Fatal Frame Charm Bracelet

I play more video games than Zelda series additions.  Unfortunately, I have this horrible condition: I always get stuck on the stupidest, easiest task.  Every RPG, action adventure, fantasy, and platformer has a set of levels or mandatory minigames that involve skills that have nothing to do with the regular game play.  You know what I'm talking about.  The race, the timed task, the weird trivia game.  They all have one and I always get stuck on it.  Oh.  I can take down your toughest boss, but I can't break all the barrels in 30 seconds.  It's a personal flaw.

I also can't play horror games without screaming and crying.  I'll admit it.  However, I can make a mean charm bracelet.  This one is themed after the Fatal Frame franchise.  I was staring at some of the charms my dear friend gave me last year and some random beads from an assortment I bought not too long ago.  I also found some silver camera charms. 

Originally intended for something, else, these particular charms and beads looked GOOD together and reminded me of something I'd played a long, long time ago.  Fatal Frame.  You know, that horror survival game based on the old belief that having your photo taken steals part of your soul.  It sends you running around in haunted locations with a cursed camera, defeating ghosts by capturing their essence in Polaroids. 

I did something different with this charm bracelet. Not only did a I use a variety of dark beads and add much more to it than I normally would.  I also added some chain tassels between increments of beads and charms to give it more depth.  It gave the bracelet and interesting and charmingly sparkling appeal.  Pretty fitting for a bracelet based on a game that involves photos stealing souls, huh? 

Nayru's Love Necklace

HAHA!  I fixed this necklace and came up with something decidedly delicate and feminine.  It looks much better than the original in my personal opinion.

I was so pleased with how it turned out with just a few little additions that I set about to making some earrings to go with it.  Take a gander.

Funny how I got better photos of the earrings than the necklace... So it goes..

Lorule Low-down

While I haven't played a Link between worlds, I've watched a bit of the Let's plays available on youtube to keep myself from turning in fits over the fact that I can neither afford a 3DS XL or the game itself.  Not only does it have solid gameplay mechanics reminiscent to the ORIGINAL Legend of Zelda game and Ocarina of Time, but it's got a nice feel and the whole concept of a mirror-image shadow world plays into the affection for books like Journey to the Center of the Earth and old theories that the world was composed of layers of vastly different 'worlds' with slightly different mechanics and creatures living within them.

That aside... the aesthetics of Lorule, the dark version of Hyrule, are really easy to get into.  Even though the motifs are similar to Hyrule's bright, shiny filigree and scrollwork, they are decidedly dark and cold.  I like dark, cold colors.  So here's the first bit of fanart I've made for the crumbling kingdom of Lorule.

Almost a perfect color match for the purple elements in the Lorule side of the game.

Reminds me of Lorule's incarnation of Zelda..

Dinn's Fire Necklace

Since I can't seem to create any sort of Zelda fanart bracelet and keep it for any length of time, I've decided to try for necklaces.  They're guaranteed to be too out there for anyone to want to buy them.  Here's my interpretation of Dinn's fire in necklace form.

Hopefully I can figure out a design for Farore's Wind and Nayru's love relatively soon.  Last thing I need is for someone to see this, buy it and have it missing from my next attempt at photographing the pieces TOGETHER.

Nayru's Love Redux AGAIN...Already Sold AGAIN

Well.  The title should explain enough of what happened.  Here are the pictures!

An Art Trade

I've always been suspicious of art trades.  They just seem like a good way to get ripped off, taken advantage of, and to sell out.  Call me cynical, but an early life full of fair-weather friends, bullies, and people willing to peddle their friendship for the day for your lunch cookie leeches the excitement out of 'trading' for art.

Some of you might think me hypocritical because you remember my involvement in a pay-it-forward project.  I assure, I am not.  Paying it forward expects NOTHING in return.  You can't be cheated if you weren't expecting anything back.  That model is more palatable to me than trading.

A trade requires you to receive something in return.  It opens the door for people to scam and extort (I've experienced the latter and I wasn't even involved in an art trade.).  An equivalent exchange is not guaranteed.  You MUST negotiate the trade.  Negotiations require you to be analytical, critical and in some cases, a little mean.  I don't like that sort of activity.  So for the longest, I avoided art trades.

Until recently.

A young artist contacted me through deviantart.  She wanted to trade for one of my Jack Skellington bracelets.  Previously, people who offered me trades were met with a, "Sorry, I don't do art trades." and proceeded to call me 'stingy' for not jumping at the opportunity to trade with them.  However, this artist was more polite and persistent than the others.  She offered 'anything from her gallery', 'the best thing she's ever made', and 'anything at all'.  It was earnest, so I decided to do a trade with her.

However, since she lives in the UK, shipping costs are high, and the Etsy-listed item she requested was expensive to make, I decided to, instead, make something special and a little more postage friendly just for her.  I will never, ever, ever make another one like it.  Here are the photos.

Farore's Wind

Sometimes I surprise myself.  I surprised myself with this particular Legend of Zelda piece.  You see, mentally, I associate wind with the color blue, because of the sky.  Well, in the Zeldaverse, the Wind is associated with Farore, who rules over courage and... I'm going to stop before I go into a big tirade about the various mythology in the franchise.  ANYWAY, the wind is associated with the color GREEN.

It's the color of life, wholesomeness, and fresh growing things.  That's part of the reason the color's so closely associated with Link.  In every incarnation he starts from humble beginnings, either he is alone in a forest, orphaned, or otherwise overlooked because he's not good at anything.  But that little guy's got FIGHT in him.

Like the wind and green growing things, I guess.  Constantly pushing against things, slowly eroding them, even if at first they seem immovable.

It was actually hard to put this bracelet to

gether and even now, I'm not sure about it's name.  It feels more masculine and harsh than what I've always pictured for Farore's Wind.  It feels a great deal more Slytherin than anything.  What do you guys think?

I'll have to revisit this concept later.

Nayru's Love Revisited

Last week, I posted a small collection of photos of a bracelet I'd made with a Legend of Zelda theme, Nayru's Love.  WELL, I went and looked back on that bracelet, re-examined Ocarina of Time and I found that the first bracelet was far too blue.  It needed more silver, more soft, crystalline colors.  So, I made another.

BAM!

In this incarnation for the bracelet, I decreased the simplicity and increased the drama!  As you can see, there are polyclay resin beads with silver inclusions, pearlized ceramic beads, brightly faceted swarovski crystals, Tibetan silver beads, and silver plated bead caps.

Another, better focused glamor shot.

A slightly less flattering but more details aerial view.

It was fun for me.  I wanted to do a series featuring each of the spells from Ocarina of Time, you know, Dinn's Fire, Farore's Wind...but my Nayru's love bracelets all sell as soon as I finish them.  I'm sure I'll eventually get one completed around the same time I complete the others for a full set... maybe.

Another Zelda Fanart: Nayru's Love

I said in a previous post that Ocarina of Time was one of my favorite Zelda games.  I vowed to make more fanart jewelry for the game at a later time.  Well...I did.  It's nothing too involved, like the Navi pendants.  It's actually pretty simple.

A BRACELET!

I'm going to call this bracelet, Nayru's love after the protection spell you get from the Water temple.

Nayru, if I remember correctly was the goddess of wisdom in Hyrule.  Her colors were shades of blue and aqua.

For this bracelet, I incorporated crystals with a faint iridescence for the richness of water and sparkling crackle glass to symbolize power.  Finally, I put gold rhinestone swarovski rhondelles to tie everything together.

I like how it turned out.  How about you?

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time- Jewelry Fan Art

Does that logo mean anything to you?  No?  Well it should.  It's only the logo of one of the biggest, most iconic fantasy videogame fanchises in history!  LEGEND OF ZELDA!  OCARINA OF TIME!

The first Zelda game came out on the NES console in the 80's, before I was born!  Lucky for me, my mom is a gamer/sci-fi nerd, so I grew up with the console in the house.  Friday nights were for family games of Tetris, Mario Brothers, Ninja turtles and tidbits of the original Legend of Zelda games.

When I got my N64 to play videogames on my own, I found that I was pretty much terrible at everything Legend of Zelda.  I could only go so far before frustration and fatigue got to me.  Still, stubborn to the end, I poked at it.  I never finished any of the games, but I have fond memories of coming upon insane enemies that were either too powerful for me to kill or too terrifying to behold (Thanks for the nightmares ReDeads!).

One of my favorite bits of the Ocarina of Time game was the fact that they introduced Navi, a little helper fairy to give you clues to the puzzles, dungeons, and infuriating quests.  Although, there were points when her catchphrase, "Hey!  Listen!" started to make me bonkers.  Sometimes, I wish there were Navis in real life to give us clues about how to get around real world obstacles....  We could all use a nice, fairy companion, whether we're Zelda fans or not.  That's why I made one....some... 

I started with this. 

I was in Michaels (of COURSE I was) when I breezed passed the instruction books that are so carefully placed within the jewelry supply section.  There was a book suggesting different jewelry making technique combinations.  Their design was a bit...interesting, but it sparked an idea in my head.  Then, I saw a filigree style that I'd seen dozens of times before and had overlooked.  I even had one in my stash that I had been thinking of giving away or tossing.  The fairy wing stamping.  It was PERFECT for Navi.  This is the first one I made.

Ooh lala Swarovskis!

It LOOKS like Navi.  Except you know, the wrong color.  With the success of this little experiment, I sought out MORE SUPPLIES...at the lowest price possible, of course.  It's perfectly fine to give into your excesses as long as it is within reason!  Indeed.  Soon, I'd made another

This time in 'Traditional' Navi colors.

 I'd had to purchase more of the fairy wing stamping.  I found the absolute BEST stampings at DimeStoreEmporium on Etsy.  Not only are their stampings consistent, sturdy and brilliant.  They are SUPERBLY dapped to give the piece more depth and weight.  Check them out when you have the chance.

See the lovely curving details of the wings?

 I even experimented with doing a less labor intensive Navi by using rhinestones.  The rhinestones are cute, but I think I like the first way better.  More sparkle, harder to duplicate, more elegant..  Yes.  I like the first method better....

When it doesn't come out like this...

Still, purple rhinestone Navi is pretty cute.

 If any of you guys are interested, you mosey on over to my Etsy and adopt one of these babies.  Tune in MONDAY for my next post to see what these pendants look like as necklaces!

Thanks for reading!