Bird or Cage? - Bioshock Infinite Elizabeth Necklace Tutorial

Should have typed this up ages ago, I've been wearing the necklaces around for months. But anyway here goes.

As anyone familiar with the game will know, in the beginning half of the game Elizabeth meets the Luteces, who presents her with two brooches, bird or cage. 

I thought they were absolutely lovely, and of course I set off to make my very own. 

I made the bird one earlier on, and the one with the cage is modified from it. The one with the cage is more authentic, so it'll be the subject of this tutorial. Unfortunately I didn't take photographs while making these, but I'll try to explain it as clearly as possible.

The trickiest part is, of course, getting the brooches. The cage one is a birthday present from my boyfriend, who ordered it from Etsy <3 If you don't want to order it from someplace else, you can make your own. I made the bird one myself.

Okay, so first you'll need an image to work with. I got the images from screenshots and used Photoshop to modify the lighting and so on. 

Here are the images I rendered, along with ones of Possession and Murder of Crows, feel free to use them if you like =) 

I ordered empty pendants from a local online store. Mine came with glass beads with flat surfaces, but epoxy resin is also a good alternative. For glass beads, use jewelry adhesive (I used E-6000) to glue the bead to the desired image. Wait for glue to dry completely before cutting out the bead, and gluing to the empty pendant.

For epoxy resin, cut out the image and glue to the pendant, then follow the instructions on the packet to use the resin.

IMPORTANT: Be sure you print the image on glossy paper (like photo paper). Otherwise the glue/resin will seep into the paper and make the color wrong.

The pendant for my bird necklace doesn't have a brooch, but it has loops on the side where rings might be attached, so I used that to sew the pendant to the rest of the necklace.

Once you have your pendant, you'll want to find some ribbon and lace. 

The ribbon I found was a bit too thin, so I sewed two pieces together, making it just slightly wider than the lace.

Now everyone can take a minute and mock my terrible sewing skills.

The width ended up to be just over 2cm. You might want to go for 2~2.5 cm for a more authentic look. 

Then it's time to sew on the lace. As you can tell from the photo above, my sewing skills are terrible, so I can't give much advice there except the totally obvious don't t let your thread show in the front.

Next, wrap the necklace around your neck and mark where you want the closure to be. You want your necklace to fit snugly against your neck, so do make sure your measurements are exact. Velcro is a good choice if you want to be able to adjust the size with ease. If you're using invisible snaps like I did, measure the spot well and don't repeat my mistake of sewing the buttons on the wrong side. 

Combine pendant and ribbon, and voila! Your very own necklace.

A crap picture of me wearing it with my new dress XD 

I find that it's very wearable, it goes with a bunch of my outfits both casual and dressy, and every once in awhile I see someone on the street that recognizes it and makes a good conversation starter. 

If you do make one, leave a photo so I can see~ =D