Sunday, December 12, 2004

One Frame to Rule Them All -
Middle Earth Mania...

This last month at work has been one for the books: I've probably collaborated with the most people at the office on things than I have in long time and it's really felt great. Over the last couple of weekends I've been taking some "me" time that I haven't been doing much of lately and working on projects that are near and dear to my heart, interests and - honestly - just shit that I haven't taken time to work on because I've been juggling so much lately.

Topping the list of today projects, was the manufactured frame for my "Lord of the Rings - Middle Earth Mega Map" that I bought for myself (UGH!) last Christmas time. The thing is huge and I can't wait to get it all set and up in the theater. I made some concept art for a couple of weeks ago and posted that online. A picture of that is below:




To commemorate the movie that comes out this week (Return of the King, Ultra-Mega-Ridiculously Long and Unbelievably Feature-filled Edition), I put the development on this project into overdrive.

Last week Thursday afternoon I went to Home Depot to acquire some frame materials, and after a brief search and call to the father unit, I decided that I would use cedar. After finding the 4 most mangled pieces, and acquiring the nails with the largest heads I could find, I brought it all home and put them into the garage for safe keeping. Fast forward to today.

This morning I got up and dug into them first thing after breakfast. Searching thru the garage, I was trying to think of great ways to weather the material so that it would show age, and not be "cedar fence planks" and turn into something like "remnants of an ancient fortress after a great battle in Middle Earth". My final decisions: A hammer, a detail carving tool, a 3/4 chisel, the widest regular screw driver I could find, a rough saw that I've had for years, a bag of nuts and bolts from years ago, and some good old fashion blood, sweat and effort.

I took pictures of the wood on top of the map to see what it would look like when we were done cutting and outlined areas on the wood, marking them for destruction. The plan is to make these look weathered and more "in place" rather than just fencepost planks. I also wasn't too happy with the color that I had - I wanted something darker, so I went later to pick up some darker stain for the planks for when we were done.

Several hours later, I completed the "planned destruction" of the planks and began staining the planks. They've been drying for several hours and I just went to take a picture of what it looks like now - chipped out and stained.

All that remains is to put the false nail-heads on the front, attach the four sides to contain the map, and then attach the map to the frame. MMmmm, nothing like cutting a project close. :) More Soon...

Take a peek of the map straight on...

Update: I took the time to sneak it onto the wall this evening and took a picture of it "in place."

I think I'll be using the left hand side of the open space to create three little custom shelves that will hold the movies and their "statuettes" from the Special Collector edition discs (three vertically to fill that space). I'll post more details there.

All that remains now is to put the faux ancient nail heads (upholstery nails) on the front corners in rustic fashion! Tally ho!

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