DIY Large Royal Crown

1.5' in diameter crown for church pageantry

I was recently tasked to make a large royal crown for our church anniversary's opening pageantry. For this I needed about 1' x 5' of metal sheet. I was only able to buy a 3' x 3' stucco embossed aluminum sheet that I had to cut in half to make two 1' x 3' pieces.

Materials and tools used:
~ aluminum sheet
~ plastic gems
~ large sheet of paper (manila paper or an old calendar page)
~ marker
~ metal cutting/heavy duty pair of scissors
~ electric drill
~ several rivets and a hand rivet gun
~ pliers
~ gold paint spray (18k gold)
~ contact cement
~ safety gears(glasses and gloves)

Because I had little time to create it, I was not able to take a lot of pictures.

The Paper Pattern. Since I worked with a two-piece aluminum sheet I had to make a paper pattern for a half part of the crown. Take 1' x 2.5' paper and fold in half. Fold each half - in half. Draw  pattern on the folded paper and cut.

Transferring the Pattern. Trace the paper pattern onto the aluminum sheets (two of them) then cut with a metal cutting pair of scissors. Do wear gloves and glasses.

Folding the edges. To make the aluminum sheet appear thicker I slightly folded all the edges using a pair of pliers

Rivets. To connect the two sheets, first drill tiny holes and apply rivets using a hand rivet gun

Gold Paint. After folding all the edges (which will also make it easier to hold the crown) apply the gold spray paint in several coats, take care to read the instructions on the paint can.

The Plastic Gems. Plan the placement of the plastic gems before attaching them on the crown. Arranging them beforehand will make the glue-ing  a lot smoother. Because the surface of the crown is embossed and its structure itself is curved, I chose to adhere the gems using contact rubber cement.

Contact Rubber Cement. Carefully put this adhesive on the back of each plastic gems. Wait till the rubber cement becomes a bit cloudy and therefore stickier and no longer runny, then stick them on the crown.

Finishing Touches. While the rubber cement is drying some of the gems might slip a bit and that would be arranged as long as the adhesive has not yet dried completely. Carefully go through the gems from time to time to check, and that will make for the finishing touches and its done.

The finished crown.