Thorin Raven Crown - Work in Progress

The first time I saw the teaser trailer for The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Million Nopes... I knew I had to make this crown. This crown is so majestic I can't even. 

Obviously, forging it out of solid gold wasn't really a option. I've seen a couple of people who made it out of heat-shaped plastic, but I wanted something that looked more natural, more organic. I wanted something really durable. So I opted for thick, vegetable tanned leather and acrylic paints. 

I spent an evening studying photographs and sketching out the basic design. The next day, I scrapped that plan and printed off an actual photograph of the crown, which I then traced and modified. (The pictures show the design in 3D, rather than the 2D that is required to transfer the design to a flat surface). The printing process was an interesting adventure in and of itself, but I'll spare you the agonizing details of the three hours I spent getting one of our four (!) printers to actually, you know, print.

I know what you're thinking. Majestic, even on paper, in black and white. So I traced the design onto my leather, and cut it out with a winning combination of willpower, luck, elbow grease, and some really dull scissors. Genius. 

There's one of them, all cut out and embossed with the design. Next came the tooling, which takes forever, but it's actually quite therapeutic. Using my handy leather tooling kit, I strategically outlined the embossed design to give a sense of depth and cause the raven to appear more clearly.

 

Rinse and repeat. :) Not quite finished with the other side yet, but it's coming along nicely. This is a work in progress, so I'll be making another post when I complete more of the crown. Can't wait to paint it. But first I have to bevel the edges, harden and shape the leather, and dye it. *sigh*