Lord of the Rings Dishware

The time has come to reveal my newest project: A Lord of the Rings Dish set!  I am going to be moving into my first apartment very soon, and so am buying and making all of the things I will need.  My current project is dishware.  I went to As You Wish to paint these; while I adore that shop, their prices are crazy steep.  Fifteen dollars for a plate?! But, I spent it anyway because after hours of researching paints that I could buy myself, none would work for the project I was wanting to do.  The paints were either not food safe or not dishwasher safe.  Most happened to be both.  And, as I have no wish to slowly poison myself while I eat, I chose the more expensive option of painting at As You Wish. 

These are pictures I took of the serving bowl and plates before being fired in the kiln.  I will be able to pick them up on Friday to see how they turned out!!

The bowl has the Eye of Sauron inside of it and around the lip of the bowl I wrote,

“Azh nazg durbatulûk,
Azh nazg gimbatul,
Azh nazg thrakatulûk,
Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul”

Which, for those of you who are not insane Lord of the Rings fans, translates to, “One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”  They are the words on the One Ring.  I felt it was appropriate to have Sauron’s eye on the inside of the bowl and the ring inscription on the outside, so close, but not quite together.  Because evil never wins Sauron.  Never.  

But on to the plates, because they are my favorite!  So my idea for my dishware was to have each place setting be representative of a different place in Middle earth.   I chose Lothlórien, Rivendell, Rohan, and Gondor to highlight because they have the most visual representation.  I was going to do the Shire and paint Longbottom leaf and a Hobbit hole, but ended up choosing Lothlórien instead.  

The Rohan plate has the insignia of King Theoden’s sword from the movie.  For each plate I chose a quote that was related.  For Rohan the quote I chose was, “Arise, Riders of Theoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered! A sword day, a red day, ‘ere the sun rises!”  I love this quote.  The passion with which Theoden screams this quote to his Rohirrim is just overwhelming.  How they can be so passionate as they ride into almost certain death…oh, it gives me chills.  I did have a hard time deciding between that quote and this one, “Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?  They have passed like rain on the mountains.  Like wind in the meadow.  The days have come down in the West behind the hills into shadow.  How did it come to this?”  This quote is equally wonderful; there are just too many quotes to choose from that I adore in Lord of the Rings!  I made the executive decision to choose the first because it was a positive Death/Battle charge and I think that personifies Rohan’s spirit well.  

I painted the plate for Rivendell next.  All in all, Rivendell is where I would like to live were I an elf.  I drew a silver Evenstar in the middle of the plate and used the lyrics of Enya’s song Aníron, which is played during the love scene between Arigon and Arwen on the bridge in Rivendell.  The lyrics are,

“O môr henion i dhú
Ely siriar, êl síla
Ai! Aníron Undómiel

Tiro! Êl eria e môr.
I 'lir en ê luitha 'uren.
Ai! Aníron...”

I really wanted to put the quote from Lord Elrond on the plate, but it was just too large.  “But you, my daughter, you will linger on in darkness and in doubt as nightfall in winter that comes without a star.  Here you will dwell bound to you grief under the fading trees until all the world is changed and the long years of your life are utterly spent.”  As an English major this paragraph just makes me so happy!  The imagery and word choice the writer has employed is just so moving.  I love it.

For Lothlórien’s plate I chose the quote, “Three were given to the elves, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings.”  This quote was by far the shortest, and thus the easiest to fir onto the plate.  I then drew a miniature tree with the elaborate staircase going up the tree.  I was very worried that it wouldn’t end up looking anything at all like it does in the movie, but I am pleased with the results.

The last plate was that of Gondor.  I drew the white tree of Gondor in the center and around the edge the quote, “From the ashes, a fire shall be woken.  A light from the shadow shall spring.  Renewed shall be blade that was broken.  The crownless again shall be king.”  The sing-songy rhythmic nature of the quote made it an easy choice to go around the edge of the plate.

I also will be making four bowls and four mugs to complete my set.  And, if I am feeling adventurous I may make a serving plate with the white hand of Sauruman.  The serving platters/bowls will be the bad guys ;)  I will upload the pictures of the finished products when I get them on Friday!