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Arwen's Hair Jewel - Beading Technique

aka Arwen's Bridge Headdress

This is the beautiful decoration we see on the back of Arwen's hair while she wears the Bridge Dress

by Karlie S.

Things you’ll need

(besides a sense of humour and patience):

For Clay Flowers:

1 package silver sculpey
Aluminium Foil
Wax paper
X-acto knife
Toothpick
Silver Paint and Brush
Super Glue
Velcro
- The non-adhesive/sew type of Velcro will work best and are easiest to use
Side flower pattern

Beadwork:

at least 50g of pearlized (“Ceylon” finish”) white seed beads or delicas
beading needle
Beading pattern from pattern
1 skein beading thread
- You MUST use beading thread, because it will have the required strength and drape. A monofilament like “Fireline” will not work as well because it will not drape properly.

The Hair Jewel Pattern Masters

When you print the patterns off, make sure that you print them to the right scale. I’ve included boxes (on the flower pattern, they’re 1 cm2 , on the beadwork there are three 1 cm2 and one 1” square).

The two main patterns should print off at the correct size with a standard print program. Leave them set at 72dpi.


Master Hair Flower pattern, left and right sides	Bead drape pattern

Part 1 : Creating the Flowers

You will probably want to protect your work surface when working with sculpey so you don’t cut or scratch the surface underneath. Thick paper or thin cardboard will work well.

Lay out wax paper over your work surface and paper/cardboard. This will help you to transfer the unbaked flowers.

Roll out the amount of sculpey required to fit the flower pattern to approximately 1.5-2mm thick (1/16 inch). Note that I am only cutting out one at a time, feel free to do this as well.

Poke holes through the flowers in marked places (small dots) with a toothpick. Use the toothpick to help smooth the edges of the sculpey.

Bunch some aluminium foil into two shallow dome shapes. This will help the sculpey bake into a curved shape (like the sides of your head). Lay the flowers over top and bake according to directions. When cool, paint silver (if desired).

Cut the sharper hooked side of the Velcro into small pieces (see picture) and carefully super glue in place.

REMEMBER! SUPER GLUE WILL BOND SKIN IN SECONDS, BE CAREFUL!

Part II: Beadwork

NOTE: A lot of this is trial and error work, since beads vary in size, as do people’s heads! I’ve tried to provide clear but open directions.

Blue lines indicate new beads strung on,
Red lines indicate returning through beads already strung.

	Attach beading thread through the top hole in the left flower. (Be sure you have the correct flower and hole!). String enough beads for required length of triangle:
	Loop through bottom hole, then return through bottom length beads.
	The rest is mostly done by trial and error. The pictures show the basic way to weave the thread. Since both seed beads and delicas vary in shape and size an exact number of beads to string and go through is not possible to give. Remember make your triangles out of an odd number of beads!


	After triangle repeats are done, add beads for right top length Loop through hole, then return those new beads.
	String on beads for right bottom length, loop through hole, then return through ALMOST all of the beads. We’re going to make a “side”. Decide how many beads (usually 3-4) will make a side about equal in length to the height of your triangle. DON’T pass through that many beads at the top.
	At this point you will need to have a length of thread the length of your headdress, plus 15 cm (6 inches) that is free of knots! If you have to add more thread, undo the beading you just did, trim it back so that you can hide a knot within those beads, then attach a long enough length using a weaver’s sheet bend. String on enough beads to span between your “side” and the first triangle peak. Go through the triangle peak bead. Continue in this manner, but there are a few things to take into account. Since this will be draping in a curve across the back of your head, you’re going to need to make this into a curve. You can do this by every so often adding an extra bead between the peaks, that is, one more than would be required to span the gap. It will likely take a few tries to get it to look right (since I was speeding through mine, mine isn’t even). This is why you don’t want knots in your thread, because then it’s easy to pull back out. Do this until you reach the last peak.
	Count the number of beads there are in the right “side”. Then, count that many beads down from the junction of the LEFT top and bottom lengths (these beads are marked in purple).
	Add enough beads to your string to span the gap between the bottommost “purple” bead (marked here in red), and your peak. Then go DOWN through that red bead.
	Now you just need to create the “loops and lengths” seen in the pattern. To make a length you string on the number of beads required, then go back through all but the bottom bead (the last one you strung on). To make a loop, simply string on enough beads, then pass through another bead on the bottom of the arc in the right spot. Use your triangles and the pattern to guide where to place them. The middle “double loop” is created by passing back through a single bead partway up. Congrats, you’ve finished the hard part!
	To secure your thread, I just sort of travel back through some beads, tie a knot, travel through more, tie some more knots…you could use the superglue again to secure the end and the knots.