Epic Inspiration Jewellery Design Challenge and Blog Hop

I think you’d have to have been living in a cave in the last few years if you’ve missed the wave of Epic TV that has been filling our screens. From Game of Thrones to Outlander, Black Sails to Vikings, Downtown Abbey to Poldark, and more, these shows are lavishly filmed, gorgeously costumed, and rich in inspiration for jewellery design.

So, I thought the time was right to have a design challenge and blog hop inspired by Epic TV. Of course, almost as soon as I thought of the idea, Heather Powers came up with her Game of Thrones challenge, but we talked about it and decided there was enough scope in TV series out there to inspire a dozen blog hops!

If you’re after a starting point for inspiration, may I suggest you check out the official site for your favourite show, as they often have fantastic galleries of pictures as well as links to special features on sets and costume design and so on. There is a myriad of fan blogs and tumblrs for shows too, which can be a great source of inspiration and images taken straight from episodes.

Take my favourite show, Outlander, a period drama (with a splash of time travel), set in 18th century Scotland, based on the first in a series of books written by Diana Gabaldon. It features spectacular scenery and fabulous sets, and the costumes are rich in details and authenticity. The official Starz Outlander website has loads of pictures and videos providing inspiration. And costume designer Terry Dresbach has a gorgeous blog featuring details of the costumes and her own inspirations (I particularly like her posts on the materials used in Claire’s wedding dress—that exquisite metal embroidery!!—and the amazing eye brooch in Geillis’s costume for the Gathering). There isn’t a huge amount of jewellery worn, other than Claire’s wedding ring and a pearl necklace given to her by her new husband, so I know I’m going to have to dig deeper for inspiration.

So. Onto the blog hop. The rules are simple:

1. Sign up here by commenting on this blog post (if for some reason you can’t leave a comment here, my email address is on the About page of this blog). I’ve put May 3rd as the date to sign up by, but I’m not really going to turn anyone away.
2. Pick your favourite TV series. Or more than one if you like. It doesn’t have to be a fantasy or period setting, you could choose Revenge or Empire or something like that. But let’s stick to TV—movies can wait for another hop.
3. Design at least one piece inspired by the series, by the characters or the setting, the costumes or the story, even a particularly inspiring line from the show.
4. On June 6th, publish a blog post featuring your piece(s), and tell us about your favourite show and how it inspired you, who might wear it (if it is for one of the characters) and so on.
5. Hop around and check out what others have made. You never know, you might find a new favourite!

Feel free to copy the image at the top of the post to use as a button.