Seven Dwarf-rings of Power

Although there are many interpretations of what the dwarf-rings would have looked like I started by making a moodboard of dwarvish artefacts.

Using text sources, I was able to create a pretty good idea what they would have looked like.

'The nine, the Seven and the Three, each had their proper gem.'

Fellowship of the Ring - The Council of Elrond

'It is said that the foundation of each of the Seven Hoards of the Dwarf-kings of old was a golden ring'

The Silmarillion - Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

In addition to this, I know that Sauron created the rings with each race in mind so possibly would have ordered them to be made with personal touches to them in order for them to be received well by each race. For the dwarf-rings I chose to have the gem encased in stone as the dwarves are famously good miners within this universe and seemed a good fit for this design.

I found a store selling their interpretation of the dwarf-rings of power so I used this image to choose the gemstones within the ring

I lined the band with sharp dwarvish decorative symbols which I created with the use of my moodboard.

Since I enjoyed making the inscription for the One Ring, I chose to place an inscription on both sides of the band. I adapted it from 'The King Beneath the Mountain' poem to fit with the 7 dwarf-lords and then converted it to Cirth runes using this online translator. The inscription reads: 

The kings beneath the mountains,

The kings of carven stone,

The lords of silver fountains,

Shall come into their own.

 

While modelling this prop I've made a few observations; having concept art to work from is helpful when it comes to the details of the asset however, this is very restrictive creatively. I have also realised that I have become very used to working very conservatively with the number of polys within my asset and feel I am still being too restrictive for this project. For my next asset I will try to throw that aside and work regardless of polys.