Premium contest/2021-08 - Music to my Ears

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Revision as of 09:16, 26 September 2021 by WOMBATSANDERS (talk | contribs) (Amatiste entry)
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Got a song in your head, and just need the right instrument to bring it to life? Well here's your chance to design one!

Here are the requirements:
1. Design a short (15/15/15) OR Long (up to 60 characters) description for an instrument. Note that the instrument MUST be genre-appropriate and able to actually exist in GemStone.
2. Design the LOOK of the instrument. This is what is seen when you LOOK at it. 400 characters max.
3. Design a short (15/15/15) OR Long (up to 60 characters) description for a container to hold the instrument from item 1 above. This container MUST use one of the following nouns: Case, Satchel, or Harness.
4. Design a second instrument following the same protocols and guidelines from item 1 above.
5. Design the LOOK of the second instrument. 400 characters max.
6. Design a container for the instrument from item 4 above, following the same rules and guidelines from item 3 above.
7. Pick ONE of your two instruments and give it a name. This name must be genre-appropriate and be something that would be appropriate to exist in GemStone.

Example of a submission:

1. a tiny brass flute.
2. The flute is highly polished, without a single hint of tarnish, though here and there variations in the hue of the material indicate heavy usage.
3. a mahogany flute case with brass hinges
4. a cracked ebony mandolin
5. The mandolin has a lengthy crack running along the body of the instrument. It has been inexpertly repaired, and is held together at one point with some sort of improvised adhesive.
6. a stained instrument harness
7. The mandolin's name is LUCKY.

Entries that do not conform to the above requirements will not be considered eligible.

Contestants have until 11:59 pm PT on September 3rd, 2021 to get entries submitted.

Winners

Here are the Premium Contest winners in alphabetical order:

  • Kalyrra
  • Laehna
  • Leifa
  • Lianea
  • Luxelle
  • Meliyara
  • Mnute
  • Raelee
  • Vincien
  • Ysaeril

Entries

Obelin:

1. a simple etched-bone flute
2. A closer inspection reveals that despite its simple decoration the flute was cunningly crafted by practiced hands and intricately etched with infinitesimal depictions of the hunt.
3. a raw leather harness
4. a fanciful clockwork symphonia with an incongruous crank
5. A dazzling array of strings, levers, buttons, keys, knobs, and assorted unidentifiable inputs cover every surface of the contraption, and still the massive black iron hand crank affixed to one end stands out.
6. a hefty metal case with multiple mismatched latches
7. The symphonia is named HURDY-GURDY

Traiva:

1. a painted harp with a dolphin-carved column
2. The playfully leaping dolphin is covered with pewter-hued stain, while the remainder of the harp is washed with pale green-blue paint.  The neck is further adorned with paintings of various sailing vessels, and each side of the soundboard bears the image of a young blonde woman wearing a draping teal gown hovering above white seafoam.
3. a sea green doeskin satchel lined with dark grey velvet
4. a jasper-inlaid lyre with feather shaped arms
5. Red and yellow jasper carved into pairs of wings are inlaid across the front and back of the bright green lyre's soundbox, surrounding a white chalcedony feather set in the center of each side.  The arms are carved into long feathers, the tips curving out away from the smooth yoke spanning between them.
6. a white leather satchel adorned with multicolored feathers
7. The lyre's name is SONGBIRD.

Luxelle:

1. a weathered cedar dulcimer featuring scrimshaw tuning pegs
2. Gleaming ivory frets span across the darker finger board in their precise spacing under the strings. Several mother-of-pearl inlays decorate the instrument's fretboard, looking like sails. The two pairs of soundholes are mirrored dolphin shapes upon the smoothly polished soundboard top. 
3. an oiled thrak hide case clasped with verdigris latches
4. a scrimshaw fife carved with tiny ships afloat on wavecrests
5. Except for the areas around the finger holes, which are worn smooth, the small hand-carved tube contains detailed miniatures of masted vessels at sea. Wavecrests entwine around the various ships with the small and large sprays of an undulating ocean. The design of this masterpiece of craftsmanship wraps seamlessly around the hollowed out body of the entire instrument.
6. a small rolled leather case
7. The fife's name is Firesong

Jaysehn:

1. a kelyn-cranked/cocobolo/hurdy gurdy
2. Appearing like something akin to a large, rectangular music box, the hurdy gurdy's body has been lacquered to bring out the natural beauty of the distinct grain of the cocobolo wood. The keybox is covered in mother-of-pearl which has been carefully painted with a dizzying array of cherry blossom florals, which cover delicately carved kelyn keys.
3. a rigid/velnalin-suede/case with embossed floral arabesques
4. a pear-shaped/glowbark/hurdy gurdy
5. So faint it appears to be illusory, a gentle glow emanates from the glowbark body of this exquisite instrument. The crank is a single piece of moon-hued silver with a matte finish that disappears seamlessly into the instrument's casing. It's keybox is set with ghostly blue glowbark leaves and then layered over with clear lacquer preserving their haunting beauty for all time.
6. a soft/brushed-suede/harness covered in cloth-of-vaalin
7. The glowbark hurdy-gurdy is named 'Dew of the Morning Star’ 

Vincien:

1. a black willow lyre with flame-shaped laje pegs
2. The lyre is designed in the classical style with a hollow body fashioned from black willow and connected across the top by a yoke of reddish-gold kakore. The strings stretch from the yoke to the bridge and are tightened by a series of polished laje pegs shaped into tongues of flame. 
3. a slim kakore case with a flame-embossed leather strap
4. a slender fife crafted from pale persimmon wood
5. Fashioned from the younger heartwood of a persimmon tree, the fife consists of six finger holes and an embouchure hole. Each end has been decorated with a series of thin gold-inlaid rings, serving as both an adornment and protection against wear and tear. 
6. a narrow marquetry case cornered in burnished gold
7. INFERNO (for instrument #1)

Amatiste:

1. velnalin hide bagpipes
2. These bagpipes are made with velnalin hide bellows, saddle stitched with black leather, haon wood blowpipe, and highly polished maoral chanter and two drone pipes. The chanter is embellished with ora rings and seals.
3. The case is avelnalin hide case, stretched over an expanding metal frame, carried over the shoulder.
4. old mesille fiddle
5. This old fiddle has passed through time. The wood needs shined; the board needs new fittings. But it still has an echo of a fine sound. There is a brass plate on the back.
6. A scuffed, weather beaten, many-patched case with a shoulder strap made from a baldric.
7. The fiddle has been named Sea Mist.