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vintageaerith — Tutorial: Cosplay Jewel-Making
Published: 2009-03-23 23:31:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 162878; Favourites: 4786; Downloads: 2621
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Description
Painless, and hopefully profitable for the cosplay crowd out there. I have to cast a large quantity of half-dollar sized dome jewels for Nia, and the experience has been kinda fun, so I thought I'd share it with you all. ^^Thanks to HCC Cosplay for inspiring/instructing me to make them, though I found my own method, which is what this tutorial illustrates.
Aaaand thanks to ~spiked-stock , who pointed me in the direction of that site AND is keeping me sane while I make my Nia costume. x3 And is the best sewing teacher ever--I crashed her room for five hours the other night to make my skirt.
Hope this is helpful! Post if you have any questions!
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Comments: 472
You're so welcome! 
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I'm actually the president of our school's cosplay club, and I think it's a great resource for any of our members. If ever I need to make some resin jewels, I'm definitely turning to your tutorial for help. :3
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Your school has a cosplay club? That is fantastic!
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Yesirrie bob! My friends and I started it this last year at our university.
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This looks a LOT safer than the other methods I've found so far. Most of them require microwaving hot glue. ><
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UHHH. THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN EXTREMELY BAD IDEA. xDDD
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Exactly. I'm dangerous enough when using glue in a normal contest. ^^
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Oh erm, What if I want to make jewels that are square-edged? After the resin is hard, Is it possible for me to sand it down to a square-edge jewel? And is it also okay for me to take out the resin when it is rubbery to the touch? O>o
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That's where buying resin molds comes into play...there are plenty square ones out there! EasyCast makes some, I have one that's basically an 8x10 sheet of jewel-sized, various-shaped molds. Squares and rectangles are among them. ^_^ And yes, I was able to cut a circular jewel with scissors into a hexagon shape while it was fresh out of the mold. And yep! You can take them out then, you just have to be careful since you might warp it on its way out.
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All right ^^ Just have a problem though. I live in Malaysia and I'm not so sure they have easycast resins. Are there any other resins that work equally as well??
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Hmmmmm....I bet there are, but they probably wouldn't apply to this specific tutorial, so you'd have to make sure to read the instructions on the kind you find--for instance, the ratio of resin-to-hardener might be different.
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If you give it a try, let me know how it goes!
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Im going to try making Sailor Moon's odango shields
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I'd love to see how it turns out!
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Here's the first of my cosplay pictures with the jewels I made. Thank you so much!
[link]
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Duuude, AWESOME! They look great! Thanks for sending your results!
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/SADFACE I tried out this tutorial, but when I popped out my gems, they had these lines all over them and were a bit cloudy on on the surface? (they were kind of hard to pop out too @___@, I had to bend the life out of the pallets) Mmmm, I don't think this is normal D8.
Did you have to spray your molds ULTRA-LIBERALLY btw?
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D: It sounds as if the molds might've caused those lines...the cloudiness on the surface is most likely due to 1) the 'texture' of the mold used (I get non-shiny gems when using anything less hard than a plastic paint palette) or 2) the colorant you used for the gems...experiment and see what else works? And yeah, you kinda do have to bend the life out of the palettes, that's not unusual, although it may indicate that you haven't left them in there long enough or your mixture wasn't perfectly 1-to-1, if you had some serious issues getting them out. In my experience, at least.
I haven't had to spray the mold release super-liberally, no. o_o;
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Do you think it'd be possible to use a candle mold to make a sphere out of resin? I'd like to make a clear jewel for the top of my Xelloss staff.
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I have heard that candle and soap molds are iffy for creating resin jewels, since the mixture causes an exothermic reaction (aka...exuding heat) and occasionally can either melt the mold, or just make the reaction hot enough that your jewel might meld to the mold. If you try it and it works, PLEASE let me know so I can add it to the tut! But that is what I've read and heard.
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This tutorial was awesome!!!!!
I have one question, how did you attach the gems to the fabric?
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Thanks!
None of the jewels are directly on fabric...they're all on jewelry and props. I typically use hot glue, though.
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those jewels look so nice! I can't wait to try this technique!
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Thanks! I hope it's helpful!
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awesome pretty simple XD and helpfull >_<
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yeah! when i saw this tutorial Alcyone from Magic Knight Rayearth came to my mind XD but basically al MKR characters use this kind of jewels XD
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Love the tutorial!
Any clue how to do a solid sphere? My bf says that gluing 2 half-spheres together probably won't work right. D:
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Hmmmmmmm, a solid sphere...I would imagine there's a mold for that somewhere? Having done so many, I would imagine it'd work like...a solid sphere mold that can be pried apart in several places, with only a small hole in the top to fill it, but I don't know if such a thing exists. Sorry. D:
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Thanks anyways! ^__^
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I really thought I faved and commented on this before but... oh well. XD I will DEFINITELY have to try this out. C:
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I have the strong urge to make a cosplay that would require this tutorial... Simply in order to use this tutorial;;;
Seriously, this is probably the best jewel tutorial I have seen so far > u >~
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no prob! I just wish I knew of a variant of a character I already cosplay that would use those, cause getting new wigs can be a pain OTL;;
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sorry for the language but i was looking and i was like "F*****" Awesome!
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that is freakin awesome! I will save this and try it later this summer :3
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WEI! Thanks! Although, I live in Sweden and have no idea where to buy this -.-' Still an awesome tutorial!
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Awww! Maybe you can find its equivalent somewhere over there? xD
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the easy cast , mold release and resin dyes should be availible at micheals right?
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I got all three there, yep! xD
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