Tuesday 1 November 2011

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky

Hey everyone. How are you doing today? Did many of you got two extra days off like we did in Slovenia? I have no idea how the holiday systems work in other countires. We had our Reformation Day on 31st of October and today it's All Saints Day, so our regular week starts tomorrow. Sadly I have one of those days that start well and then slowly but surely turn into crap. Since early afternoon it's been a giant pile of guilt, sadness, tears (that come with compulsory migraine) and general bad feeling. Not one of my best days. Even changing nail polish didn't help. So I decided I'll show you something I really like and makes me feel good. I already told you about two projects I was working on last week - one was the Nail Polish Blogger Challenge and the second I show today. I quite successfully combined my two favourite hobbies - nail polish and fantasy world. 

As I already mentioned before, I'm a member of our Tolkien society and as every year we had an art competition this weekend. I was officially one of the organizers this year so I didn't compete, but since winning really isn't the point here, I of course made something for the competition, also because I loved this year's theme so much (Magical objects of Arda). I decided I'll try the nail polish jewellery thing and create the Three Rings of Elves
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If you don't find fantasy/Middle-Earth/Tolkien works/reading interesting you may want to skip this paragraph. I skipped way too much data for my liking, and yet it remains a long one.

A bit of history behind the Rings of Power. Even if you know Lord of the Rings only by movies, you already know Rings of Power exist. All of them are combined into the most famous verse/poem in Tolkien's world:

Three Rings for Elven Kings Under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf Lords in Their Halls of Stone,
Nine for Mortal Man Doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness Bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

The Rings of Elves are named Narya, Nenya and Vilya. They were the only three their creator, Celebrimbor, made alone, without Sauron's help (all Rings of Power were made with the help of Sauron, that back then could shift his form and decieved the high Elves of Eregion so they didn't recognise him and let him teach them the art of Ringmaking), and their power was in understanding, preserving and healing - hence the magical "islands" of Rivendell and Lothlórien. Since Sauron never got them, they couldn't make the bearer invisible, but they could be used as a weapon against their foe even if that wasn't their purpose. 

Narya ('nar' means 'fire' in Quenya, the Elvish language) is the Ring of Fire. That's the Ring Gandalf is wearing as the last bearer. It's power is to resent the tyranny over the bearer and his despair. It's ring stone is ruby. 

Nenya ('nen' means 'water') is the ring of Water. Throughout the history of the Ring Galadriel was the sole bearer of Nenya, she used it for keeping Lothlórien timeless and safe. It was made out of mithril, the ring stone is white diamond. 

Vilya (the word means "air, sky") is the most powerful ring of the Three Rings. The last bearer of Vilya is Elrond. He used it for keeping Rivendell safe, like Galadriel did with Lothlórien. It was made out of gold, the ring stone is Sapphire. 

The Three Rings leave Middle-Earth with their ring bearers, together with Frodo as the One Ring bearer. With the destruction of One Ring the power of the Three faded and they returned to Valinor. 

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Naturally I didn't remake the Three Rings. I couldn't even if I wanted to. I wanted to try to create them from what I have, wanted to show how I see their colours through the magical world of nail polish. ;) Sorry for loads of pictures, I like how my box turned out. *blush* Plus, flakie rings always need at least two photos. Right? Right? 


 The letter in the middle is Tengwar "C" for Celebrimbor (although I should write "K", as Tengwar is a phonetic writing *sigh*). 


 GOSH Holographic for Nenya. White Diamond sounded a bit boring. 


 Brucci Sapphire + Nfu Oh 52 for Vilya. My favourite!


Nail System 97 with Nfu Oh 49 for Narya. Probably my next mani combo. 

If you want actual swatches:

Let's put some music in here too. My favourite song about Tolkien world ever. It's not for everyone taste, mind you, but I'm sure some of you will like it, and I honestly believe that if you like music, you have to like the melody . You'd be surprised how much Tolkien lore is used for metal! Summoning - The Legend Of The Master Ring



Making nail polish rings is fun! What do you think, did I do a good job for a first timer? :) I feel so much better after writing this down, yay!

Do you like nail polish rings? How about Lord of The Rings and fantasy in general?

Thank you for reading! 

22 comments:

  1. ACK! I LOOOOOVE LOTR!!!! I'm a huuuuuge fan =]! This was a great idea to make polish rings =]!

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  2. Ohhh I love LOTR and I've seen the movies a thousand times (not a huge fan of the books though, I prefer the silmarillion). I really love all fantasy and I'm currently reading the farseer triology by robin hobb :D
    I think the rings look beautiful and the colors you chose for them are very appropriate ^^

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  3. Summoning! Že dolgo jih nisem poslušala, pa so fajn. Super prstani, sicer - najbolj mi je všeč Vilya. Če bi se morala odločiti, bi pa izbrala kar vse tri. ;)

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  4. ajme sva tri su krasna, ali oduvijek htjedoh imat Nenyu, a Tolkien mi je jedan od najdrazih pisaca, LOTR sam procitala toliko puta da vise ni ne znam broj, kao ni koliko sam puta pogledala filmove, extended verzija naravno :D jedno vrijeme bijah u udruzi tolkienovih obozavatelja, ali sad sam samo clan foruma s kojega je udruga potekla. jedno vrijeme sam se smucala po lotrplazi al nemam vise vremena za to. uh vidi raspisala sam se malo previse XD

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  5. You. Are. Awesome.

    You did a great job!! ... and I am glad you are a nerd ... I love LOTR :D

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  6. I love fantasy books, though I am more of a HP fan, but I have a lot of respect for Tolkien, but I don't see LOTR as a trilogy, but rather as a tertalogy, along with the Hobbit (Bilbo is one of my favorite characters!)
    Great idea to create rings, I love them.
    And I hate you for bringing LOTR up, I already have a huge book reading list, and now I'll have to squeeze LOTR (again) in as well :)

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  7. Lindsey, yay, another LOTR fan! :D Glad you like it!

    Annie, extra points for loving Silmarillion over LOTR!;) :D It's my favourite from Tolkien works too. Well, and Children of Húrin. :)

    Kaneli, jaz tudi ne, pa sem se zdle spomnila nanje. Res so hudi. :)

    Lendoxia, ti samo piši. :D Super, da voliš Tolkiena. :D

    loodie loodie loodie, girl, your comment really made me laugh, lol, thanks for that! I like being a nerd too, it's fun. :D ;)

    goga, hvala! :)

    Biberlee, it's a nice thought, yes, Hobbit is like the first part of the whole story. I love the old hobbit too. :)) Haha, it's never a problem to squeeze LOTR on the list! ;)

    Thank you all for your lovely comments!

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  8. LOVE Tolkien, elves and fantasy!

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  9. Gorgeous rings! How did you make them??

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  10. Oh my god, that is truly awesome.
    I've read all of em and I adore the movies. What you did is pure awesomeness.

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  11. Oh, to pa je objava za moje oči! Gospodar prstanov, D.I.Y umetnost in še Summoning! Si zaslužiš en velik ˝high five˝! :D

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  12. Ooo, a te si ti naredila? O.o

    Čudoviti so <3

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  13. Respect, darling, I love them! :) I wish I had one. :D

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  14. a ženoooooo
    moram priznati da mi je ovo tvoj najzanimljiviji post to sada :-D
    totalno si odvalila s ovim prstenjem, oduševljena sam... cijela priča iza njih je fantastična (ipak je riječ o tolkienu)...
    nadam se da ćeš nam pokazati i drugo prstenje koje ćeš napraviti ;-D

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  15. Sarah, awesome, good to hear! :)

    Kelly, I bought the stones and the rings in art supply store and then polished them. Basically, I followed this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0uwG2NUSgU Hope it helps!

    Just me and Hohner, aww, thank you dear! :)

    S., hehehe, me veseli, da je še kdo vesel kompleta! :D

    Biba, ja, te sem jaz naredila. :) Zabavno pacanje! :D In hvala!

    Martinček, hehe, ni problem še enga ustvart zate. :) Samo teb bom zelenega. ;)

    Nihrida, oh my! *blushes* Hvala ti! :)

    nail crazy, sumnjala sam, da će se tebi sviđjati! :) Drago mi je što sam bila u pravu. Hvala za lijep komentar, stvarno. :) I ako još išta napravim, sigurno pokažem. :)



    Hvala vsem za lepe komentarje! Thank you for the lovely comments!

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  16. I LOVE the Narya ring it's beautiful!! So creative! xxxx

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  17. LOVE. THIS. POST.
    Amazing in every way!
    I'm now a new follower :)

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  18. Amazing post, those rings are so beautiful! Tolkien ♥

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  19. Pickle, thank you! I should really do a combination like that on my nails soon.

    Andrea, thank you! For the compliment and following. :)

    AmyGrace, thank you, darling! :)

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  20. Amazing! I'm already looking forward to read about this year's competition :D

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