The Tablets are Done!!!

Okay, so I'm fully aware that these are awful pictures, but I'm so excited that they're finally done I just don't really care. :)

Here's the story: I made up a language. Mostly it was for fun, but it also happened to work for a school project, which gave me a helpful deadline. For the project, I was unable to complete the language as I would have liked. It was just way too time consuming. Instead, I created the basics of the language, along with many pages of words. I then wrote the beginning of a story, created these tablets, translated the beginning of that story into my language, and then etched the seven verses into these tablets. They were still drying when it came time to turn in the project, so I had to settle for doing rubbings of them and pictures and placing them into a binder to show the work I had done. The semester ended, I inexplicably lost 15 points (out of 200) off of the project (which I'm still bitter about and don't completely understand) and my tablets finished drying. Question: What do you do with 7 random tablets that you worked very hard on but that really have no purpose? You call your Mom and she gives you the brilliant idea to finish them and, when you have a yard, to display them outside. Wonderful! And so, I laboriously cleaned each of them, took them to be fired, gave them 3 coats of glaze, took them to be fired again, and ended up with cool yard decorations!

Interestingly, I calculated it out today, and, including the paint, tools, both firings, and initial clay, I spent just over $30 on this project. Not bad, really.

Anyway, the translation for these tablets is below:

In the beginning, so named because it was the beginning as we understood it, there were five peoples. We lived separately. Each people enjoyed their responsibilities and the talents that came with those responsibilities.

We, of course, were the Earth People, charged with the gathering and keeping of knowledge and talented in working Earth.

Our closest neighbors, across the Great River to the East, were the Water People. They were charged with growth, the growth of people, of plants and animals, and of all of life. To this end, they were talented in working and manipulating water.

Beyond them, and to the North, lived the Spirit People, to whom were given the talent and charge of healing in all its forms.

To our South dwelt the Air People, whom were loved by all. Theirs was the task of friendship, of love, and of communication. Thus did they work Air.

Toward the setting sun in the West, as though they were drawn toward the color of their own element, lived the Fire People, charged with justice, but feared, for they were the bringers and manipulators of fire, and often of death.

Despite our differences and the space between us, we lived in peace and discovery and understanding of each other, in the beginning.