Along with Kaylee and Inara, Saffron is a popular cosplay from the Firefly/Serenity fandom. The character appears in only two episodes but she is a memorable fan favorite.
Best I can tell, she doesn’t wear any jewelry in “Our Mrs. Reynolds” but she does wear a couple of necklaces, a bracelet and some earrings in “Trash.”
The first necklace we see is this pendant hanging on a strand of what look like oval and round, possibly faceted, glass or carnelian stone beads. When I made replicas of this necklace, I used pendants that were as close to the original as I could find in size, shape and pattern, and I used silver-plated wire to link the beads.
Here’s a closer view of that necklace, which appears to have a flower pattern, and we can also see she’s wearing earrings. My attempt to make something similar can be see with her other earrings, near the bottom of the page.
This is another screenshot of Saffron’s floral pendant necklace, inset with another, similar pendant I was able to find online.
Later in the episode “Trash,” during the heist, we can see her wearing a necklace and bracelet of larger beads. I used a combination of turquoise, nephrite jade, bone, horn, wood, sandalwood, bodhi seed and other natural beads to make these Saffron-inspired pieces.
Saffron also wears two different pairs of earrings, but we only get glimpses of them. I tried as best I could to make something similar, as you can see below.
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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As a fan of FIREFLY and its related movie SERENITY, I used my jewelry-making skills to create replicas (or as close as I could get) for cosplayers and fellow Browncoats. This is a jewelry reference page for the character Inara Serra, with information about how I made some of these pieces. I also have pages for Kaylee and Saffron.
For anyone who doesn’t want to make jewelry, google “India wedding jewelry” (not “indian jewelry” or you’ll get something North American) or “Victorian jewelry” and you’ll find many beautiful items that could easily fit Inara’s style, even if they’re not identical to what she wears on screen.
Inara is a companion, something of a celebrity in the ‘Verse, and she wears a lot of jewelry, so this will be a long one.
Episode One: Serenity
In the pilot episode and opening credits, Inara is seen wearing a necklace with a dark, diamond-shaped pendant.
From the screenshot, her necklace appears to be made with a double strand of chain, two glass beads and a carved diamond or kite shaped pendant of unknown material, possibly stone, clay or wood. I’ve made several similar necklaces, such as the one shown inset with a stone pendant. I’ve also made some with a double strand of leather cord, jasper beads and other pendants.In another scene, we see Inara wearing a necklace, upper arm cuff and “slave” bracelet with attached ring. I never made replicas of these myself. Arm cuffs and slave bracelets are fairly easy to find online, and I’m not sure why I never attempted the necklace. Maybe no one requested it or I couldn’t find the right materials.
Inara also wears a pair of earrings during this episode. They appear to be the same earrings she later wears in “Jaynestown,” which I will cover in that section below.
Episode Two: The Train Job
Inara wears another slave bracelet (possibly the same one from episode one) while brushing Kaylee’s hair, and in other scenes she wears the same necklace she wore with her purple dress in the pilot episode.
Later in episode two, Inara wears some gold chandelier earrings while rescuing Mal and Zoe from the authorities.
Episode Three: Bushwhacked
Inara wears a new necklace in this episode. It appears to be made with a double strand of carnelian beads and a stone pendant, possibly on knotted orange silk cord. At least, that’s the way I made similar necklaces, which you can see inset and below. There’s a glint of earrings here and there but I can’t get a clear screenshot of them. She’s also wearing the slave bracelet again.
Episode Four: Shindig
At the beginning of the episode, Inara is slumming it with Mal and Jayne in a pool hall. The scene is dark and it’s hard to get a good look at her jewelry, but I attempted to make something similar, shown inset.
At the ball, we see Inara in a beautiful dress, necklace, earrings and tiara. This is another set of jewelry I’ve never attempted to make. To be honest, it’s not because I couldn’t but because I doubt anyone would want to pay what it would cost in time and materials to make.
At the end of “Shindig,” Inara attends the duel wearing a necklace of what looks like large black beads. I made something similar (shown inset) with glass beads and brass bead caps. She also seems to be wearing the chandelier earrings from “The Train Job.”
Later, back on the ship, Inara seems to be wearing the same diamond-shaped pendant she wore in the pilot, or one that is similar, and a pair of earrings we haven’t seen before.
Episode Five: Safe
Far as I can tell, Inara only wears one necklace and one pair of earrings in “Safe.” They are difficult to see clearly, but they appear to be a red and beige (pearl?) beaded collar and matching earrings.
Episode Six: Our Mrs. Reynolds
Inara wears one necklace throughout their first encounter with Saffron. It appears to be one strand or possibly a double strand of stone chips and a stone pendant. My version is shown inset.
She also wears the slave bracelet again in this episode, on her left hand, and there’s a glimpse of earrings but they’re difficult to see clearly because they’re covered by her hair.
Episode Seven: Jaynestown
Inara’s appearance in “Jaynestown” is a very popular cosplay, based on the number of earrings and necklaces I’ve made for this one. Her earrings appear to be purple glass or amethyst stone, with brass or gold cone beadcaps and filigree dangles.
I made the necklace using gold filigree and attaching a black oval bead to the center, with matching dangles of black beads and filigree cones.
At the end of the episode, she seems to be wearing the diamond-shaped pendant that she wore in the pilot and in “Shindig.”
Episode Eight: Out of Gas
Inara wears the necklace from “Our Mrs. Reynolds” throughout this episode, and during the flashback she’s wearing her slave bracelet and the black necklace from the duel scene in “Shindig.” But we see a new pair of earrings, which appear to be silver with garnet stones.
Episode Nine: Ariel
In the opening scene, Inara wears her chandelier earrings from “The Train Job” and the duel in “Shindig,” along with an adornment that might be a brooch or might be part of her top.
At the end of the episode, she wears some earrings we haven’t seen before but look similar in shape and style to her pendant in “Jaynestown,” and a long, colorful beaded necklace that seems to be wrapped several times around her neck and ends with some long tassels.
The necklace could possibly be two very long beaded strands that are tied in the front, wrapped around her neck, and then hanging in front of her shoulders, since they appear to be hanging down the front of her coat as well. The beads look like India glass, to me, which can be found in vibrant colors but slightly irregular shapes, with a murky quality like sea glass.
Episode Ten: War Stories
In “War Stories,” we revisit many of the pieces Inara wore in previous episodes, including the “Shindig” duel scene necklace, the “Our Mrs. Reynolds” necklace, and the double-strand stone necklace from “Bushwhacked.”
Episode Eleven: Trash
During her conversation and attempted tea party with Mal, Inara wears an elaborate collar and matching earrings. This isn’t something I’ve attempted to make, but I’ve seen similar items when googling “Turkish silver collar” or “India silver wedding necklace.”
Later, we see Inara wearing what appear to be a matching necklace and earrings, with oval stones and long sparkling cascades of beads. I love this one and have made a few pieces of jewelry inspired by it. In the picture below, my daughter is modeling the necklace (her ears aren’t pierced so she’s not wearing the earrings).
Looking at it from various angles, the stone seems to change color from green to white, so I’ve used both green and white stones, or no stones at all.
At the end of the episode, when Inara leaves Saffron in the trash and returns to a naked Mal, she seems to be wearing a necklace and earrings we haven’t seen before, but I couldn’t get any decent screenshots of them.
Episode Twelve: The Message
Inara wears an elaborate beaded necklace which I’ve seen online under various descriptions including “Victorian,” “burlesque,” “baroque” and “beaded choker.” Because this necklace, or something very much like it, is widely available, and because it would be a complex and expensive item for me to create, I’ve never made one.
I’ve seen them going for anywhere from $25 to $200 online. The difference in price is likely due to the difference in where and how they are made, and what materials are used, such as Swarovski crystal vs glass vs plastic, for example.
She’s also wearing some large, elaborate earrings with red glass to match the necklace. Back on the ship, she wears her diamond-shaped pendant from the pilot, “Shindig” and “Our Mrs. Reynolds.”
Episode Thirteen: Heart of Gold
When we first see Inara in “Heart of Gold,” she’s wearing a necklace we haven’t seen before. It reminds me of something Victorian. I can’t tell if the strands are beaded, ribbon, leather or something else.
For the rest of the episode, she wears the double strand of possibly carnelian stones that she wore in “Bushwhacked” and “War Stories.”
Episode Fourteen: Objects in Space
Inara wears a new necklace in this one, which appears to be a brass or gold disc with three metal teardrops hanging from it. The disc has a floral pattern and the drops look like they’re decorated with maybe birds or flowers.
It looks like she’s wearing another necklace while she talks to Mal outside the infirmary at the end of the episode, but it’s hard to tell because the scene is so dark.
The Movie: Serenity
Inara wears a lot of jewelry in the movie Serenity (2005) but several of the items have brief screen time and are difficult to see. I’ve done my best to find photos of them, below.
The items with the most screen time are a gold necklace and red jeweled earrings she wears when Mal visits her and they escape the Operative together, and a double drop necklace with chandelier earrings that she wears after boarding Serenity.
The double drop necklace is a bit confusing because it’s worn differently in three different scenes. In the photo below, on the left, there’s just one bead to the left of the drops. Center, there appear to be two beads to the left of the drops, which might actually just be one drop and a shadow(?) not two drops. And right, there are no beads to the left of the drops, and the drops are not equal lengths.
My attempt to make something similar is shown below, using leather, garnet and smoky quartz.
Hope this is helpful to cosplayers, fans 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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I also have Inara and Saffron cosplay jewelry pages too
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 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.
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?). But I have made some bracelets with letter beads spelling out her name.
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 in the past. 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.
I made these Kaylee-inspired bracelets with kimono fabric, pink flower and brown teddy bear charms, and “double happiness” hearts.
And I’ve made necklaces and earrings with the double happiness hearts and pink flowers, a nod to Kaylee’s pink party dress in the episode “Shindig,” or a teddy bear like the patch on her coveralls.
I’ve also made several different charm bracelets, which include symbols of our ship’s mechanic such as a teddy bear, pink flowers, pink hearts, double happiness heart, Chinese coin, Chinese ceramic floral beads, strawberry, hardware and terrifying space monkeys.
As far as I know, from watching the movie and TV show about 100 times, this is all of Kaylee’s on-screen 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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I played a free demo of ABYSS: THE WRAITHS OF EDEN on PS4 back in 2018 but never got around to finishing the game, until now, and I’m glad I did. I think it’s one of Artifex Mundi’s best hidden object puzzle adventures.
I recently discovered that, for some reason, my oldest daughter had ABYSS in her Steam library. She doesn’t usually play HOPA games and when I asked her about it, she had no idea how it got there. But, lucky for me, we do family game sharing.
ABYSS seems to be inspired by BioShock. There’s no lighthouse, but there’s an underwater Art Deco city called “Eden” instead of “Rapture,” and your fiancé is the man who goes missing there. Through a series of puzzles, and manipulating items in the environment, you save your lost love and unravel the mystery.
Artifex Mundi puts out a lot of point-and-click games. Some of my favorites are Dark Arcana: The CarnivalandEventide: Slavic Fable. But sometimes, their games can be a bit cheesy and slapdash, with artwork that gets sloppy as the game goes on, stories that don’t make any sense, and boring puzzles. But I found ABYSS to be consistent throughout and especially lovely if you enjoy oceanic scenes.
It took me less than five hours to complete on casual difficulty. “Advanced” and “Expert” modes are also available. Players can skip puzzles but there’s an achievement for completing everything without skipping.
Rated “T” for teens, due to blood and violence. There are several dead bodies, spooky red-eyed wraiths, scary tentacle monsters and occult rituals, which could give little children nightmares so parental discretion is advised.
~ J.L. Hilton
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I am one of the winners of the Potion Craft Fan Art Fest: Summer 2023 for my “Enchanted Garden” entry during week one. I made a diorama of the in-game garden, with tree, flowers, potion bottle and alchemy map, all contained within a box that looks like the recipe book in the game.
The theme for week 2 was “Potion Shop” so I made a little cart an alchemist might wheel into the town square during fairs & festivals. The bottles are based on potions in the game and the tent edges are shaped like tabs in the game’s potion book.
The theme for week 3 was “Unexpected Encounters.” I didn’t have time to do much that week but a little Fallout crossover: What if a stranger, wandering alone through the village, stopped by the alchemist’s shop with something called “Quantum”?
Week 4 of fan art fest was “New Uncommon Merchant.” I proposed a Beekeeper monk from a local monastery who sells a random assortment of bee products like beeswax, royal jelly & propolis, after you provide him with some protection from bee stings.
The Beekeeper also offers a new potion base: Honey. When purchased, you get a beehive added to your Enchanted Garden, which gives a small boost to the number of plants that can be gathered every day (because of the bees pollinating) & an occasional random bee product.
GLASS MASQUERADE 3: HONEYLINES just came out at the end of May 2023. After enjoying the first Glass Masquerade and sequel Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions, I was eager to play this one.
Mesmerizing music and beautiful artwork take these games to a whole other level, and HONEYLINES does not disappoint in these areas. I think it’s well worth the US$5 price tag. That said, I don’t like some of the new features.
You can choose the shape of the pieces in each puzzle – options are shard, honeycomb and chemisty – but they’re all based on the same hexagonal cuts (thus the name “Honeylines,” I guess), regardless of the image in the puzzle. In previous games, the pieces were cut along the lines in the artwork, just as real stained glass would be cut and assembled. Standardizing the pieces probably made things faster/easier for the devs, but made the puzzles less enjoyable for me.
Puzzles start with the edges already completed. Doing the edges was one of my favorite parts of the previous games, so that’s kind of a bummer.
There are two difficulty modes – high and relax. The only difference is that you have to rotate the pieces in “high” which adds a tiny bit of a challenge but not much.
Players can now choose between game modes – flood, iris, bowl, classic and random – which determine how many pieces are provided and in what order. “Classic” is the one you want if you want to start with all pieces available, like the previous games in the series.
There’s just one ring of pieces orbiting the puzzle now instead of two, for some reason, which means you’ll see half as many pieces at a time, giving you fewer options to choose from.
You can also choose between tracking various statistics – time, accuracy or achievements – or none at all.
I’m happy to have another Glass Masquerade and I appreciate the devs trying new things, but some of these changes made it less fun for me than previous installments.
~ J.L. Hilton
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Some of my favorite YouTube channels are powerwashing, mowing, cooking and cleaning channels, so I thought it was time for me to try out POWERWASH SIMULATOR.
I had a great time with POWERWASH SIMULATOR, not so much for the cleaning aspect but for the aiming. I love ranged weapons in video games, whether it’s a sniper rifle in Fallout: New Vegas, a plasma rifle in Fallout 4, a bow in Skyrim or a pepper-box in GreedFall. If I couldn’t throw the Leviathan Axe in God of War, I probably wouldn’t have played.
But here, I’m shooting moss & grime instead of bandits & ghouls!
Some people call games like this “dad games” but anyone any age can enjoy this one. I’ve only cleaned a van and a backyard so far, but there are all kinds of creative, cruddy jobs to do, including a lost city, fortune teller’s wagon, Mars rover, mini golf course and a carousel.
There’s even a co-op mode so you can powerwash with friends and family. Now, if only I could get my family to clean the house IRL!
POWERWASH SIMULATOR was developed by FuturLab and released in 2021. I played via Steam on a Windows 11 laptop with an Xbox controller but the game is also available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PS4/PS5.
~ J.L. Hilton
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