D'ni monograms by yours truly

mathiusdragoon · **Joined:** Wed Dec 23, 2015 5:16 am **Posts:** 30

Any second now Larry is going to turn into one of those brooding artist types on DeviantArt and saying "no! I only do commisions now!" :mrgreen:

larryf58 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 04, 2016 1:23 am

Of course not! I won't brood about it. :lol:

larryf58 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 04, 2016 2:22 am

Here's a bit of trivia.

When I create these, I don't necessarily make one element and copy it to paste several times. The symbols are aligned in their containers and the containers are aligned around the rosette by hand and by eye. Same with the monogram itself. Partly that's because some of them have to placed by hand to fit properly, but there's another reason.

In American Indian tradition, particularly that of the desert Southwest, it's believed that small imperfections have to be purposefully left in an artwork, or the soul of the artist might become trapped in the piece. The deliberate mistakes are escape routes to keep the work from being too perfect. While I don't really believe that my soul will be trapped by these, I honor that tradition anyway by doing many of the measurements without any kind of a ruler.

In Acorn's piece, you may be able to see that each bee has been aligned by guess and by golly. None are in exactly the same place in their containers. The containers themselves were aligned by eye as well, although I used a software tool to make sure that the north, south, east and west containers are all centered across the disk vertically for the north and south ones, and horizontally for the east and west ones. I used them to guess the spacing for the diagonal containers.

mathiusdragoon · **Joined:** Wed Dec 23, 2015 5:16 am **Posts:** 30

larryf58 wrote:

Here's a bit of trivia.

When I create these, I don't necessarily make one element and copy it to paste several times. The symbols are aligned in their containers and the containers are aligned around the rosette by hand and by eye. Same with the monogram itself. Partly that's because some of them have to placed by hand to fit properly, but there's another reason.

In American Indian tradition, particularly that of the desert Southwest, it's believed that small imperfections have to be purposefully left in an artwork, or the soul of the artist might become trapped in the piece. The deliberate mistakes are escape routes to keep the work from being too perfect. While I don't really believe that my soul will be trapped by these, I honor that tradition anyway by doing many of the measurements without any kind of a ruler.

In Acorn's piece, you may be able to see that each bee has been aligned by guess and by golly. None are in exactly the same place in their containers. The containers themselves were aligned by eye as well, although I used a software tool to make sure that the north, south, east and west containers are all centered across the disk vertically for the north and south ones, and horizontally for the east and west ones. I used them to guess the spacing for the diagonal containers.

Cool that reminds me of a similar tradition in Buddhist art where they deliberately introduce imperfection and randomness because of the implications in their philosophy.

larryf58 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 04, 2016 9:50 pm

Oh, and just in case there's any misunderstanding... I have no intention of charging for these. That was just a joke.

For one thing, I can't accept money for them and still post about them in this forum; Cyan's policies prohibit that.

mathiusdragoon · **Joined:** Wed Dec 23, 2015 5:16 am **Posts:** 30

larryf58 wrote:

Oh, and just in case there's any misunderstanding... I have no intention of charging for these. That was just a joke.

For one thing, I can't accept money for them and still post about them in this forum; Cyan's policies prohibit that.

I got what you meant!

larryf58 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:30 am

Here's a blank one I made this week just for the heck of it. It wasn't made with anyone in mind.

It has space for four to eight personal glyphs. In the center, the monogram itself can be all in the smaller disk with a slogan in the ring around it, or a large monogram overlapping the center all the way out to the first gear-tooth pattern. The color isn't set; it can be changed to any color that contrasts well with the gold metallic overlays, and the metal color can also be changed to match other color schemes.

I've put a flavor text in it just to show the general idea. Bonus points to anyone who can figure out what the flavor text means.

Tai'lahr · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2016 3:32 am

larryf58 wrote:

Bonus points to anyone who can figure out what the flavor text means.

[Reveal] Spoiler: I'll give it a shot.

freh yahr okh vokahnehm yehr hahr rahm b'fahsee

Literal translation: On the day of birth you may(we wish that) year good to twenty-five(great).

On your birthday, we wish that year great.
OR
On your birthday, we wish you a great year.

larryf58 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2016 3:52 am

Tai'lahr wrote:

I'll give it a shot.

Very, very close. Congratulations!

[Reveal] Spoiler:

The only mistakes you made: -ehm means "your", not "you" and "yer", as a root word with no suffix, implies "I", not "we". But you got the spirit of it spot on in the last version of your translation. I was shooting for "On your birthday, I wish you a great year".

korovev · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2016 12:49 pm

Slight correction:

[Reveal] Spoiler:

.freyahrokh vokanom yer hahr rahm b’fahsee

KathAveara · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2016 12:50 pm

*D'ni linguist hat*

[Reveal] Spoiler:

-em is actually "you" as the subject of a verb, not the possessor of a noun. For that you want -om. You also probably want erþhar (meaning "a year")

(Ninja'd by Korov'ev)

Tai'lahr · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:06 pm

All I can say is I'm glad I got to work it out before the linguists arrived. :wink:

It was fun working it out even if I didn't get it perfect. Thank you for posting it, Larry.

larryf58 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:29 pm

Now that the cat's well and truly out of the bag, this is what the flavor text says (after a couple of corrections):

freyarok vokanom yer erThar ram b'fasE
frehyahrokh vokahnom yehr ehrthhar rahm b'fahsee
on-the-day-of birth-your (I)-wish-it a-year good to-twenty-five

Meaning, "On your birthday, I wish you a great year"

I've been writing variations of this on Facebook when explorer's birthdays have been coming up.

larryf58 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2016 2:35 pm

korovev wrote:

Slight correction:

[Reveal] Spoiler:

.freyahrokh vokanom yer hahr rahm b’fahsee

Yeah, that was a typo on my part, working off memory without my note I'd made up about the phrase.

larryf58 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 06, 2016 11:32 pm

Another unassigned monogram. I was playing with the cog shape again, this time to get a sunburst look. I wanted to see if an open center with the monogram suspended in it would look good. As a contrast with the previous design, I went with simple and raised instead of complex and flat for the overlays.

Both of these are up for grabs if someone wants their name or initials in 'em.

D'ni monograms by yours truly

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