Queen for a Day

June 1, 2010 5:50 am Crafts, Green Crafting, Projects, Techniques and Mediums

Welcome our General Crafts Contributor, Shelly from the blog “Pickwick & Plum”.

Hats are nice, but crowns are better! Could there be a better way to herald spring than to proclaim yourself Queen for a Day? I think not. I’m going to show you how, with a little imagination and elbow grease, you can build yourself a ‘one-of-a-kind’ crown, worthy of any Palace!

For this project, the most challenging part will be to find a base on which to build. I find that the stainless & silver plate aisle at Goodwill is a good bet. For my example, I am using a re purposed casserole holder. You could also build a base using fabric, cardboard, wire – or any number of things but I like the built-in filigree of casserole holders.

Other materials might include:

10 – 12 gauge wire
Vintage buttons or millinery
Ribbons or rhinestones
Glitter stems
Ball chain
Fabric (about 20″ square)
Old belt
Vintage Christmas trim
Pearl or beaded strand�

You will also need:

Hot glue gun
Hole punch or drill
Metallic Paint
Paint (reddish brown & black)
Needle nose pliers
Scissors

I’m going to explain how I built this example, but there are many variations on what I’m going to show you. I wanted an antique looking crown, so the first thing I did was paint over the metal with a watered down mixture of (mostly) reddish brown and (a little bit of) black paint. If you find that your paint does not want to stick to the metal surface of your frame, you can either heat the metal, or sand it lightly.

Because I was going for something a little rustic, I punched holes a bit randomly around the top of the frame and used rusted bailing wire for my braces. These wire braces can be in a variety of shapes. I wanted the top of my crown to have a traditional shape, so I went with an ogee silhouette. I bound them together in the center and left them at odd lengths – entwined.

At this point you will need to choose a fabric that will make up the inner top part of the crown. Cut a square about 20″ wide and holding the crown upside down, set the fabric inside the frame – creating a bowl of sorts. Stuff newspaper into the bowl and adjust fabric as needed. Cut the excess off and hot glue the edges to the inside of the frame. Keep the newspaper inside the crown until you are completely done. It provides structure while you are building.

Next I ripped 3/4″ strips of a complimentary fabric and set them behind my wire bracing. I used gold glitter stems and a short length of pearl trim to create little ‘buttons’. I hot-glued these onto the fabric with the wire sandwiched in the middle. (Both the glitter stems and the pearl trim were antiqued using the same reddish brown & black paint.)

Once each wire has a strip of fabric and your ‘buttons’ are attached, you can begin to work on the outside of the crown frame. I used a combination of ripped silk, vintage christmas tinsel and antique millinery trim for the upper band and then along the bottom I used an old belt and a ball chain. I painted the belt with metallic gold paint and stuck a strip of vintage christmas ribbon behind it. You can just see it peeking up behind the ball chain.