Jennifer Parrish was attending Renaissance fairs and wanted to look the part, except she couldn't sew. She could, however, accessorize.
So Parrish launched a business in a spare bedroom of her antique home in Stoneham, making crowns and jewelry evocative of the Middle Ages. But there's a modern twist one her pieces, which are ordered by brides as far away as Japan and Scotland. They're made of durable polymer clay, baked in a special oven, painted to look like patinated gold or silver, and decorated with stones, gems, even stained glass. They look precious, but they can be dropped, bent, or flung off during a dancing frenzy at the reception without being any worse for wear.
"People will come to me with an idea or a painting, and I'll customize to their own wedding with different stones that mean something to them," says Parrish, 34, who began making the tiaras about six years ago.
She adorns the pieces with moonstones, freshwater pearls, garnets, carnelians, and amber. But some brides have very special requests. Flipping through an album with wedding-day photos of her clients, Parrish points out one bride with a vial around her neck. Inside the little bottle: moss and a feather. "She was fairylike," Parrish says of the customer.
Other pictures show bridesmaids wearing suites of necklaces and earrings, designed to match their dresses and the bride's own jewelry.
Parrish first began making pieces in high school, before studying jewelry design and attending the Museum School and Massachusetts College of Art. Her sources of inspiration include medieval architecture and Pre-Raphaelite painting.
Crowns range in price from $150 to thousands of dollars, depending on how elaborate they are and the types of stones used. Necklaces are $40 to $120; pins with semiprecious stones cost about $80.


Tina Cassidy is a member of the Globe staff. To view Jennifer Parrish's work, visit www.parrishrelics.com

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