Nov 13

Nov 13 May the odds be ever in your favor

.. or give them a nudge with the latest addition to my casual cosplay collection!

If you've been keeping up with my casual cosplays on Instagram (or know me in real life), you might have noticed that my casual cosplays don't tend to be particularly casual, mostly because my personal style isn't particularly casual - but I do love the alliteration of casual cosplay, and besides, there was already an active hashtag on Instagram.

Anyway, I made the prototype of this necklace quite some time ago, not even as a prototype, just because I wanted a classy necklace that expressed my love for the Hunger Games without screaming "I'm a teenage fangirl".

For those of you who will actually understand what on earth I'm talking about (and therefore probably won't judge me), here's the symbolism breakdown:

The faux/vegan pearl represents the pearl Peeta Mellark gives to Katniss Everdeen in Catching Fire.
The black stone beads symbolise the coal mined in District 12.
The arrow at the end of the extender chain is a nod to the silver arrows Katniss uses in the 74th Hunger Games.

I receive so many compliments when I wear this necklace (seriously, SO MANY, even from strangers!) that I finally decided to make more to sell. It's a bigger initial investment than I'm used to, so I'm hoping it will pay off. They're a lot more fiddly than the rest of my products, and the components cost a lot more, so they've been priced accordingly... but it's still a big step for me to list these guys.

My original supplier of the 'coal' beads disappeared off the internet, so there are two types available - the limited and original unpolished stone that gets darker as you wear it, and the polished stone that seems to stay a solid satiny black the whole time.

I also get lots of compliments on the matching earrings, which are just the same arrows that I've used on the extender chains, so I made some of those for the shop as well. The earrings are available on their own or with the large arrow necklace, to put the casual back into casual cosplay ;)