but I'd have been short a bead if I'd made the center drop longer and I wanted to use the 10mm amethyst along the main part of the necklace as well, at least in the front.
I did use smaller amethyst beads for the rest of the necklace. You can't see that part in any of the shots I've seen of the original, and it makes sense that smaller, less valuable beads would have been used there, where they're less visible anyway.
I'll admit I'm completely smug about this piece. It took a long time, between researching the original, planning out the layout, and assembly. But, if I may say this about a piece of mine, it looks good. Damn good.
Also, kitten.