Our one and only grammaboodawg shared her latest Tolkien project with us, which came about after raccoons chewed a hole in her garage roof. ” I wanted to share my latest project. I repaired and reshingled my garage roof over the past couple of months. It’s still a work in progress… to be continued this coming Spring; but I had to show you! My neighbours just don’t understand 😉 ”
Luckily we all do 🙂
Kelvarhin: What made you decide to decorate your garage with Tolkien designs?
grammaboodawg: I seem to always being looking for chances to include Middle-earth images and cues that I can enjoy everyday. When it popped in my head to try it with a hodgepodge of shingles I gathered… I just figured I’d go for it.
Originally I hadn’t planned on doing the re-shingling until next year, and then it would have all been charcoal black. I planned to buy shingles during the winter a few bundles at a time. All I planned to do now was to fix a huge hole in the corner of the roof where raccoons had chewed through. But I found the damage and condition of the roof was more extensive than I thought and had to be fixed before Winter. So shingling wasn’t something I thought about doing until much later.
It’s pretty expensive to re-shingle. I already had a few dark green ones from when I re-shingled my house about 5 years ago. I found some light green square shingles, bought 4 damaged bundles at 75% off in 4 different colors and finished with all charcoal black. That left me with a collection of 7 different colors, textures and shapes to work with. Dark green, charcoal black, pale green, light grey, light brown, medium brown, and textured green. I knew it was going to look horrible, but I had to get that roof covered now!
I was originally just going to do a patchwork pattern over the whole roof (BORING), but then I wondered what else I could do with them? That’s when the image of a hobbit hole with a green door came into my head! I love Hobbiton and how all those hobbit holes pop out of every hill. I did a quick sketch with ideas of what to do with the different colors and was surprised when I suddenly knew it would work! So it was all pretty organic and unexpected. It took on a life of its own and never would have happened if those nasty raccoons hadn’t attacked my garage roof!
Kelvarhin: When did you start it?
grammaboodawg: I started repairing the roof in mid September and started shingling the hobbit-hole environ a week later.
Kelvarhin: How did you decide what images you would use?
grammaboodawg: I knew I wanted a hobbit hole, so I started with that. I used the pale green square shingles for the front, dark green for the door, bushes and grass; medium brown for the trim on the door/windows, chimney, path to the door, and tree trunks; light brown became the road that goes ever on from one end of the garage to the other. The light grey became a silver lake (representing Valinor’s rain that turned to silver glass). Charcoal black is the background for all. I was stuck on what to do with the textured green, but suddenly realized it would be a perfect Party Tree, so I added that!
Kelvarhin: How long has it taken to make?
grammaboodawg: After repairing the roof, I worked on shingling weekends and after work on weekdays for about 4 weeks. It took about 3 weeks to do the environ and almost a week to do the other side of the roof in all charcoal black. It’s unfinished, though. I’m doing more to it when it warms up in the Spring.
Kelvarhin: What materials have you used?
grammaboodawg: Except for some roofing sealant and a wooden post knob that became a door knob, it’s all shingles and nails.
Kelvarhin: Do you have any other Tolkien designs planned or already in place?
grammaboodawg: Yes. I already put Tolkien’s monogram or symbol on the roof of my house after re-shingling that. I’m going to add more elements and details to my hobbity environ in the Spring. During this Winter, I’m going to make a shingle red dragon that will go on the blank space by the Party Tree and maybe a wizard and a hobbit or two. The dragon will be the only thing I’ll have to spray paint to get the right color.
Do you have a Tolkien inspired project you’ve created or are working on, why not tell us about it at spymaster@theonering.net
