Crown of the Lost Princess

Prior to the completion of the wig I did of Rapunzel's hair when she was in the kingdom of Corona, her tiara was the most ambitious costume project I had undertaken for an accessory. 

The hardest part of the whole process was finding the three large crystals to use in the crown. I had found the two smaller ones at a craft store, but the larger one was harder to come by. I ended up having to buy it online from a crystal supplier. I was very lucky to find one that was not only larger, but was also in that 'Aurora Borealis' tint that the other two were in.

At the time, the crown was also the most expensive accessory I had made, to later be beat again by the wig. The cost for just the small crystals on the crown was over $80. Given they were Swarovski crystals, it was an expected expense. Those crystal just shined better and captured the light more brilliantly that any other glass or plastic gems I could find. I did use some plastic gems sparingly  though the main crystals are acrylic, I believe, so they technically are plastic as well.  The two large pearls that flank either side of the tiara between the pearl-flowers are real freshwater pearls from my bead collection; the rest of the pearls used were glass.

The main body of the tiara is foam. This allowed the crown to be easy to craft as well as light weight. Sort of light weight; those crystals are a little heavy. The backside of the crown did not have the same appearance as it did in the film, mostly for ease of creation and that when I actually wear it and pin it into my hair, I cover it with some of my hair to help hold it in place.

The video above is of the crown I made outside in daylight. It is slightly different there than from the image at the top of the blog because I popped off a few crystals in the front above the main pink gem and affixed some more to make it more screen accurate.

I have been asked a few times to make a tutorial on how the crown was made, but I have yet to get around to doing it. My biggest concern would be that someone would take the information and use it to sell crowns to fans and that is what is stopping me from doing it now. Such is the internet though, right?

For now, the crown is proudly displayed on my art site, on my YouTube page, and in a poetically lovely place in my collection: between my Designer Princess Rapunzel doll and my Designer Villain Mother Gothel doll.