Marika Schirmacher brings us this
necklace made from the scales of Falcor, the Luck Dragon. I really like the sculptural form she's using for the scales. That said, unless they were naturally shed I have to question their suitability as a talisman of good fortune.
That’s a nice prop idea for a film that is seldom mentioned in prop circles. The pearlescent finish is nice as well. A very, very light wash of black would give a bit of contrast to the texturing.
ReplyDeleteLike Frank L. Baum with his Wizard of OZ series, Michael Ende’s Die undeliche Geschichte aka The Neverending Story (1979 in German, 1983 in English) created a fantasy world whole cloth, which owed little to previous traditional fantasy stories in an attempt to create something that was as nearly as a complete break as could be accomplished. Reading Ende’s work leaves me with a feeling discontinuity, which I am not sure was the intent. It’s a weird book, which is part of the fun, but it’s also uneven, episodic and half-baked. Nonetheless it earns a spot on the bookshelf for the effort and its impact on modern fantasy. The live action movie of the book was a good attempt at something very difficult, outside of a pure CGI or animated film. Well maybe it’s with puppets such as in The Dark Crystal (1982), speaking of nontraditional fantasy. With Jim Henson & Frank Oz how can you go wrong?
For you prop makers, another interesting prop from The Neverending Story was the amulet which has the image of AURYN, seen as an Ouroboros. On the back was engraved “Tu, we du willst” (Do what thou will) a nod to Aleister Crowley’s credo. Apparently the talisman wasn’t AURYN itself, just a symbol of a concept, which along with the motto, are fairly advanced concepts for a children’s novel. BTW Crowley is an interesting character in his own right and well worth the lookup if you haven’t already. But I fear I stray, enough for now.
Well, three (3) scales, Props, seems likely enough to be natural. Snakes shed whole skins; why shouldn't a dragon shed scales here and there, perhaps when growing, or when scratching an itch, rubbing against rock, etc.?
ReplyDeleteNow, if this were only one of a mass-produced line, then I'd worry.
Rabbits' feet aren't naturally shed. -Just sayin'.
ReplyDelete@ CoastConFan - What you said about Neverending Story and then some - it always felt like the first book of a trilogy to me (and the film was a big disappointment, ending where it did).
ReplyDelete@ Rev. Marx - "Lucky Rabbit's Foot" ... it certainly didn't do the rabbit any good, did it?
As to the prop ... a nice piece that wouldn't look amiss around the neck od a New Age Wiccan or a Dark Ages reenactor. Perhaps a wash of grubby pink would increase the contrast without making the piece look dirty.
I wonder if anyone has ever considered producing Dragon Feathers? (Well, they do look rather dinosaur-like, after all).
@ CoastConFan :
ReplyDeleteThe physical amulet of the AURYN is on the cover of The Neverending Story done by Mille Cuirs, the creator of the Grand Tome of the Guild of Gaia shown here on June 29. (See also a very impressive The Call of Cthulhu.)
The motto "Do what thou wilt" is older than Aleister Crowley's use of it; he borrowed from preceding rogues. Quoting Wikipedia's "Thelema":
> In the Renaissance, a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of the Dominican monk Francesco Colonna. The protagonist Poliphilo has two allegorical guides, Logistica (reason) and Thelemia (will or desire). When forced to choose, he chooses fulfillment of his sexual will over logic. Colonna's work was a great influence on the Franciscan monk François Rabelais, who in the 16th century, used Thélème, the French form of the word, as the name of a fictional abbey in his novels, Gargantua and Pantagruel. The only rule of this Abbey was "fay çe que vouldras" ("Fais ce que tu veux", or, "Do what thou wilt"). In the mid-18th century, Sir Francis Dashwood inscribed the adage on a doorway of his abbey at Medmenham, where it served as the motto of The Hellfire Club. Rabelais' Abbey of Thelema has been referred to by later writers Sir Walter Besant and James Rice, in their novel The Monks of Thelema (1878), and C.R. Ashbee in his utopian romance The Building of Thelema (1910).
@ Alysson Rowan : "the film was a big disappointment, ending where it did"
ReplyDeleteTHE film? Well, the first film ended about halfway through the book.
But surely you saw the sequels ?
The Neverending Story II (1990)
The Neverending Story III (1994)
I will not link, and I urge you not to look up, the 15-episode (half-hour) animated TV series The Neverending Story from 1995. Not to be mistaken for that is the 2001-2002 live-action TV series "rebooting" the original story:
Tales from the Neverending Story