SPECIAL - Metallic Styrene

I had a chance to experiment with some gold mirror-finish styrene that I bought at the nearby Crafts Direct. I'm almost hesitant to mention it since it's a hard material to get your hands on. (This company makes it, but I don't think they sell it directly to the public. You'll have to use their store locater to find a store in your area that might sell it.)

Anyway, it comes in roughly letter-sized sheets and it looks like this:



That's a protective coating I'm peeling off. The styrene is .040" thick--a bit thicker than I'd like it to be; you can't really bend it without having it break. (I use .020" styrene for most of my armor and prop projects. .020" is thin enough to bend without breaking.) One other thing to note about this gold styrene is its price--6 dollars for a roughly letter-sized sheet. (Compare this to what I pay for regular white styrene--7 dollars for a sheet that's 4' x 8'.) So yeah, the gold stuff's expensive.

It can be easily cut, though and bent into a circle. (I'm making Aeris' bracelets from FF: Advent Children in this photo:)



I used hotglue to secure the ends of the strips together. I also hotglued thin strips of 3mm craft foam around the tops of the styrene strips to act as spacers between the different "levels" of the bracelet.



And here's what the first bracelet looked like when finished.



(Strips of craft foam can be stuffed around the wrist to make the bracelet fit more snugly--so it doesn't slip up and down the wearer's arm.)

In conclusion: metallic styrene is a durable, highly reflective material that gives the appearance of brass metal flashing, but without the sharp edges or tarnishing associated with brass. It's only downsides are its cost and the fact that it's nearly impossible to find if you don't live near a well-stocked ware-house-sized craft store. (It's worth looking for, however. Who knows? Maybe you'll find some....)