One of the coolest things about a fandom full of artists is seeing how everyone uses Tolkien as a point of inspiration. I love hearing new music and seeing new art as each artist fulfills his or her vision of Middle-earth, so I was excited to discover Heather Stevick’s hand-bound version of The Silmarillion. It’s a pleasing instance of an artist whose skills and execution did perfect justice to her idea.
Heather’s Silmarillion features the two trees Telperion and Laurelin, each bearing their final fruits which will become the sun and moon. Upon re-reading the book before taking on the project, Heather found the theme of decay was most moving and therefore chose to use materials – imitation gold leaf and silver leaf – that would tarnish over time, effectively acting as an illustration of the theme. The spheres of the sun and moon, however, were tooled in paladium and gold, which will not tarnish as easily. Clever girl! Heather even included the silmarils themselves in the design, with each of the tree – in sea, or sky, or earth – depicted on the edges of the pages of the closed book.
Even the tools she created to design this cover are pretty – check out her blog, Bookwyrmbound, to see the rest of the story of their creation. Thanks to Elvenesse.net for this find!
One Comment