The Golden Fleece Project

As if I dont have enough projects going on.....but seriously, how could I resist?

The Order of the Golden Fleece knight's collar project

One of my best friends here in the SCA, Sir Gaston, who is just as much of a Burgundian geek as me if not moreso, gave me this great idea.....how about recreating the Order of the Golden Fleece chain? Talk about a great project!! The collar is such a beautiful work of art, and it just screams out to be copied.....but who wants to fork over $200-$300 to some renn faire guy to make one for you? Waaaaayyyy more fun to do it yourself, I always say.

Ok first thing's first....I have no idea how to do this in true jewelers fashion, and PMC is right out because I dont have a blow torch. So my remaining choice is basic polymer clay. Not a bad choice, imho, and fairly inexpensive and easy to work with, all pluses in my book. I also have lots of glass beads and shards at my disposal, left over from previous beading projects and stained glass panels to use as my jewels.

Now, this will be my first endeavor with polymer clay, but I have a secret weapon.....I got a book over at Half Price Books today called 'Creating Your Own Jewelry' by Cris DuPouy, and its practically written for just this sort of project!! She basically shows you how to copy museum pieces using polymer clay, shards of glass, and glass beads. I dont think it could get any more perfect, and best of all, the book itself was only $10!

Im thinking the fleece collar I want to copy is going to look roughly like this:



I have a feeling this is going to be a really fun project! :)