As long as I was in Harry Potter mood, decided to counterfeit some Hogwarts acceptance letters. It seemed like an easy enough task – printer, glue, tea-stained paper and vualia. Nothing is easy when you get in to details...
The first idea was to just stain the paper in tea and this is it. But then – do they really stain paper in Hogwarts? This started a search for the right parchment. For reference I used a contrast between the Hogwarts envelope and other postal envelope which was in standard white. I took some looking around in various art shops, but I found parchment in right contrast.
The envelope itself has a beautiful shape, which I drew up on AutoCAD and imported Photoshop to add a Hogwarts envelope stamp. Somehow I couldn't find the stylistically right stamp on the net (for example, in movie prop, the wings of griffin should be blended in), but combining couple of existing ones and some Photoshop it was looking something like the one in the movie prop.
Making of the stamp was perhaps the most challenging part. I know, you could buy one, but what’s the fun in that? And there really isn’t many stamps with a Hogwarts “H” (used in the movie) instead of Hogwarts coat of arms. I drew it up on a small wooden knob, sanded to the right diameter and got to work with my soldier as a woodburner. No luck. Dremel came to help, but with my shaky hands and rough engraving tips it really wasn’t looking good. I also tried using a cut off plastic screwdriver handle, hoping that maybe it would be easier to carve, but failed there too.
The results got better after buying a smaller engraving tip. They were nowhere near a real stamp, but were ok enough. I sprayed it with a lot of lack to fill the texture in.
Emerald green ink was used for writings in the letter and address. I got as close as possible to the right color, although it’s not a perfect fit. Should I use a quill or an ink pen? The quill would be an ideologically right tool, but the parchment I have chosen was too thin for a quill and I had to settle on an ink pen. Also, I just couldn't get beautiful bends with a feather. This was a problem because quill influences the font a bit and ink pen gives evenly thick line, which is not correct. Not good, but will have to to for this time :/ (strict deadlines...).
The envelope with an address printed on looked very fake. That was a disappointment, but also a challenge. I decided to draw/write the address myself and after some analyzing of the address font, it looked ok. Not great, but much better than a printed one.
The same went for the acceptance letter itself. There are couple of beautiful shots of the font and it’s interesting figuring out what makes the font. For me it mostly was flowing t,d,g,y,j,f,l,b letters. Some trying out latter I was getting something similar. One Minerva McGonagall sign letter and it was good to go. Supply letter was just printed on because I wanted it too look like standard delivered to all students.
Let’s put a stamp on it and here’s what we have…
Oh, and somehow it seemed right to add a couple of marks on the envelope, to make it look like it was carried by an owl. Owls have some serious claws and it seems that they would leave a mark on a paper. I don’t think that recipient will get this, but if he/she does… It’s all in the details. Some weather protection was also needed, cause it's a wet season now and that ink really hates water.
So these do have a lot of problems, but for now they’ll do. I’ll fix all the details when I get my real one... ;]
