elven leaf brooch
elven leaf brooch
This is fairly easy to make, you just have to have a steady hand and some patience. It was a lot of fun to make!! :) The rightful credit on how to make this goes to Lisa over at the LOTR_Costume Research. I just added some little things. (I did make all the ones pictured, though!) For all the info on the supplies you need, click here for Lisa's directions (It's the first one.)
<-- Here is the what the brooch looks like before you
paint it. (Actual size.) You may print it out and use it as a pattern if you like. :)
My brooch has about 3 to 4 coats of paint, and while I was painting, I would let the brush get slightly stiff. This makes very nice little leafy veins so the surface isn't completely smooth. Then I waited for it to dry (this doesn't take too long at all) and went back over it with the silver leafing pen. From there you have to carefully shape the wire (I used 16 gauge craft wire) with pliers so as not to 'dent' the wire. You want it to look as smooth as possible.
When you have finished with everything
else, you're ready to add the silver back and clasp. Now, since my original intentions for
this was going to be a gift, I wanted it to look really nice. The first couple of
pins I made I put aluminum foil on the back then attached the clasp. OK, this looked,
REALLY bad. For the final "gift" one (and how I will make them should I want
more) I used an aluminum embossing kit called ArtEmboss. It's a little more stiff than the
foil and it looks much better anyway. You can find this at any craft store. I
then added the back clasp.
Here is the finished product with the Legolas jerkin and Fellowship Cloak. -->
**NOTE - you are going to be dealing with VERY hot glue through out this project, so PLEASE be careful. I still have 4 visible scars on my left hand from using this stuff with felt about eight years ago. Somehow I got the piece I was working on wrapped ALL the way around my hand before I knew it. It ripped off lots of skin and left me with second degree burns and then later scars. So now that I've totally freaked you out, just PLEASE be careful!! :)**
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**All costumes were made by me and all pictures were taken and scanned by me.**
