Design by Cassandra Does "Assassin's Creed"!

I was rather impatient on finishing the ideas I had mapped out from this week's BTW influenced by the video game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood since they were rather fresh in my brain.  Fingers get so itchy, but they were rather relieved by Thursday's end.  I'm rather happy with they way they came together!

Amongst the historical figures in the video game, focusing on the corrupt power and influence of the House of Borgia, is Renaissance inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci.  Nick has a beautiful coffee table book full of da Vinci's illustrations, from his spiritual sketches to the war machines designed for the Borgia's troops, all replicated in the game itself!  (There's a level where you use Leonardo's 'tank' design to destroy Borgia cannons!  It's awesome!)  I had used pages from the book as a background to photograph the pieces, a great addition to detail for these geek-inspired pieces!

This is also me fully admitting that I'm a bit of a geek-girl.  Yup, my best friend says I should carve a niche for it.  Let see how these fare.

Firenze necklace and earrings.  The rounded piece of the thrifted pendant was a great representation of Ezio's armour, with the scrolling detail and wing-like images in the plates.  The black wing charm, repurposed from a pair of earrings - the other one will make an appearance soon! - dangles in the centre of the Firenze coins that originally came from the thrifted piece, representing Ezio's stealth and speed as a trained Assassini.  Each of these coins, as well, have an embossed city scene from Ezio's fair city, in which you've probably climbed all over these buildings and roofs in the game.

This piece will also be a great anecdote for 'the second glance being the best first choice'.  I'm referring to the red crystals in the black setting, repurposed from a pair of earrings a friend gave to me.  (I get that quite a bit - friends and family give me random pieces of jewelry to remake.  I've got quite a collection now!)  I was already using gunmetal pins and findings, finding silver to be too bright for the rounded pendant itself.  The red 'jewels' are in a black metal setting, and I just didn't know ... well, now I do.  The deep red is a beautiful match to Ezio's traditional Assassini costume, suiting to the mystic order that he leads.  I had also included clear crystal roundels to represent the white cloth in Ezio's costume.  I had handmade the links for the extender chain myself with gunmetal headpins in opposite figure-eights, and a lobster clasp to hold everything around your neck.  With a few leftover coins and beads, I managed to squeeze out a pair of earrings.  A rather regal set, if I may say myself.

The Art Merchant's charm bracelet and earrings.  As Ezio, you wander the streets of Rome after a time of despair when the city falls into poverty and crime.  With the money you collect throughout the game from random pickpocketing to killer contracts, you can help revive Rome's economy and begin the Renaissance movement by opening businesses and renovating landmarks such as the Coliseum and Castel Sant'Angelo.  You can open blacksmith shops, tailors, banks, horse stables, faction buildings housing allies such as courtesans, thieves or mercenaries and art merchants selling the latest religious iconic paintings from the artists of the time, such as Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.  These little frames with pictures of saints and small religious medals resemble the artwork of the time, and serve as a great 'art collection' of your own!  A caged quartz crystal and red glass bead hang at the end of the handmade extender chain, and the bracelet chain itself is a little extra from the thrifted necklace.  I had a few 'saint charms' and made a pair of asymmetrical earrings, using those red agate chips and crystal roundels and bits gunmetal and 'thrifted' chain.

Eagle Feather necklace.  The eagle is symbolic throughout the game, from the Assassin's Creed character's names, Altair and Ezio, meaning 'eagle', to the feathers Ezio collects in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood to commemorate the memory of his slain family.  I had these synthetic feathers that matched the look of the feathers in the game, and the chevron pendant piece from the thrifted necklace was a great focal point for the centrepiece.  I used a suede thong instead of chain to keep a natural texture going with the feather, and dangled a Firenze coin with the feather of a sprawling landscape over the shoulder of a sculpture.  This one isn't quite done yet - I have yet to develop some sort of clasp dohickey and she's done.

Well, these didn't turn out too bad!  What do my fellow geek-girls think?