Sebastian writes: Today the Christchurch Press has a feature about the South Island’s involvement in LOTR, here’s an article about the making of the One Ring prop:
RINGMAKER
The ring is the thing that all the excitement is about, on screen at least, and when it’s flashed around the world’s movie screens from next week, audiences will be seeing the results of craftsmanship practised in a small jewellery studio near the cathedral in central Nelson.
But Thorkild Hansen, who runs Jens Hansen Jeweller, is unmoved by the fuss surrounding this particular piece of work.
It may be about to become the movie world’s most famous piece of jewellery, but “at the end of the day, it’s just another ring”, he argues.
Hansen and his father, Jens (who died in 1999), were approached by a member of the Rings production team and asked if they could make the movie’s centrepioece.
They knew the story – father had read it to son years earlier – and they produced 15 prototypes for the movie makers to choose from, all variations of a simple, plain gold band (the engraving which features on it in the film was added digitally).
About 35 versions of the rinal ring were created. With a large number of different actors wearing it throughout the three movies, different sized copies were needed to fit different sized fingers, and spares produced in case of losses.
Hansen has kept the original and it sits on his workshop bench, “like a paperweight”.
