Zelda's Tiara/Crown (Windwaker)

As a special request from a friend, I am going to be making Zelda's tiara (or crown, I can't decide which it actually is) as seen in the Gamecube and WiiU game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. This is the first non-weapon (apart from armour) prop I've ever made!

So, to business!

The reference picture I used

As I've never made a tiara of any sort, I had no idea which materials to use. In the end, I decided to go for foam (the old faithful) and clay. The main gold bits of the tiara (technical, I know) will be made of foam, connected together with picture wire, and the gem and wings will be clay. I've also decided not to attach the wings to the tiara, as they'll make it too heavy.

Materials

As odd as it sounds, it wasn't easy to find the right materials for this tiara. After all, that gem is a very specific shade of pink and those wings are an off-white grey. In the end, I found them at Hobbycraft. The wings are a shade of clay called dolphin gray, mixed with regular white clay, and the gem is made of Hobbycraft's very own pink clay (cheaper as well as easier to deal with).

Once you've acquired the materials, move to step one.

The main tiara 

Step one: the template

This is a very oddly shaped tiara, so it's best if you make a template first. After a few tries, I eventually came up with something I was happy with. When you cut these out, remember that the pieces of foam will be slightly bigger!

The first template I made was for the main body of the tiara, as this was going to be the first bit I made. After I'd drawn and cut out the template, I drew it onto foam. The shield shape has a hole about 0.5cm from the edge on the top layer (I cut out 3 layers of each piece) to help hold in the gem. Once all pieces are cut out (remember, there are 4 not-shield pieces, with one side the reverse of the other) you should paint them with gold paint. I cut the top tooth-looking bit off of the edge pieces so as to give more of a 3d effect.

Step two: the gem.

The gem was quite hard to make, so I made it on the tiara's shield piece and just shaped it by a combination of scissors and my hands. This led to quite a big gem, but I quite like the way it turned out.

Step three: putting it all together.

I used gold picture wire to put the tiara together. Make holes in the edges of the pieces with sewing needles, then thread the picture wire until secure. Once I'd fully attached the pieces, I added detailing in black paint and coated it in crafting PVA to waterproof the piece.

Also, I used these to ensure the tiara could be attached to hair- after all, it'd be a pretty poor tiara if it couldn't!

The wings

This time around, you have to make four copies of this template. It was quite hard to make, and you have to remember to reverse the shape when cutting these out on the foam.

Once you have cut these out in foam, mix your dolphin gray and white clays thoroughly. Then, shape the clay onto the foam. This was a pain in the butt for me, but shaping the clay to the same shape ends up with awesome wings!

And because my progress pics have disappeared, here is one of the wings finished! What I did was bake the clay in the oven with the hair grips placed in them, then paint over the top with black for detailing and an ivory shade to make it look less... grey. I then coated over the top with a see-through ceramic paint.

You should now have your very own tiara! 

Enjoy!

Geeky Craftz