Renaissance Fine Jewelry ?

Q: After attending the SCA event in Atenveldt for the past two years, I was inspired to find out more about the SCA community and lifestyle. After making my costume for this year's event, I decided I wanted to explore making jewelry for SCA-event use as well. The result grew into my new store on eBay: www.stores.ebay.com/boudiccathegoddesswithin The pieces are inspirations based on specific Medieval jewelry -- gleaned from hisorical research -- I also note which century the pieces come from for those who want to make sure they're in the right century. Now I'm looking for feedback. What do you think? Am I leaving any important information out? Is this helpful in your desire to find pieces to complete your outfits? I would appreciate any feedback you may have on wearing authentically medieval pieces -- either reproductions or inspiration pieces, and what you look for in your costume accessorizing.

A:I've looked at a few of the listings you your site and don't see anything in the way of historic background information. The most I see are descriptions like "medieval ... Celtic ... for Renaissance Fairs" (all on the same item!) which doesn't suggest to me that people looking for "something for the right century" are going to be able to rely on your site for that kind of information. I'm not a jewelry specialist, but the items I looked at also seem to take "medieval inspired/based on historical [art]" extremely loosely. Those who are interested in wearing historically accurate jewelry are likely to want to see pictures of the specific items you're modeling your work after, so that they know what _you_ mean when you say "inspired/based on" since the terms are extremely nebulous. You may want to decide whether you're really interested in aiming for the historic-reproduction market, or whether you may want to ratchet back on your claims in that area. I have to agree with the previous posters regarding the materials. The SCA buyers who go to the trouble of purchasing an accurate reproduction of a piece of medieval or renaissance jewelry will at least want the option of real metal. This though ought not to be a problem since you are already highly skilled in working the polymer clay. Give the buyers the option of having the piece made in brass, bronze, or silver, artificial gold, gold plate over one of the aforementioned metals, or gold. Then take your baked polymer original, press it into vinyl molding material and use the resulting vinyl mold to make numerous wax copies. If you don't personally have the investment casting equipment, I know of a couple places which will do the casting for you for a reasonable fee. As to the gems, I'd give the buyer the option of mineral or glass. If you are copying an original which you know contained pastes, then glass is fine. If you are working from a painting where the original material is unknown, then give the buyer the option of either paste or mineral gems.

Discuss It!

Most Popular Articles

More

Marketplace

Related Articles

More

Related Categories

More

Recently Added

More

You Recently Visited

Other Great Sites