A while ago, I had started yet ANOTHER Skyrim build, and wanted to experiment with a new technique. I have alot of Sculpey laying around, and thought I would try and use some of it. The intent was to make my base form on a piece of thick clear acrylic, bake it with a heat gun, then pop it off and smooth it down, and add on the details. I was going to go this route to try and get as crisp and clean details as possible.

Unfortunately, I neglected in thinking ahead, and the piece was affixed to the acrylic after backing. I tried multiple methods of getting it off intact, but ultimately, failed. The piece cracked in an unusual manner, and I thought, ‘Huh, this looks like it could be used for something’, then tossed it as side for a rainy day.

The above photos show you the first initial set up of the prop, as you will see, it went through some minor changes. Originally I had thought of doing two separate metal pieces on the top, but could not decide what should go in either one, so I just made it a single piece. Since the Sculpey was already cured, all the work was done with a hobby knife and files, which made it a fairly easy build at that point.

Except, I couldn’t really decide on what to put down. The first big hurdle was the writing. While thinking of this piece, I knew I wanted some sort of untranslatable foreign language to be prominent on the artifact, but had a hard time figuring out how to make it all branch together. After getting some scans of some of Lovecraft’s drawings, and going to the library looking up ancient languages, I eventually settled on basing it off of the image of the ‘Elder Sign’, while doodling for the center piece.

Here’s why: I’ve always felt that the Elder Sign looked like a very archaic symbol, like it was first scratched into a cave wall by someones bloody finger nails to try and ward of the terror that was consuming the world. Since the mythos of Cthulhu is supposed to be so ancient, that made sense, also that perhaps, some form of secret language could be based off that single glyph. So I set forth working on variations of the Elder Sign, and began to etch it into the Sculpey with files. It took some time, but I was very pleased. I may go back at some point and try and do actual translations using those symbols for, well…something?

So here we are, the finished piece. I picture it as something a cultist may have found in an attempt to prove their devotion, and over the centuries its been worn down, cracked, lost, dirtied, yet the depiction of the Elder God seems to be the least blemished. The symbols on the back must baffle most archaeologists, as its more mechanical and unrelated to the glyph’s on the front. What a secret….

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