“Daedric Runes” Purse

Day 217 of my artwork retrospective

“Embrace Chaos Daedric Runes Purse” acrylic, canvas, steel wire, satin © Donna McVicar Kazo and Christianna R. Cannon

Following my posts from the last couple of days, may I present my daughter Christianna’s version of my “Embrace Chaos” purse that we carried at her cousin Amanda’s wedding rehearsal dinner in Los Angeles a few years ago. Christianna is also an artist and writer and we enjoy occasional collaborations, such as these unique evening bags. Both purses were real conversation starters!

As with my purse, I created the chain by forming shapes with 16-gauge annealed steel wire and hammering them until they were extremely strong. Her chain is a wee bit shorter than mine.

This purse also started as a piece of sized artist’s canvas which received a vigorous layer of paint or three. Please note the work in progress photos below the finished purse.

Christie chose something a bit different for her purse — the words still read “Embrace Chaos” as on my purse (discussed yesterday) but they’re written in Daedric, a fictional alphabet from the Elder Scrolls series of RPGs.

She chose Daedric because the Elder Scrolls series has been her favorite since TES III: Morrowind was released over 20 years ago. She feels the series has the deepest, most detailed setting ever created for a video game.

If you know the lore, Daedric is especially appropriate for the idea of embracing chaos because it originates with the Daedra, immortal spirit beings from other realms. They are often chaotic creatures, and most are neither good nor evil, but more like capricious genies that like to mess with people who try to call upon them.

Daedric is also fun to use because the typography allows for some weird layouts. The first letter of the word is often placed in the center. This is what’s on the purse, front and back.

You can see the full alphabet with more examples of its usage at this link on the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages.

I wish I had taken a photo of how she protected her lettering from the subsequent layers of paint. Like on my blockier text yesterday, Christie used blue painter’s tape to mask the letters, but as you can see from the shapes, she had to cut them with great care. It’s lined with black satin and is about 8" by 9" which is a good size for an evening purse.

Tomorrow, the purses we made for the actual wedding ceremony, which are much tamer but still super cool!