Forever Shining...

This week I may well have conceived of the nerdiest endeavor of nerdery that I may ever attempt in my life of nerdiness. I mean, trying to become fluent in Sindarin and Quenya at 12 and creating your own universe to harness with your own table top game system are pretty damn nerdy. But this, this could quite possibly take the cake.

My Megatokyo bag is getting old. I got it for my birthday in my junior year of high school. That makes it five years old. It's certainly holding up well. The only thing that's wrong with it is the lining is starting to come out a bit and some of the rubber strapping on the underside of the grip on the handle has broken (the thick pieces on either end is still intact so the grip isn't about to come off any time soon). But, it is dirty as hell and the corners are starting to fray to the point that on one I think I can feel the corner of my binder through it. To be fair to the poor thing, I've abused it on multiple fronts. Loaded it full of more books than the stitching should have been able to hold; tossed it around on rough, smooth, soft, and hard surfaces alike. But, it's getting old, and soon to die. Also, I don't really read Megatokyo any more. There came a point where not only my tastes changed, but things got too convoluted for me to stick around for the arcs and characters I still cared about.

For a long time, I've wanted a leather bag, especially if it was bigger than good ole Mega-T. My current bag has just the right amount of pockets and slots for all the things I need. Being a girl that loathes purses with a passion and all that they stand for, I use my pockets a lot (I actually own and use a bi-fold wallet). But I also realize that my pockets are not deep anough for everything I should carry on a regular school day; and while cargo pants are awesome, the ammount of crap I need to carry would require a locking iron band to hold my pants up on my waist. So, Mega-T has all the pockets I need, but it's just plain not big enough for all the books and crap I sometimes need to carry. And leather, you can't deny leather. Mmmm, leather...

Anyway, I've recently had an introductory class to leather working and now am in possession of a packet with leather tips and a list of things all leather workers should have in their kit. I've also spied out my local leather working shop and began plotting. Plotting like mad... After I finished The Silmarillion I found myself happily occupied with thoughts of Arien and Tilion: the navigators of the sun and the moon (among other thoughts). They are great artistic fodder, especially, in my opinion, Tilion. The description of his wild speed and waywardness in wanting to draw close to Arien ("Hey baby, how you doin'?") just makes me giggle. So... Here spawned my idea:

The Narsilion bag.

On the flap would be a tooled image of Telperion and Laurelin, some Sindarin phrase (still to be determined). The flap and back (all one piece) would be edged in a Quenya translation of a few sentences in the Silmarillion concerning Telperion and Laurelin's last flower and fruit. The strap I'm not sure about, I may do some elvish-style knot work on there, or another translated phrase. But! On the left side would be Arien and on the right would be Tilion. And, in my infinite over achieverness, gold and silver foil would be employed on the sun and moon, on Arien's jewelry, on Tillion's bracers and spear tip, and on the images of the trees in little spots to give the impression of the flowers and fruits.

Oh dear God, my hands are exploding just thinking about having to do that.

But it would be SO EPIC.

I don't plan to start this any time soon. Far from it: I'm totally broke right now. This may take a long time, but the plans are being laid and the sketches begun (I may redo Tilion, he didn't come out like I wanted). I'll tag more posts as Narsilion as the project progresses.