Hand Made replica of Bag End

Background:

This all began when I was a young child and read the Hobbit for the first time. I believe I was about 10 and I was instantly hooked. My Nanan lent me her copy of the Lord of the Rings about 1 year later and I remember thinking that the trilogy leaped into a far more complex world and one that I completely lost myself in. I have read Lord of the Rings about 20+ times now and each time it holds as much magic as the first time. When they announced that they were making a movie, I was really concerned that it would not live up to my imagination and that I would be disappointed. As it happens, it did not fully live up to my expectations, but when Gandalf visited Bag End in the Fellowship of the Rings, I could have cried with excitement because it was PERFECT and nearly exactly as I imagined!

Anyway I decide to take on this project as part of a college course I was doing part time when my twins boys were 1 year old. The module was called 'the importance of play' and we had to make a toy to hand in at the end of the term. Of course me being me, I took it to the extreme and at first I decided to make a little hill with a front door like Bag End. I used to play Warhammer and make scenery and paint the little models so the idea was to make an A4 type size model hill using my Warhammer scenery stuff (foam, static grass etc) I can just hear my friend Andi rolling her eyes at me and calling me 'geek', but apparently I was born this way and I don't think I will ever change lol

Then I thought, well what if I made the roof removable and had a little room inside? then of course I started drawing up plans and added more rooms and then decided 'what the hell?' I might as well make a replica of the one from the movie and make it big enough to fit in dolls house type furniture!
I decided to make everything by hand - the frame, the garden outside, the furniture (as much as I could), the food and it has been a real labour of love and I have found something I truly enjoy doing. I have always been 'crafty' and enjoy painting etc, but this captures my imagination even more!
And so, a year later I have a nearly finished replica of Bag End. I still have quite a bit of work to do on it, but I think it can be classed as an ongoing project that I can improve over the years (yes I am a perfectionist when it comes to things that I make!)






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