Ancient Artifacts

One of the shows I'm working on, Menorca at 16th Street Theatre in Berwyn, takes place partially on an archeological dig site. One of my tasks was to create a set of ancient artifacts that could be discovered by the students at the dig. 

These particular artifacts were supposed to be mysterious. The students and the professors on the dig site are having trouble identifying them or making the pieces fit together. 

The first piece they find is a rowel (the round spiky piece that turns on a spur). To make the base I used some small machine screws joined together with an epoxy putty center. 

I painted it with a bronze paint and then coated it with Elmers glue and sand so it looks like it came directly out of the ground.

The second artifact they find is an ankle bracelet. I bought a cheap gold bracelet from  an antique store for the base.

I bent it out to make it more like an ankle bracelet and then added two lamp toppers to the ends with epoxy putty. Side note, if you have never checked out the lamp parts section at your local hardware store, you should.

Then a coat of bronze paint, some different brown sprays and sand and elmers to finish it off.

 The third artifact was a rosary. The script designates that it is made of large glass beads, so I found some rough African glass beads at a local bead shop. 

In order for the beads to still be strung when they were found they needed to appear to be strung on something that would have survived years in the dirt. 

I ended up twisting masking tape to make a string that looked like it could be some sort of sinew. 

I made the cross by forming epoxy putty around a smaller cross that I found in the thrift store.

All strung together it looked pretty good, though I think I will end up breaking some of the beads off (it looks a little too complete).

Then sand and paint and a little bit of smashing to the cross and it's ready to go.