Tolkien "Welcome" Sign

You know that sign Bilbo Baggins has outside of his hobbit-hole in "The Fellowship of the Ring"? You know, the one that says "NO ADMITTANCE except on party business" before his hundred-and-eleventh birthday?

Well, I know that sign. I've wanted to do a version of it to put outside my own home for some time. As it turns out, August 2024 was the time for that happen.

In the film adaptation, Bilbo's sign is a simple canvas with hand-painted letters. I decided that my version would be less temporary, and withstand the elements. I decided to use a piece of wood as my canvas, with burnt-in lettering.

Now, I've never done any wood-burning art before, but I do own a soldering iron. So I was basically halfway there already. I was able to find a high-enough-quality image of the movie's original sign text, which I would use for tracing.

The styling and attention to detail in those films are so exquisite, I didn't want to do anything less than directly evoke the original: a direct copy of the lettering is exactly what I wanted to achieve, just on a more-refined display piece.

First, though, I wanted to get familiar with the technique of wood-burning. Using a test block of wood, I free-handed the text above.

I was happy with the initial results, and decided to dive directly into creating the actual piece.

I decided to try an image-transfer technique for the real piece. After printing out the image, I used the blunt side of a pencil to cover the backside of the transfer image with graphite.

Then, by tracing over the image (held securely in place), the graphite is transferred to the workpiece, ready for burning.

I did find it quite challenging to achieve an "even burn" in the colored areas.

Firstly, the iron would often get caught when transitioning over a grain line in the wood. I had to be careful, particularly when crossing these lines at a sharp angle, and take time to pause and burn into the dark, harder wood grain.

Secondly, I don't think I had the best tool for the job. I was using an electronics-style soldering tip, which didn't offer the right profile to use as a calligraphy-style tip. Also, it's sharp edges would often get stuck, particularly at the start of a burn. I found myself working quite slow to get the overall shapes I wanted, and the "shaded" region is filled with slashes and cuts where I had to take multiple passes with the iron. That does end up giving the piece more of a "rough-cut" appearance which isn't out of line with the films' aesthetic, so I don't actually hate it.

After completing the lettering, I decided to add some artistic flourishes to the design. I kind of just dove in without a plan, which bit me in the butt. I didn't love the flourishes, but just kept adding to them, hoping I could work them into something good. In the end, I don't love them. I wish I'd done some more planning and sketching at this stage of the project.

Ultimately, though, I decided to throw some finish on the piece and call it done. Maybe I'll remake it one of these days, with a clearer artistic vision.