Labyrinth Jewellery in the Making

The 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth is pretty much the definition of a cult classic - and Licensed To Charm have created some unique designs to celebrate this magnificent '80s movie.

Creating authentic, highly detailed character jewellery is a painstaking process requiring a high degree of skill and the artistic flair needed to capture the essence of the characters.

Licensed to Charm commissioned Imagkia Studios founder Toby Whiting to create a  launch range including the best-loved characters from the film: Worm, Ludo, Hoggle, and of course, the truculent 'knockers' from the gates to the Goblin City. To complete the launch collection (and as we were not permitted to do the  Goblin King actor David Bowie), we added his gloved hand, complete with crystal ball and, as the whole story revolves around a spell-bound book, two versions of the Labyrinth book with the characters escaping from between the pages.

With the launch list complete, Toby set about re-watching the movie and reviewing the reference provided by Henson,  sketching various poses and details for the characters.

He designed a masonry frame for the heads of Hoggle and Ludo, inspired by the masonry walls of the Labyrinth. After discussion, it was decided to put Worm inside a teacup and create door knocker earrings and pendants, both with moving knocker rings.

Once the design concepts had been approved at Henson, Toby created 3D models, which were then submitted for approvals as 3D turnarounds.

With the turnarounds approved, Toby adapted the designs into constituent components ready for 3D printing in resin.

The resin prints were then cleaned, polished, and sent for mould making and lost-wax casting of pre-production samples at a specialist in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England.

The silver castings were de-spruced and polished before oxidising to blacken the silver, cleaning and hand-finishing. The finished pre-production samples were then ready for final approval before production.

The launch of Labyrinth has been a great success, with the door knocker earrings being a favourite. Watch out for some great new designs, including Worm earrings launching at the end of February.