Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Greetings rangers,

I finally took the step after about 5 years of lurking to sign up for an account and join the forums.

I'm part of a very small living history group who have been flirting with the side interest of Middle Earth reenactment for a while now. We strive for a consistently high level of accuracy in our living history kits meaning all of our clothing is period accurate, hand finished, made from period accurate material etc. We plan to bring the same approach to our Middle Earth kit incorporating a few items like higher boots, hooded cloaks, different weapons and the like for ME specific camps.

Most of our camping thus far has been done in our Viking/Anglo Saxon kit which works better than you might expect. We already camp as accurately as possible carrying our entire camp, starting fires from scratch, cooking on the trail etc so we hope this will just be a fun extension.

Thanks in advance for all the help I've already gained from the group and for all the help I'm going to receive here.

Steve

Welcome!

Gosh I have been admiring that star brooch of yours since I first saw it.

Good to see you here!

Welcome to the forum

Welcome Steve, where about is your group located ?

Welcome!

Welcome, Ranger Steve!

Rob

Welcome, Ranger!

Elleth wrote:Welcome!

Gosh I have been admiring that star brooch of yours since I first saw it.

Good to see you here!

Thanks Elleth, praise from the praiseworthy means we are probably on the right path.

Peter Remling wrote:Welcome Steve, where about is your group located ?

Newcastle Australia, about two hours north of Sydney. The climate here poses some interesting challenges for rangers but we're working through them.

I’m a little late, but welcome welcome welcome! I can’t wait to see more from your reenactment group! And as Elleth mentioned, I am absolutely in love with your Dunedain star brooch! At some point I’m going to have to cave and have a very similar one made for me, because yours is EXACTLY what I have always imagined them to look like.

So I just wanted to pop back in here to mention that I’m starting the process of getting my own Dúnedain star made (FINALLY), and I have decided to use yours heavily for inspiration, if that’s okay with you. I found a local foundry/jewelry maker who does a lot of beautiful custom work, and he has agreed to do one for me in silver-plated bronze (since pure silver would probably be too expensive for me at present). I showed him the pictures of yours, but I also mentioned that they were intended to be unique to your group, so he’s going to put a bit of his own spin on the design, using this image (attached) as another inspiration. I’ll probably end up with a garnet in the center of mine, similar to one you posted on FB. Anyway, I’m pretty excited to finally be getting this done, and I figured I’d let you know to keep an eye out for it!

Manveruon wrote:So I just wanted to pop back in here to mention that I’m starting the process of getting my own Dúnedain star made (FINALLY), and I have decided to use yours heavily for inspiration, if that’s okay with you. I found a local foundry/jewelry maker who does a lot of beautiful custom work, and he has agreed to do one for me in silver-plated bronze (since pure silver would probably be too expensive for me at present).

It's nice to be able to inspire someone whose gear is already at such a high standard Manuveron. I don't mind if you have shared our design, it's all coming from the same source anyway and there are only so many ways to portray an item that's only ever given a sentence or two in the lore. Interestingly that picture came up in our original design discussion but we felt the circle gave it too much of a sheriffs badge feel.

Ours are and will remain unique, like if someone copied your new jerkin, it would be similar but different.

You may want to inquire from your jeweler as to the price of pure silver. When we had ours made we were told that he only works in pure but that in the end the price would have been very comparable. I have both gilt and solid objects and I really do prefer the weight and feel of the solid silver.

Oh that's lovely...

I'd be curious to hear what your jeweler says as well, if you don't mind.

For what it's worth, another gemstone idea is green beryl, as left by Glorfindel on the Last Bridge in FotR. If memory serves, may have been the stone of the Elessar elfstone, and I think has a connection with the elves generally.

Sadly, though I once dove deep in researching those jewels, I can't recall more details at the moment.

Already mentioned this on facebook, but I'm going to need one if those if possible

I'll definitely keep folks updated about it! He said he has a few other projects on his plate first, but that he'll start some "sketches" in wax soon. I told him I really liked the number of points on the ones your group had made, Eofor, but that I was also fond of the circle motif, so we'll see what he does with that. I don't know why I never really thought about the "sheriff badge" thing before, but you're certainly not wrong. Even so, it doesn't bother me really, and I think the final result will be something unique enough that it won't be TOO reminiscent of that
As for materials, I'm just trying to keep my costs down as much as possible, and he was actually the one who suggested a garnet as being a good choice. A beryl is a really interesting idea though! It would be pretty cool to have a proper "elfstone" in there. I'll have to bring it up with him and see what he says. I'll also inquire about the price difference for pure silver, but he did indicate that he thought silver plated bronze would be the most cost-effective option.

Anyway, I'm excited to see what he comes up with, and I will keep you all informed! I'll probably start a new thread once I have something to report.