This circlet is made from thick braided copper wire. I nearly killed my fingers making it-- I forgot to order dead soft wire and instead got half hard, which is not easy to bend when you are wrangling six three-foot strands around a vise!

There are around twenty five or so Czech glass leaf beads in sundry shades of green and iridescent periodot. I also used a few Swavroski pearls.


The pinecone flowers are Laura's idea, and the pinecones are from her yard! I'd never heard of this technique before, and they were so easy to make. All you need are pinecone "leaves" ripped off the cone, hot glue, lots of time, and shellac (I didn't have shellac so I used potter's glaze). I added a few touches of my own, namely the beads. I should do a tutorial...


You can't tell from these pictures, but the structure of the circlet's back is very complicated. Laura made yarn dreadlocks for her costume, so I used elastic cording to attach the biggest pinecone centerpiece to the edges of the circlet in the hopes that it would stretch to the right size. (It did!).

There are also several strands of chain dangling in the back. The center one has some beading in there.


Since M. clearly does not have on thick faux dreadlocks, the circlet hangs low on her head.




This is a torc necklace, also made of raw copper and glass beads. Someday I want to learn to solder and to get a torch for melting copper (our propane one is too weak)... I think that this turned out very well and extremely sturdy with wirewrapping, but it would be neat to experiment.

Sidetrack over. :) This is made with thick wire recycled from remnants of one of my dad's old electrical projects. I shaped it and then hammered all the wire to make the necklace very sturdy. A bit in the back was left unhammered and soft so that it can stretch a little bit so that it can be slid around the neck. It's not like the torc necklaces that Wikipedia talks about:

A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large, usually rigid, neck ring [pennannular, forming almost a complete ring with a hole in it] typically made from strands of metal twisted together. The great majority are open-ended at the front, although many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove. [...] The Celtic torc disappears in the Migration Period, but during the Viking Age, torc-style metal necklaces came back into fashion.

An upper-arm cuff with thick raw copper hammered to be sturdy. It's adjustable, and quite small because Laura is very slender.






I'm not sure what to call this (although a friend recommended that I name it "Awesome," heehee!) It is a swirly bracelet cuff that attached to a ring with a strand of beading. Kind of sort of like a handflower or slave bracelet, but not really...


The beading is attached with a removable hook, so the cuff can be worn on its own.

The cuff can be worn on the wrist (as shown to the left) and is long enough that is can be caught up in one of the adjustable rings and wrap around the fingers like a vine. Or, the bracelet cuff can be worn higher up the arm (above). Laura removed the green wirewrapped leaf and wore the cuff on her wrist without it wrapping over other fingers. (I hope that this makes sense and that I am not just rambling!)



This vine-like necklace was so fun. It's made with reversible beads and a ton of wire! The entire back just has strings of wirewrapped beading-- it was designed to go with the choker-length torc necklace and having leaves around the back of the neck would overwhelm it.



Fairy sandals, also known as foot thongs or barefoot sandals! These are so fun, but it was hard to size things properly so that the ankle width and length were right. I used a bit of elastic cord on the toe, but I tend to avoid that stuff as much as I can and the rest is beading wire and jump rings! I've got it all figured out now, and look forward to having the time to sit down and make some more.

image via

I hope that you all have enjoyed celebrating Bilbo and Frodo's birthday month! We've celebrated Lord of the Rings poetry, artwork, interviews with artists, a giveaway, cool crafts, Hobbit genealogy  Pinterest, and more! So many amazing bloggers (and even readers without blogs!) have done guest posts and left wonderful notes about just how much they love Tolkien's stories!

But I've just barely scraped the surface.

I seriously underestimated my free time.

This is an oft-recurring problem, isn't it, my dear friends? Next time that I promise a big event here on the blog, I need you to take me aside and tell me in no uncertain terms that "No matter how hard you try, Shaylynn, you are a busy girl and much to busy to do every little project that pops into your head. Also, you are not a wizard and can therefore be late. Very late, getting things done."

I do so want to do every little project that pops into my head, and I get many ideas. Just the other day I was writing an essay on political stuff in the 1600's (my history work is just so fascinating right now) when this glorious shade of green popped into my mind, followed by a round door, and flowers, and soon enough an entire drawing of Hobbiton fought to keep my attention away from the essay! This, of course, made me remember that I was going to try to do an art contest that is due in one week, which I haven't even begun, and then I started to think about how I could get my brother to pose with my art teacher's dagger, and that reminded me... Long story short, that essay took a long time.

THIS IS ME EVERY DAY. (XKCD comic)

There are so many things that I want to blog about Tolkien, simply because he's awesome and so inspiring. I wanted to do a post on his artwork (did you know that he was an artist?), the sets and costumes of the movie, some seriously amazing cosplay I've seen online, two different crafts, and Elvish primer, and tons of drawings.

I started a Lord of the Rings sketchbook but of course am only fifteen pages into it with at least fifty ideas tingling at the tips of my fingers. Fingers which I have to force to write stoichimetric equations for at least four hours three days a week. The curse with being a homeschooler is that when you attend a class, even a college class, it's so boring. Even if the content is completely new and you actually have to work to understand it, it takes so much time.


Two insanely talented friends are working with my on a big project. That is the ONLY teaser I am giving you right now. If you are a Tolkienite geek, you'd better be excited. :)

I haven't even shared any pictures of The Long Expected Party! I know you guys are awaiting that anxiously, but most of my photos did not turn out and I want to ask some friends if I can publish theirs, and then I have to figure out who is comfortable having their photos on my blog.


In the meantime... here is a sneak peek picture of the gorgeous gown I wore:

Me dancing with Mom and Dad during one of the dances where you constantly switch partners. No idea who had my camera at this point but I'm glad they got this shot when they did!

There were lots of people there!

Ignore how funny-looking that red thing is in the picture above; to the left, you can see how the balloon decorations actually looked!




And, in just a few hours, you can see the FINISHED ENTWIFE COSTUME, complete with the jewelry set I designed!

image via

When I read Shaylynn's first post about Tolkien Month, I thought, "I have got to do something for that. Because... because that is awesome."

My name is Rebekah Hendrian, and I am one of the owners/designers of VirvatuliDesigns, from West Michigan, USA. I am a 23 year old writer who works in a bookstore and runs an Etsy shop on the side. I am working on publishing my first novel, an Arthurian retelling for ages 10 and up, which means I am writing queries and getting rejection letters. I love to read, and when I have the time, my favorite things to read, after anything written by Tolkien, would be historical fantasy, dystopian/cyberpunk or steampunk novels, and nonfiction. I also like pre-90's Marvel comics, and I dabble in art.


VirvatuliDesigns is the storefront for Rebekah and Grace Hendrian's excess creativity. Virvatuli is Finnish for "will o'the wisp." While neither Rebekah nor Grace is Finnish (that they know), will o'the wisps, fairy lights, ghost candles, etc., are a folklore motif, and are here today, gone tomorrow. It was quite fitting for fantasy inspired crafts that, because of the way they're made, can never be replicated exactly. And it was fun to write in calligraphy.
Grace makes dolls that are inspired by fairy tales, legends, pop culture, and her favorite novels, sometimes all at once. She hopes to add some male characters to her doll collection, so be on the look out for those in the future. Rebekah does most of the knitting, and likes to knit gloves more than anything else. Her designs are inspired by books first, the natural world and folklore next, and she is planning on adding some larger knit pieces, such as cardigans, in the future.


(Note from Shaylynn: There are still four days left to enter the giveaway of their Elven handflowers!)

Hello readers of Shaylynn's Faerie Shoppe! I'm Vicki, and I blog over at Decked Out in Ruffles, where I share DIYs, outfits,
photography, and random/life-related posts. I'm a 19-year-old homeschool grad, a junior in
college, a dreamer, dabbling writer, a major geek, and a Christian. Oh...and I love The Lord of
the Rings.(:

Last month was my cousin's birthday (we actually share birthdays!), and I was having the hardest
time coming up with a gift idea for her. Then I remembered that she loves LOTR, and I came
up with the perfect gift...a little felt Frodo doll, complete with the one ring. And this weekend
(only a month late...but, as Shaylynn told me, "A wizard is never late!"), I finally finished it.
During the making process, I got a bit worried, since he was looking a bit more like a Gollum
than a Frodo...but once the hair was on and the clothes were sewn, it began to look more and
more like a sweet, little hobbit. Now I'm pretty sure that my cousin will give him a good home
(though I am sorely tempted to keep him to myself...ahem). As soon as I had everything finished,
I promptly dashed outside for a little photoshoot...

We started on the rocks of Mordor...

Then headed into the "fields" for some adventuring...

We battled a giant spider...

And...the road goes ever on and on.(:

I loosely based the pattern off of a free pattern download I discovered via a Google search, which
you can find here, if you'd like to try your own hand at doll-making. It may seem a daunting task at first, but once it's finished, it's worth all the effort (and the ripped out stitches...). Felt dolls are also very
inexpensive to make, which is one of the reasons I love them so much!

I hope you all enjoyed this post! Feel free to hop over to my blog to say "Hi"!
Thanks so much for having me, Shaylynn! This LOTR series has been simply wonderful thus
far!