Recently my son - Jorge - had a Book Day at school. This is where the kids are expected to turn up to school dressed as their favourite 'book character' for the year. Given that we have only read one book (or trilogy) over the past year, and this being the much loved Deltora Quest (apart from a few forays in Zach Power, and Jorge went as Zach Power last year).. there was little choice but for Jorge to go as the young hero - Lief.
Jorge's dad fashioned him a sword out of plywood, and I was left with the task of making the belt and the finding a cape.
Now, for those who haven't read this fabulous book, the belt of DELTORA is made up of 7 gems/jewels, these being Diamond, Emerald, Lapis Luzuli, Topaz, Opal, Ruby, Amethyst (spells Deltora).... and so I was pondering, how I would get hold of seven large coloured jewels, in less than 24 hours, in Alice Springs. I thought about glass, coloured glass, melted glass... and then I wondered if there was any substance that I could create that looked a bit like glass... of course I thought food.
I thought of jelly, agar, and then I thought: toffee... of course.
This belt is half made of toffee, and half of found objects like Christmas decorations. For the Emerald, I put green glitter though the toffee, the Topaz is pure toffee, and the Opal is my ultimate creation with about three different colours of glitter through the toffee. The red toffee in the photo is for the ruby, it was a bit soft and then we found a lovely ruby coloured Christmas decoration, so Jorge got to eat these toffees.
Of course, I had to explain to Jorge not to let any of his class mate eat the toffees (apart from the Topaz). He claims there were many greedy eyes on his belt all day... but not thieves..
