On a whim I went out and purchased some of those HP stick-on tattoos to decorate my iPod and make it stand out a little more in the crowds. You’d think I would make some festive design or maybe plaster on the logo of my favorite band, but no… I spent yesterday and today creating templates of various LoTR-related cultures. Why does this make me a geek? Well you can’t have a Middle-Earth iPod unless the text is in Elven format! So I downloaded the Tengwar Annatar and Sindarin fonts and got to work!
Currently my iPod bears the One Ring on its scrollwheel and Black Speech down its sides: “Ash nazg durbatulúk, ash nazg gimbatul” on one side and “ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul” on the other. Both in Tengwar Annatar font (seemed appropos plus it looks smoother than the other Quenya fonts).
I also created a House of Finwe look in silver/grey with Sam’s “A Elbereth” prayer in green and the House blazon in the center.
The third finished one is the King of Gondor. Black with stars in the background, the White Tree crowned centered on the scrollwheel and “Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien. Sinome maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn’ Ambar-metta!” in glowing white and blue runes.
Now I’m trying to think of the best look for Lothlorien. God I’m such a huge geek. :o
The Invented Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien
Drawings and Original Manuscripts from the Marquette University Collection
October 21- January 30, 2005
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Pictures are coming up. I only really feel like I’ve come close to finishing the Gondor theme so I’ll post that first (vastly reduced resolution from the monster I’ve got on my harddrive).
The other two, Zebra, say as follows:
Ash nazg durbatulúk, ash nazg gimbatul. Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them. One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
A Elbereth Gilthoniel o menel palan-diriel, le nallon O Elbereth Starkindler from heaven gazing-afar, to thee I cry
sí di-nguruthos! A tiro nin, Fanuilos! Now in the shadow of death. O look towards me, Everwhite!
The last piece is actually a shortening of a longer poem that I really wanted to use since it seemed to fit the Noldorian people. Sadly, I couldn’t find a way to integrate the two without making a mess of my ipod design.
Actually, Qadgop, it occurs to me that I had to lean heavily on the Tengwar Scribe software to translate Elvish in English to runes. Could you give my work a glance over and see what needs modification?
Here is a JPEG of the Gondorian theme. I wanted a metallic background but alo wished to keep the stars motif surrounding the White Tree symbol. Thus I had to compromise between the two, something I’m still tinkering with a little. Feedback is welcome!
PS: The white glow is actually much smoother in my Photoshop format. JPEG messed it up when the layers merged.
Well since no one seems to wanna post here I’ll toss up my One Ring theme and see what y’all think. I’ve still got some quibbles with the background texture, which I’d like to make look more burnt leather-y, but it has the basic idea
They’re basically similar in texture to photo paper but there’s a section that peels off the backing to reveal the adhesive. The two butterfly wings wrap around to the back of the iPod. You just stuff one in your printer and print a design you like. You can go online and have them format a photo for you or you can download the template (as I’ve done) and do it yourself. They also have a gallery of pre-made types that you can choose from.
That’s really the only major catch-22 situation. Yes they’re easy to remove if you don’t want to reuse them. If you do then you’ve got to be a lot more careful. The adhesive stays on the paper pretty well, so its possible but not necessarily the easiest of tasks.
Well of course its so easy to go high-techy using Photoshop just by being overwhelmed with all the gadgets and features, but I’ve tried to restrain myself as best I can.
I really like those! Especially the Gondorian one. Do you know if they make them for the version of the iPod with the touch-pad and the 4 round buttons? That’s the one I have.
I’ll toss up my One Ring theme and see what y’all think. I’ve still got some quibbles with the background texture, which I’d like to make look more burnt leather-y, but it has the 
