Movie prop: The cryptex from The Da Vinci Code

I am an avid collector of movie memorabilia.  The strangest the gadget, the more I covet it, and if the movie happens to be one of my favorites, it is even better.  

I have talked here of Beetlejuice's Handbook for the Recently Deceased, the Jurassic Park cryocan, Lucian's necklace from the Underworld movies, the H2O Just add water locket, The Illusionist locket, Lana Lang's kryptonite necklace... Most of the time there is no official product, and I have to find an artist to make it, or buy it knowing it is a knock-off made by someone else.  I really don't care, as long as I have it in my hands.

This time the coveting came after we came back from Paris.  After visiting the Louvre, the church of the Saint-Sulpice and seeing the Arago medallion markers, I rewatched The Da Vinci Code.  And I found myself wanting to own my own cryptex.

Naturally, I knew the official replica made by the Noble Collection was out of question.  I cannot justify spending that much in a movie prop. It is true that it is absolutely gorgeous.  But no.  There is a smaller version that is more affordable, and may be something you may like to consider.  I myself was interested in this one, until I saw some reviews that said it was not very sturdy, and the rings and the opening mechanism did not work very well.

Instead, I went looking for a non-official version.  And I found it!  And for the price that I paid, I think it is a very worthy investment.  I chose the white ring version, as it is the one most similar to the movie prop.

 

This is a knock-off, but it is very well made, EXCEPT for the fact that it has 6 rings of letters, instead of 5 like the original cryptex.  Can you believe I had not realized this until I tried to change the password combination?  But, you can bypass this problem if you use A-P-P-L-E-S, with an extra S that the movie riddle does not have.  

My cryptex is absolutely made of metal except for the letter rings, that are some kind of plastic, although you would not guess it by looking at them.  It is heavy, and big!  It measures about 14 cm long, and it opens!

It comes in a gift box, with a card (in case it is for a gift), with a screwdriver, 2 screws, 2 black cord necklaces and a pair of The One ring from The Lord of the Rings, one smaller in silver and one larger in yellow gold.  Naturally, they are not real pieces of jewelry.  And instructions for how to change the opening combination.

 

See how bit it is!

You can open it, of course

 

 

I will not use the rings (neither will my husband).  The important thing was that I wanted to have inside the cryptex the final clue, but obviously it did not come with it.  A pity, truly, that even the official one lacks that detail. But!  I can make my own.

 

I searched the web for pictures of the clue prop, and I found several that were good.  Here is a still of the movie in which you can see it:

 

I took the biggest one, cleaned it and enhanced the lettering in Photoshop.  Then I removed the background color and printed it on parchment paper.   Then I added a red edge made with printable cotton paper, and glued it with double-sided tape to the clue.  Here is the result:

 

LOL, you can see my mermaid leggings!

I curved it with the help of a brush

I love how well it looks!  I am so happy with my cryptex, it will go to the shelf with the rest of the movie props I have.

 

 

If you would like to have your own cryptex clue, HERE is a free printable for you to make it.  As always, please feel free to print as many times as you like, and pass the file along to anyone (links back are nice too!).  Just please do not sell the file or your creations.  Thank you and enjoy! ♥  

Arwen Evenstar necklace display

When we were in Paris, my husband wanted to visit some comic book stores - he always likes to visit those.  We found the Arwen Evenstar necklace in one of them - the one from Noble Collection - and he gifted it to me.

They told us to use it only over clothes, or we would risk it losing its shine. Since I already had a real jewel necklace, I decided to simply put this one on display.  So I perused Amazon, in search of the display glass dome, also by Noble Collection.

Unfortunately, the only one I found in Europe was selling for more than $200, which was a price I was not willing to pay.  Then I looked for it in the Noble Collection website, but even though the actual display cost about $35 there was a charge of almost $50 for shipping to my country.

So I decided to make my own.

I started by searching for an adecuate display dome, and found this one:

 

It measures 9 x 13 cm, so it was perfect!

 

I did not want it to be very big, so when I saw the size I snatched it immediately.  Then I purchased a template for a necklace display, like the ones you can see in jewelry shops, from Etsy.

I reduced it in size, printed it, traced it over 2 mm cardboard, cut it and covered it with black suede paper.  The result was fantastic:

It looks beautiful!  All in all, I did not spend more than 15 euros for everything.  Now the necklace rests next to our The Lord of the Rings books:

A new project in the making

We were in Paris a couple of weeks ago for our holiday vacation.  We had a great time, and I came home with my mind rested, but ready to start some new miniature projects.

First, a Ladureé cart.  

I am a big, big fan of the Ladureé macarons, and my husband gifted me a beautiful 12-piece box - I chose it in blue, because I already had one in green at home.  Today I ate the last piece (bo!), but I am ready to have my own lovely cart in miniature full of tiny macarons!

I had purchased an antique cart, and I had the idea of turning it into one of those candy carts that you used to see at parks selling candy to kids many years ago.  But somehow, the starting of the project never took place, so it sit in my shelf for quite some time.  When I came back from Paris, it was the moment the project started, at least in my head.

I had already glued some of the pieces (a bad movement on my part), but now the first thing was to paint everything in the brand colors of Ladureé - minty green and gold.  So I purchased an Americana bottle of paint (shade Pistachio Mint), and the work began:

Some of the glued pieces, others waiting to be

Ready to start!

First coat drying

Second coat, and more pieces painted

There is still a long way to go, but I have been researching pics of Ladureé carts in several locations, to look for inspiration, and yesterday I ordered some objects from one of my suppliers.  I cannot wait for them to arrive.  

In the meantime, I will finished the painting and the construction of the cart.  This is a picture of the cart I saw to inspire this:

Taken in the terrace of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann

 

And the second project, which is still far in the horizon but I will definitely make, is a vintage French café.  I already bought a pub bar and stools, just to keep them in storage.  But the cart will be finished first, no doubt!

Free printable! Tuna can pack of three

Remember that post in which I made some tiny tuna cans with wrappers?

Here is the new and better version: tuna pack of three!

Same as I did with the individual wrappers, I scanned the life size version of the 3-can-packet, cleaned it, reduced it and printed it to wrap 3 tiny silver tuna cans:

 The wrap measures barely 2 cm:

 

 

I am in love!  If you want to make this project, here you can find the tiny cans, and here you can get the free printable to download and print.  Bear in mind you need 3 cans for each wrapper.  And if you don't want to buy them, you can make the cans with polymer clay or foamboard.

 

As always, please feel free to print as many times as you like, gift them to friends and pass the file along to anyone (links back are nice too!).  Just please do not sell the file or your creations.  Thank you and enjoy! ♥

 

People in this scene really like their tuna!