Over the years, I’ve made a lot of jewelry for cosplayers and the most-requested item was Kaylee’s pink bead necklace, even though she never actually wore it in any episode of Firefly or the movie Serenity. But it appears in this popular promotional photo of actress Jewel Staite, so a lot of people want to wear it with their Kaylee costumes.
With careful examination and extensive online searching, I found the closest possible pink bead to be a Venetian or Murano glass millefiori tube bead, which was previously sold under SKU EM-9299-71 Millefiori Tubes 26mm EM-9299 71 Pink/Blue Center at VenetianBeadShop.com.
Unfortunately, it’s no longer carried on that website and I haven’t been able to find it anywhere else. Similar beads might be found on Etsy or other crafting sites when searching with various combinations of keywords such as pink, floral, flower, millefiori, tube, lampwork, venetian, murano, glass and bead.
See the Kaylee parasol I painted for Can’t Stop the Serenity…
In episode 2, “The Train Job,” Kaylee wears a diamond-shaped pendant. The image on the pendant looks different in two different scenes, so it’s probably double-sided and got flipped over during filming.
The beige or off-white color might be bone or horn, possibly wood or ceramic, but it looks a bit like a scrimshaw sort of butterfly carving to me, hanging on a cord of dark brown or black leather. The closest thing I ever found was an owl (shown inset).
We see Kaylee wearing a necklace in episode 8, “Out of Gas,” during Mal’s flashback to when they met. This one appears to be another carved pendant, possibly bone, stone or wood, but round this time, with a flower or sunburst in the center, hanging from a cord of light tan or beige colored leather.
I’ve used a variety of round, carved pendants to make similar necklaces, but have never found one exactly like hers.
It appears to have a blue or green bail (the little loop at the top where it hangs on the leather cord). This might be made of thread, beads or wire, I can’t tell, but I used to add a blue-green bead to my pieces as a nod to this little element of the design.
There’s a necklace Kaylee wears in episode 9, “Ariel,” that spells out her name in tile letters. These might be glass, fimo or ceramic, I can’t tell from the screenshots. I’ve never made a replica of this one because I’ve never found any letter beads close to that size (1/2 inch x 1/2 inch?) and color (light blue or gray? white and red striped borders?).
Kaylee wears a necklace in episode 12, “The Message,” which appears to be a rectangular, domino-sized, carved pendant, with possibly a dragon design. These sorts of large focal beads and pendants are usually made in China, which would be in keeping with the show’s aesthetic. This one looks like bone to me, but could be animal horn, soapstone, wood, plastic, resin or shell.
I assume the pendant is actually a large bead, drilled through the center, because we can see that there’s a small red bead at the top and bottom of the dangling pendant. They probably used a headpin to make the pendant, and then added it to a string of beads.
It’s hard to tell, but it looks like the necklace is made with alternating round and/or cylinder beige beads (possibly wood or bone) and then occasionally more red beads like the pendant.
These are some versions of the Kaylee “Message” pendant I’ve made. Apologies for the photos, they were taken several years ago and aren’t great quality, but you can see how I used various pendants and combinations of beads.
At the end of the movie Serenity, Kaylee wears a large “double happiness” 囍 pendant, which is associated with marriage, possibly indicating her new relationship with Simon. I’ve never made a replica of this one, but I’ve used charms and pendants with this symbol in some of my jewelry for Browncoats.
As far as I know, from watching the movie and TV show about 100 times, this is all of Kaylee’s jewelry. Hope this is helpful to cosplayers and crafters! If you have a moment, please check out my crafting and gaming channels on YouTube, and my shop JunkWitch.com. Thanks!
~ J.L. Hilton
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