Mythology, The Hobbit, Tolkien and--Ah yes, a Mixed Media Project...

I just discovered, delightfully, a BOOK-THEMED challenge and let me tell you, it's brilliant.

And that's not just because I worked in a library and the challenge host happens to have picked one my favorite authors for the current challenge...

Well, okay, it helped a little. :)

But if you love reading at all or at least enjoy a very cleverly organized challenge, 

head on over to

The Library Craft Challenge #2 - The Hobbit

Now don't even get me started guys, because I'm one of THOSE Tolkien fans... 

I've read the Silmarillion more times than I can count and I dare anyone to test my Tolkien lore.  

I can even tell you about the Sindarin number system and just FYI, it's not base ten.

No no, it's far more beautifully complex and Milton would have loved it.

But I want to move beyond the epic storytelling and esoteric details for just a moment.  

Tolkien is a genius, not only of language, but of character.  

He understands the archetypes that move us.  He lived the stories he wrote, and harnessed raw storytelling energy to transform the events he felt and witnessed into something artful.  

In his scholarly essays he was not afraid to stand for and defend what he believed in.  

His deceptively naive-sounding essay "On Fairy Stories" is well worth the read 

just to be rewarded by his powerful insights in the last two or three pages.  I will not spoil it.  

If you THINK you love Tolkien but have only read The Hobbit (and it's not a bad place to start at all) or if you just watched the movies, do yourself a favor and dig deeper.  

Try "The Monsters and the Critics," a well-edited collection of his essays, 

or just taste the grand sweeping tone of the "Ainulindale," the first part of the Silmarillion.  

And my friend if you do, please let's talk. ;)

Here are some detail views:

Hand-crocheted "rope":

Burlap, moss, roses, stem pearls and wooden leaves detail:

The thick paper base is my own handmade paper, which I crafted in large batches some years ago from scraps produced in my work for my Etsy shop. 
After making as much as I felt I could possibly use, I began composting the rest of the scraps and turned them into vegetables.  Ha!  How is that for using up every last bit? :D

ALSO JOINING IN THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:

Get Creative Challenges #67 - Fantasy/Mythological
Simply Create Too #136 Use Green - 2nd entry
Creative Artiste #36 - Anything Goes - 2nd entry
Deep Ocean Challenge #176 - Vintage / Shabby Chic
Everybody Art #421 - Anything Goes

Vintage Journey March Theme: Treasure

So in case you haven't read the book...Why treasure?

It just wouldn't be a Hobbit-inspired project, of course, without GOLD.
Just enough gold though, and no more.



I wanted to focus more on Bilbo's ability to still see beauty in simple, natural things.
And this, to me, is a sort of treasure of the soul as well.
It was this ability that allowed him to get through his adventure,
even as frightened and homesick as he was. 
It was that ability that allowed him to withstand the Ring for as long as he did.

Yes, I could have dome a whimsical project on bacon and eggs and the missing handkerchief.
I sincerely hope someone has! :)
But I chose to focus on the simple beauties of his journey,
especially the dark-colored butterflies above the treetops of Mirkwood.



And like Bilbo, I hope we will also climb up once in awhile to look over the Mirkwood that is sometimes our own day-to-day life when we just can't see a way out.
I hope we will climb up for a different view, and while there that we can enjoy the glorious sunshine
and the fleeting joys that lift the soul like butterflies.


Be well all!
--Kathryn