Etsy jewellery designer who created The Hunger Games' famous mockingjay pin

The Etsy jewellery designer who created The Hunger Games' famous mockingjay pin, and its stunt double, has become as well-known as the film's characters.
Dana Schneider interpreted the pin, worn by the film's heroine Katniss Everdeen, from the book's cover and has been inundated with requests from fans around the world to re-create it.
Fakes of the mockingjay pin are rife throughout the internet, but those wanting the real deal from the Etsy designer are out of luck, because she doesn't own the rights.

Tinsel town's jewellery designer: Dana Schneider of Canton is a small-town girl with a big-time resume; she created the mockingjay pin for The Hunger Games

The pin isn’t Ms Schneider’s first feature-film credit, however.
Her jewelry has appeared in over 50 movies, including The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Tron Legacy, The Matrix and X-Men, as well as television programmes such as Californication.


The designer is on first name basis with Hollywood's biggest costume designers, and lists Cher, Marilyn Manson and Rooney Mara as clients of her personal collections.
Splitting her time between Canton, Ohio, and Los Angeles, she now designs jewelry for tinsel town, as well as for her own collections sold on Etsy, where she calls herself 'just a small craftsperson.'

The original: The designer created the mockingjay pin for The Hunger Games, which has spawned hundreds of knock-offs online

Famous pendants: These Dawn and Sun Bird necklaces are used in the television show Californication

Ms Schneider may be a small-town girl, but her large resume also includes Tiffany & Co, where she started her jewellery career after attending Rhode Island School of Design.
But in 1999 she decided to leave for Hollywood with no connections, and just a year later she landed her first film From Hell with Johnny Depp.
The designer told The New York Times, her success comes from the in-depth and precise functionality of her designs - not just from making pretty pieces.
She explained: 'There’s a lot of tinkering with scale to see how a piece will function.
'For a movie Jane Fonda was in, I literally had to design a charm bracelet that would purposefully snag on a piece of clothing, but it had to work to her character, who was a world traveler,' she said.

Pretty but tough: This bracelet was made for actress Megan Fox in the movie Transformers 2

Powerful: Dana Scheider helped to develop the Green Lantern ring from the blockbuster Tron

Hand carved: These skull beads Ms Scheider made out of vintage Bakelite for the movie Tron Legacy; the bracelets are supposed to resemble Tibetan prayer beads

She continued: 'I tried to come up with charms like the Eiffel Tower. I had to think what would snag on a charm bracelet.'
The designer emphasises the fact that when working on a movie, she has many different things to constantly take into account.
On making the famous mockingjay pin for The Hunger Games, Ms Schneider told Lark Crafts: 'Jennifer Lawrence’s main costume was canvas, so the pin had to look delicate but be able go through several thick layers of canvas.
She continued: 'I knew immediately that I’d also be making the pin for the stunt double. You don’t want the stunt double to be hurt when wearing a piece of jewelry - that’s number one. You always have to think about things like that when making jewelry for movies.'

Center stage: Femke Janssen wore Dana Schneider's costume jewellery designs in X Men 2 while in character as Jean Grey

She made four mockingjay pins, three of which were used in The Hunger Games, one she kept for herself, something she does on all her movies.
She said: 'I always make one to keep and have as a backup. You never know when you may need that backup.'
Although no authentic mockingjay pins will come from Ms Schneider herself, you can still own a little bit of the big screen through her designs she sells on Etsy.