Thursday, February 5, 2015

Hobbit-y Pyrography

These days, SHB is sleeping somewhat better in the evenings, meaning I can be fairly sure of having an hour or so to myself after dinner. I was so excited at first (a whole hour! I can do ALL the things!), but I quickly learned that after working part time and taking care of SHB the rest of the time, not to mention making dinner and cleaning up, I have no energy left for anything mentally taxing. There are so many lovely new patterns I want to get to (hello Sewaholic button-down shirts -- perfect for breastfeeding access!), but I can't seem to muster up the gumption to tackle muslins or fitting or even thinking about where that one fabric is in my stash.

I still want to do something mildly productive, though (I can only read so much before the words start swimming before my eyes), and I have that whole irreversible task resolution, so I have to settle for my brain-dead craft of choice: pyrography. It's essentially tracing, with very little thinking involved, so it's perfect for a tired new mom. And being the geek that I am, naturally it would all be Tolkien-themed. I'm lucky that one of my fandoms lends itself so well to this medium; it's harder to do convincing wood-based, rustic-looking crafts for say, sci-fi fandoms like Star Wars and Firefly.

So, during Christmas break, I burned two small cheese-sized cutting boards:

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

It was tricky getting the wood grain to cooperate to make the elvish designs smooth enough. 

Not actually from the books, admittedly, but I still love the list of hobbit meals. 

Oak leaf motif. Because hobbits. 

IKEA won't let me forget where I got the board from. 

I ended up gifting one to Elaine and keeping the other for myself. It was awfully therapeutic to do, and there's the added bonus of a pleasant smoky wood smell (so nice in winter, especially when you discover that your fireplace is out of commission and will cost $4000 to fix!). It was so fun, I found myself itching to do more. Then I realized that we were storing our teabags in an old gelato container, so when I was at Daiso the other day I picked up this wooden box for making into a more aesthetically pleasing receptacle:

I've always been the tiniest bit sad that I gave these boxes away at my hobbit-themed birthday party, so it was about time I made my own Thorin's-map-themed box.

It pleases me that the green tea is on the Lonely Mountain side, since it's vageuly Mt. Fuji-esque. 

I'm really pleased with how well the wood grain works with the mountains on this side. 

The great wyrms of the North came out looking a little goofy. 

Even though nobody will see it, I like knowing that this inscription is under the mountain...er, tea. 





All credit for the design on the box goes to Tolkien himself, of course.

It's tempting to make even more random LOTR decor -- Jo-ann's has so many nice blank wood items -- but considering only one person in this house is actually a fan, I think I'd better hold back. Unless, of course, I can indoctrinate SHB...then it'll be two to one!

30 comments:

  1. Wow, I absolutely love these! What a great hobby to have, so much less time consuming than any of my hobbies, and they would make great gifts too! I hope SHB gives you a bit more time to do some sewing soon!

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  2. You're amazing. That is all. Oh, actually: please at some point come to London? I would soo love to hang out with you! we could go to the natural history museum and see the enormous dinosaur skeleton? You'd have to hurry though. They are swapping it for a blue whale one next year i think... I'd even still be seen in public with you if you wore your dinosaur shift dress! ;-)

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    1. Aww man I loved that dino skeleton at the NH museum! Mr. Cation and I love London and we used to try to go every summer, but then SHB happened so who knows when we'll be there next? I'll definitely hit you up when it happens though!

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  3. Those are awesome! I wish I could do something similar. They are beautiful!

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  4. That first quote is a beautiful phrase for a cheese board! How do you get your designs and lettering so neat?

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    1. I plan out the design on tracing paper, then use carbon paper to lightly transfer the marks onto the board.

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  5. Very nice! A delightful concept really well executed. That's a steady hand you have there.

    P.S. I'm sure even Hobbits would shop at Ikea if they could. They're all for nice practical things for their cosy homes.

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  6. Beautiful work! ...and I congratulate you on being able to function for crafting after a day of work and mom-dom. :)

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  7. These are lovely! And if you want to work on SHB's interest in the fandom, I have a project idea for you. There's these amazing wooden teething rings that I've seen on Etsy that are burned with things like the Ring inscription. So I bet you could come up with something along those lines. (I want one so bad for our little "Hobbit", but I'm having trouble justifying paying $20+ for a teething ring when I need to wait and see if we actually get things on our registry like, say, a car seat.)

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    1. I'm going to have to look for those, as they sound awesome!

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  8. These are amazing! Would you consider making more and selling them? I'd definitely love to have one!

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    1. I would totally be open to that! Shoot me an email and we can discuss it!

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  9. Those are beautiful! I especially love the meal list cheeseboard, so cool!

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  10. I love these, especially the cheese boards! They're really beautiful and well-done. I'm not a LOTR fan, but I think the general themes just sort of generally apply to anyone, really. Also, tea solves desolation. :D

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  11. Oh my, that is such a great idea! And so lovely!

    What kind of tool do you use for this? Is it something you can just get at Joann or Michaels?

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    1. You can get a woodburning/pyrography tool at any decent sized craft store; I got mine at Michael's for about $15.

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  12. You are so talented!! I'm blown away. :)

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  13. Nice work! My younger son commits theater in a local youth theater group that does the Hobbit about every third year. We have a nice Smaug puppet but we are rolling in maps. All of which I made at one point or another, which made me grin at your map work. Such familiar handwriting!

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  14. Oh Cindy, how I love you - those are the kinds of details that please me too!! :D Lovely lovely work, as always - they are perfect and exquisite - how could SHB not become a fan with such inspiration surrounding him? ^__^

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  15. Beautiful work! I want one of each.

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  16. Thank you for sharing! I very much like the Hobbit Meals - that might be a future project for our new house. (As for LOTR indoctrination, my dad started reading the Hobbit to me at age 2 or 3. I didn't understand initially, but soon names like Bilbo, Frodo, Merry, and Pippin were instantly recognizable.)

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    1. That gives me hope! Time to start reading the Hobbit to SHB!

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  17. These are awesome.
    I feel you pain being a mom, pregnant and working full time... It's just so hard to find the time to do crafty stuff when not being totally exhausted.
    But, it will get better as they grow they have more rhythm, go to bed and sleep through the nights so hang in there :)

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  18. Those look so freaking cool!

    My Dad read me Lord of the Rings when I was 8 years old, and I am a indoctrinated fan to this day :)

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  19. aww you are back to work already? me too. its tough balancing out the stuff you NEED to do and the sewing/crafting you WANT to do sometimes!

    those boards look very cool!

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    1. Yeah, unfortunately I'm back at work...have been since January. I think you are to be commended, going back to work with two kiddos!

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  20. I was never a fan of pyrography until this minute. These are so, so perfect and I'm wild to try this myself now.

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