Eithel Meristem

The story of this character began in summer 2020 when I was building Mangee Primula and came up with those bat boots, high and thin. They didn't really fit the character thematically, but I liked their silhouette and they ended up in the WIP box. Things that end up in WIP box don't have very good chances of being really used, ever, but this figure didn't need to stand, so the cool boots with their one-stud (or module) wide footprints worked nicely. 

But now I'm getting ahead of myself. This character, Eithel Meristem, was once again built for New Elementary, specifically my article on Dots adhesive patches. The point was that the patched can be stuck into things (with a strong layer of glue under a cover sheet) to decorate them with tiles. I didn't need to decorate objects, but I wanted to try something new on a display methods aka have a model under of a shelf, not on top of it. I stuck one patch into the underside of my pinewood Lundia shelf and built Eithel who's sitting in a swing, not unlike those on elementary schoolyards. 

The best part on this idea was that I was up to build a sitting character, something I haven't done often; Hans Langseth comes to mind. Having a fixed sitting figure meant I could build a skirt without the challenge of fitting a poseable pair of upper legs inside of it, which gave me significant freedom of design. I'm very happy how the finished skirt flows. Other than the dress and upper legs, the figure is technically similar to normal poseable figs; there is even a theoretical waist twist joint, though the jacket prevents it from turning.

I used light nougat pieces on the shirt/dress top for their novelty value; it's quite close to the skin colour of the figure, but as this hue is relatively common in real-world clothing it didn't bugger me. The leather jacket with its bat collar is a call-back to the boots, and the flower embroidery on the sleeves gives it some detail and colour. I'm rather happy with the aqua hair, and the earphone bow uses new opan trans-green tiles from the set. I used black earmuffs to balance the darks of the colour scheme; otherwise the head could have been too light.

The sswing itself is a 4x8 affair with two short System chains connecting into Bionicle chain on both sides. The model was fun to balance, and the boots and the small chain orientation could be used to adjust it. Balancing worked better with one hand holding the chain - though with no real connections; I find this amusing, as it's actually hard to stay on a real-life swing without holding the real-world chain with a real-world hand.

-Eero.