Laurel Badge

I knew that I would need some Laurel bling to wear at 12th Night (bad form to be stealthy out of kingdom), but I didn’t have anything that I really thought would go with the new suit. I’m going to make a new hat that will need something interesting on it, so I decided to make a badge for the hat. For what I wanted it was going to be easier to make a positive master and sand cast it than carve a mold. Besides, I really didn’t need the ability to make more than a few of these. I rolled out a disc of sculpey and stamped the leaves into it with a tool carved from a bit of plastic sprue. I sketched out the rook in the middle with the tip of an x-acto knife and then baked it. Once it was baked, I trimmed the edges down to a nice sharp bevel and carved the rest of the rook out. The finished master went into the sand and I poured up a copy, using a nail to make a couple of prongs on the back side of the mold. I bent the prongs into loops that I will use to sew it on to the hat. Some old model paint did an admirable job of faux enamel for the recessed bits. It’s not really based on anything particularly historical, but I’ll give myself a pass today.