How to Make Eowyn's Medallion Belt from Recycling: Analysis and Ideas

 I'll update this post with links to the finished belts as I make them.

I've been trying to figure out how to make Eowyn's Medallion belts for a while. Here is my write up and analysis of how to make Eowyn's belt. There's a full analysis on the alleyscratch website, which all these pictures are from.

Medallion Belt worn with her Green Gown

Medallion belt  on her White Wool Dress (really just a silver version of the Green Gown one, sewn onto a gold trimmed fabric belt)

Alleyscratch has a very good analysis, with diagrams and breakdowns of the medallions' constructions.

link to full page here.

The medallion belts are made of 2 medallions, a bigger central one, and a smaller side one.

front of belt.

Here are some nice fan-made examples that I have analyzed.

Yvette's Costume Site Example---clay and wire
Yvette (check out her amazing Arwen dresses, especially this one, scroll to the bottom of the page...) made them from metal clay and silver wire (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see them).
Like so.

close-up of Yvette's finished medallion, LINK HERE

Yvette's finished belt. LINK HERE

I don't think its necessary to make them from metal clay or silver wire, since baking the clay seems to tarnish the wire. Also, if you are going to paint it anyway, there isn't a need to use metallic clay.

 In my past obsession with wire-work, I've found steel utility wire is a lot cheaper than craft wire, and can be bent well with 2 pairs of pliers.
But if you want something that is really easy to bend with your fingers, skip the copper and get aluminum wire (which is still cheaper copper).

Yvette's version is lovely, and I like how she spaces the medallions nicely, it really gives it a medallion feel. Things I would do differently, is I like the medallions to be bigger, giving a visually thicker belt (which I think is slenderizing on fuller figures). I also would use a gauge 16 wire at least, as I think gauge 18 and above are a little thin for my taste, I like the wire flower loops to have more "pop."

Kairi G Design's version---3D printed plastic
LINK AND PICTURE FROM HERE. I really like the size of her medallions, they're a lot larger than Yvette's belt (perhaps even larger than in the film?). They were 3D printed from plastic, so its not an option for me

 Print my Props version---3D printed plastic.
You can hire people to do it for you....picture below

link to etsy shop here.

Mia's costume Site Violyns.tripod.com---metal rings and wire.
LINK HERE. This captures so much of the feel of Eowyn's belt, using instead of medallions, metal rings which the wire then is strung into, and spray painted.

Quite well done. LINK HERE. I like especially how she translated the medallion shapes to wires. I also like how nice and plump she made the "petals" of wire.

The finished look is quite good. I think the openness of the rings works especially well in the white belt version, since it works more on a lace-like feel.

From HERE on Mia's Costume site, more pictures and a write up

You could also do it with plastic rings for cheaper...

Cation designs ----Eowyn Inspired Belt from filigrees and jump rings
LINK HERE. I think this captures the most of the spirit of Eowyn's belt without having absolute screen accuracy. She simply strung together filigrees with jump rings (and also painted it a bit).

Pictures of her dress are here, her write up of the making of here.

It's real metal, so feels more authentic, and looks awesome. Filigrees are very thin stamped metal, that looks kinda like lace. Etsy is full of various filigrees, Hobby Lobby also has a fair amount.
I think this one especially looks reminiscient of Eowyn's belt. I wish it were just a tad larger though.

Antique gold scalloped round filigrees

I am going to make one using these filigrees. You can either string them together with jump rings and a lobster clasp (like her Green Gown belt) or sew them onto a fabric belt with trim/beading (like Eowyn's white wool gown belt) which gives you the option of more visually thickening the belt, if you would like.


Ideas for making Eowyn's medallion belt from Plastic and aluminum wire.
If you are going to go the plastic route at home, I would think a good start is to look at the alleyscratch break down of the medallion, and cut out the base metal part from plastic sheeting with a utility knife (on a glass cutting mat!). You could use yogurt lids, or pretty much any rigid plastic in the recyclying bin. Or craft foam. I would like to do it with something a little more rigid than yogurt lid plastic, maybe the bottom of those big plastic icecream tubs??? If you have an idea, please let me know in the comments!

Then you'd sand the plastic pieces with sandpaper, to make them more textured (and hold paint).
The wire parts I'd make from gauge 16 or 14 aluminum wire (since the plastic is soft anyway), lightly hammered. I want to use thicker gauge wire, because to me, a lot of the beauty of the belt comes from the wire loops not looking spindly.
 
Then you'd stack the pieces together with rivets through the centers. (preferably the big sewology push on kinds? Or furniture tacks with the ends sanded off, and bent with pliers?)

Lastly, spray paint with a darker color, and rub progressively brighter layers of metallic gold acrylic paint on it ($2 for those little 4 oz bottles from Walmart or Hobby Lobby) to make it look like metal (you want to go from the most "antique" colors of gold, to the brightest color of gold last, to give it depth.)

Ideas for making Eowyn's medallion belt from metal...recycling & steel utility wire! Cold forging!!
If you want to go the all-metal route, I would use can lids (6 oz. tomato paste, and frozen juice concentrate lids) opened with a NO SHARP EDGES CAN OPENER. (I don't know the correct name, except that there are sharp edges, just on the can, and not the lid, it cuts from the side, like this one). You don't want the lid part to have sharp edges, it will snag on your dress and cut your fingers)

You would punch the hole through the center with a hammer and nail (scrap wood underneath). This hole will be for the rivet, to hold it all together.

Because this is a sturdier version than the plastic, I am going to use real steel utility wire gauge 16 (so cheap at Lowes! BlueHawk brand at Lowes 100 ft for 8 bucks)
I've found with thicker gauge steel wire, the best shaping I get is with careful measuring, and using 2 sturdy pairs of pliers. I'd hammer it (carefully) lightly afterward, to help it keep its shape. The "seam" where the wire ends meet, will be at the center, where they will be covered up with the rivet.

I'd use real sturdy Tandy type of rivets for this, since I'm not as afraid to bang it with a hammer since its all metal.

Painting it, I'd spray paint it with Rustoleum matte dark colored spray paint, then build up brighter layers of gold with acrylic metallic paints and a rag.

Lastly, I'd string it together with jump rings.

This belt will not be screen authentic as it won't have large decorative holes in the medallions (if you had a punch and die set, you could do this easily), but the trade off is worth it to me to have something all metal, versus metal and plastic.

Ideas for making Eowyn's medallion belt from filigrees and fabric trim.
This is inspired by the belt on her white wool gown. You can get a lot more "bang" visually, with fewer filigrees. I really like these versions from redrose-online.de,

Check out their galleries, they're beautiful.

Gorgeous dress MORE PICTURES HERE.

From redrose-online.de HERE,. This is under this gallery. I love how visually thick it is. The neckband is amazing too.

And the belt on this is just...wow.

From redrose-online.de HERE (this is under the historic gallery) I just love how they used the square medallions, matching the color perfectly with the trim on the dark red. I think I am going to try something like this, on a brown or black velveteen fabric. We'll see.

These ones from Fashionsintime are pretty good too. Although I think those are more medallions and not filigrees.

from HERE from fashions in time

So here are a few of my ideas. You would use trim or braid, sewn with thread onto the fabric (a techinque called "couching"). You would sew the filigrees on, and could even do rivets or beading if you were feeling up to it. One of the advantages of this method is you could control the visual "thickness" of the belt, even if your filigrees were small, by how you placed your trim or braid.

I'm even considering using my stencils and fabric paint for the central fabric part of the belt, with the filigrees sewn on in strategic places as accents. I'd border the whole thing with trim or braid.

I'll update this post with links to the finished belts as I make them.

Circlets

I made it. Was quite pleased how it turned out.

How to Make a Penannular Brooch (Fibula) Pin without a forge : Tutorial Part 2

So, this is part 2 of how to make a Penannular Brooch without a forge. (Part 1 here)

To make it from a coat-hanger and cheap galvanized steel wire.

Recap

Materials

• Galvanized Steel Wire Gauge 18, (It's cheap, $5 for 110 ft, this uses a few feet)
• Coathanger
• (Optional, for decor) Steel Wire Gauge 24 (Also at Lowes, $5 for 250 ft)
• (Optional, for decor) Metallic Spray paint

It's a much better deal than craft wire than the craft stores, which you get 10 or so feet for the same price. However, galvanized steel is really strong, and much harder to work with. An order of magnitude in price makes it worth it for me, and I like it's strength, but do know that its stiffer.

Tools

• 2 sets of good pliers (with flat part for gripping)
• Wirecutters 
• ruler
• permanent marker

So from last time we had this. (Tutorial part 1 here) And today we are going to make the pin.

 So the way Penannular brooches work, is the pin is a little longer than the diameter of the brooch. It can slide, so it dips down and picks up fabric, and then slides up into the "locked" position, and the pull of the cloak on it keeps it nicely shut. This works waaaay better than little modern pin brooches on heavy cloaks. (My wool cloak kept snapping open with the little modern pin, that's why I resorted to making these)


So we're going to make the pin out of the steel wire (gauge 18). If you are doing this out of pricier copper wire, you should probably go up a gauge or two, as you want it to be stiff.

So first measure the diameter of the pennanular brooch. Mine is around 2.5 inches so I want the finished pin to be 3 inches . We are going to fold the wire twice for strength, so you want the wire you cut to be 4X THE DESIRED LENGTH OF THE FINISHED PIN plus some for the loop and for little for finishing off raw edges etc. I wanted to be safe so I cut 15 inches for a 3 inch pin.

Measure and mark the middle (it wasn't 6 inches, the pic is wrong, you get the idea)

Fold it along the middle, around the brooch.

 Now this is the part you determine how long you want the pin to be, I want it to be 3 inches, so I mark a little more than 3 inches on ONE WIRE, and use the flat part of the pliers to bend it sharply.

(You do this by gripping it with the flat part, and using your hand/the table, to fold the wire crisply over at that point. I needed my other hand to use the camera, but my thumb had just been there)

You do the same thing to the second, but mark the site for bending a tad shorter than the first, so that they nest nicely, like this.

 Then you use the pliers to pinch done on the L bends until they are nice little tight hairpin turns like this.

 Then you fineagle them a bit with your hand or the pliers to get them to nest nicely like this.

 This is the head of your pin. We don't want sharp pokey wire ends snagging on your cloak fabric, so that is why they are like this.

Next, you grip the head of your pin FIRMLY with the flat part of your pliers. You do not want this to twist, you want this part to remain intact.

 You use the flat part of your other pliers to grab the rest of what will be the pin, and twist the wire. You are holding both pliers, the (blue) ones in your left hand staying still, keeping the head of the pin intact. The (black) pliers in your right swirling around in a clockwise motion, working your way to the base of the pin, twisting it all. My hand had just been on the black handled pliers, before I removed it to take this picture.

You twist till you get to the base. (you don't want to overdo it, remember, you want the pin to have a nice loop so it can slide freely)

 You see there is the loop, and the tails. I didn't fold it carefully, so one of my tails is longer than the other, which is fine. You want to cut one of the tails very short anyway, and then wrap up its pokey end with the other longer tail.

 All wrapped up. I did it mostly by hand, but pliers are also very useful to get nice tight wrapping and clamp down on the pokey bit at the end.

 You see one pokey end is covered up by the wrapping, the other is still exposed. You could cover this with some more gauge 24 wire (which is kinda like metal thread), or if you were really clever, use the long tail to stick a bead on it and then poke the last pointy end on a bead or something.

But there  you have it. All ready to be washed and painted.

"Open"

Shut

See how nicely it slides! (One of my first mistakes was making one with such a tight loop I couldn't slide the pin, and it was useless)
 
Now, it needs to be washed (several times) thoroughly with dish soap, because wire has machine grease on it, which keeps the paint from sticking. It can be spray painted, preferably with primer. I plan to post on that in the future.

Here is it in action a scrap of fabric (because my wool cloak is packed away in the desert).
This scrap is actually quite tightly woven. I've found it can go through pretty much any fabric if you work it through by pressing the pin tip onto the fabric and rubbing your finger on the other side.

 However it does leave these little pin marks on very tightly woven fabric. I don't care as it was a nice place for me to remember where to stuff it through, and I thought it looked more weatherbeaten and historically accurate.

If it bothers you, you could make a thinner pin from just 1 bend of wire, although it wouldn't be as strong in holding the tug of your cloak. But if your cloak was made out of a tightly woven light fabric to start with (like the tightly woven scrap above), than its not going to be as heavy as my wool cloak anyway.

Part 3: Painting the brooch, coming soon.
*************************************************************************
Here's pictures of one I did with a single bend of wire. You just have to be a little more creative at the loop to cover up the pointy ends. (here I used beads and beading wire), but this pin isn't as strong as the doubled one, it would probably bend with the weight of a heavy wool cloak....

 Comment if you have more questions :)

Part 3: Painting the brooch, coming soon.

Thoughts on Making Faramir's Bow and Arrows

Faramir's bow is long, a little taller than he is. It looks to be a simple tillered sapling bow, and his arrows are painted/oiled dark brown and fletched with golden feathers.

To make Faramir's bow....when I first was planning on this outfit, I thought I'd just do a bow shaped object. But then I found this AWESOME WEBSITE (page with all the links) on "primitive technology" which tells you all you need to know to survive either a Zombie or Nuclear Apocolypse....making fire, making bows, fletching your own arrows, making musical instruments, all from ground zero from sticks and rocks and things, also with simpler options if you want to start with the hardware store....


For example there's a tutorial for growing your own bowstring, all about sinewing a bow with sinew, how to straighten sticks for your own arrows, but also they have tutorials that show you can string and sinew a bow with thin nylon rope, and how to make arrows with wooden dowels for shafts, how to make a bow from wood from the hardware store etc)

bow from a sapling (using a hatchet) by Stephen Coote

 On making a bow from a sapling, this article shows you how, this article on helpful techiniques in using a hatchet to whittle the sapling. Alas if I lived in AL still, finding saplings would be no problem. Out here in the desert (pine is a no no for bow making) its much harder to find an appropriate tree, and then hack it down without breaking someone's heart....

Cordage bow by Dick Baugh

Cordage Backed bow, looks really interesting. This is a copy of Inuit bows that used sinew to strengthen the wood. He uses thin nylon rope.

Cordage bow by Dick Baugh

 I really want to do this one. There's more articles on the main page, that seem to be written by engineers, with graphs and thoughts on the physics of bows, and charts on how much to tiller a bow given its length...

This article shows you how to fletch arrows by hand. There's more links on the main page for lots of fletching options, fletching jigs, etc.

I think, while the sapling bow is the obvious first try, given that we're in the desert, I'll start with the Bundled Bow , and after that, there's the board bow from supplies from a hardware store. I really want to cordage back the board bow. And ofcourse, fletch my own arrows. White feathers, I think, to keep with the sea-bird kind of theme of Gondor. 

                              

Faramir's bow is at least as tall as he is. Obviously, its not sinewed. But I think given Gondor's technology, it makes sense. So I say Faramir's bow was sinewed. So there.

My plans

1. Bundled Bow with tape fletched arrows
2. Board Bow, (cordage backed, 'sinewed' with nylon rope) with feather fletched arrows
3. Sapling Bow (cordage backed, 'sinewed' with nylon rope) with feather fletched arrows
4. Sapling Bow with seagull feather fletched arrows

(links to making all this stuff above)

I'm so excited. I haven't even looked into making arrow heads yet, tutorials which are also on the main page of primitive ways.

And we're definitely going to have archery as a subject in our homeschool :)