crafter's help.

[Sarlon]

I know we've got some crafty types on here, and I'm posting on behalf of a friend of mine whos a HUGE sailor moon fan (I'm bigger but that's semantics).

his Halloween he wants to dress up as Tuxedo Kamen, mostly anime style with one tiny addition to be REALLY obscure (something drawn in from the manga).

problem is, its so small and obscure and not enough attention to detail paid, that I can't find someone to sell it.

Heres the basic idea taken right from the Manga.

[Ellain]

You're looking for something like the piece dangling from his bow tie? There's not a lot of detail there, but it might be possible to approximate it using chain maille or wire wrapping.

[Seshat]

Jewelry findings.

You want a star or sun shaped drop, a horizontal spacer, a pin or brooch bar to hang it from (hidden under his tie), and a couple of link rings or jump rings to assemble it all.

[AccountingDrone]

What that is is a *medal* in the old European style.

The proper term is 'neck order' - scroll down for the CMH on a ribband for wearing around the neck.

[Draper Mel]

AccountingDrone has the right of it. You can often find old medals at thrift stores, or try online. Search for "military order medals". You might even be able to find something similar in the jewelry section of Michael's or another craft store.

[AccountingDrone]

Hmm. I would recommend hitting up a flea market/boot sale and seeing what people have that is cheap but OK looking.

Short of doing some custom work in gold clay [my kiln is way too large to set up for firing a single piece of jewelry. I can however knock off a set of dishes fairly quickly ... but I prefer not to fire anything in the summer. ] I was rummaging around on Fire Mountain Gems to see if first they ad something already available, or easily bashable.

I found a couple things I could suggest if nothing turns up at a boot sale. [or a rummage online, Etsy or Ebay]

If you can do beadwork, you could do something like this Kalidoscope Ornament:


I would almost go with this:

and epoxy in some real or fake gems of the right color into the voids in the center, or epoxy a small round medallion on the center voids.

How close are people going to be looking at it?

[Seshat]

Have your friend google for 'iron cross' or 'maltese cross' pendants. The neck piece is not precisely either, but neither are many, many of the things sold as 'iron cross' or 'maltese cross'. So your friend can probably find a pendant to suit.

After that, all that's needed is the bar (if he wants to be that accurate), and a finding to clip it to the shirt or to the tie, and jump rings to assemble it with. All of which any beaders' or jewelers' supply should be able to provide.