at last, it’s complete, it’s done!!! I’m so, so proud of this and had sooo very much fun making it. this tea cup is my
freehanded map of Middle-earth, painted by me; completely painted by hand, no tracing, stencils, computerized or automated anything, etc., painted with a combination of size 000 detail brush and the tip of a sewing pin for the detail work.
based on the maps in the back of the Lord of the Rings books, showing Middle-earth in the Third Age. the handle has the Tengwar script from the One Ring, also painted by hand.
I worked on this mostly in intervals on the weekends, starting in late December 2024, as my work hours meant I couldn’t visit the pottery studio during the week. I didn’t go every single weekend, but probably like something close to every other weekend! I finally finished the last few finishing touches on it this past Sunday, and it was sent to their kiln for firing and glazing. I just got to pick it up yesterday and can’t get over how vivid and striking the colors are now that it’s all finished and glazed to be food-safe💞
The bottom of the mug’s interior has a Mallorn leaf painted on it (this was done solely with the 000 brush, since a sewing pin is too short to reach to the bottom of the mug) I also included a picture with the light reflecting off of it to show the slight texture I painted with the leaf’s veins and silver accents, to match the fellowship cloak pins.
There’s also Mallorn leaves climbing up the barrier under the handle where the map splits, and then on the exterior bottom of the mug I added Tolkien’s logo along with the designation of the map, my initials, and the year I spent painting it!
I had so, so much fun painting this, like… what an absolute delight to be devoted to this project for so long. I have so many in progress photos from various stages, and honestly I lost count of how many hours this took— but it meant almost a year’s worth of weekend visits to the pottery studio and getting to gradually see more and more of the map take shape on this mug!! I truly had so, so much fun with this and am so proud of how it turned out. I love this so much and had to share ♡
edited the post because I realized that I’d accidentally added one photo twice, and left out another photo: this has now been fixed! ♡
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