Brooch

The brooch is another piece that could have been made slightly better, but I didn't have time. If I get the chance to make this again, I think I want to try some craft plastic instead of the wood disks we ended up using.

The brooch itself is made from two wood disks. One was sawed into a triangle shape, sanded and painted gold. Both the triangle and the circle had small holes bored into them so they could be connected with a jewelry jump ring. A blue plastic gem was epoxied to the round circle. Ideally it would have been rounded instead of faceted, but I had no time to search all over town for a cabochon-style plastic gem, so the faceted was chosen. I then epoxied two pin backs to the back of the brooch, to attach it to the vest. I attached two to help distribute the weight of the brooch and cord a bit.

The cord is made of drapery cord the same color as the cord in the epaulets. Tape is wrapped tightly around each end to keep it from fraying. The end that attaches to the shoulder has a pin back attached to it with tightly wrapped thread and epoxy. It can attach to the inside of the vest at the shoulder or the outside, if the client decides that it scratches her shoulder too much.

In the character design the end of the cord that attaches to the brooch has a metal end crimped onto it. I couldn't find any crimping caps in the time I had to search, so I had to fake it. The cord end has clear tape wrapped around it to stop fraying. I attached it to the brooch by taking a T-pin (a pin made of heavier gauge wire than your typical sewing pin, with an end formed by looping the wire into a flattened loop like the crossbar of a T), snipping off the sharp end with wirecutters, jamming it deep into the cord through the end, attaching the loop of the T to the jump ring on the brooch, and epoxying the hell out of everything.

This would have been better if I could have gotten it to look more like metal, instead of wood. As it is, it's fine from a distance but it doesn't look as good close up. It makes for a perfect stage costume, however.

Click on the images for larger versions.