Welly-moot #4.4 Mid-Year Christmas

On Sunday the 26th of July, the Welly-moot was held at the home of myself & Alex. I didn't mention this at the moot, but it was our 30th Tolkien get-together! Rather than a "proper" Tolkien-related theme, it was more of a purely social gathering this time, for existing members to get together and enjoy spending a very pleasant afternoon in each other's company.


Not much to report really; the food was excellent - thank you everyone for your contributions - and the conversation flowed well. A very special thank you to Cathy from Canada (not present at the moot, unfortunately) for providing the most excellent Maple flavoured coffee - I'd been saving it for a special occasion. :)


We all had an opportunity to meet with some of the regular members' less regular partners, which was really nice. I also had a chance to show off some of the more precious things in my collection, which seemed to be enjoyed by the group.


No real news to report this month. I'm still in talks with the relevant people about our special upcoming event (!), and I'm hoping to finally be able to go public on that soon. Keep watching this space!

One item - you may have noticed that the official Welly-moot pins, designed by our own member Annabel, are no longer available in Silver, just in the Bronze. If you don't have yours yet, order one soon! They look fantastic. To place an order, just click the "Add to Cart" button on the right hand side of the Welly-moot.com site.

For the people who had contacted me wanting to join this meeting but where not yet members - the next Welly-moot will be held as a normal meeting, with new members accepted again. Details are on our Calendar page.

I think the last meeting of this year, in November, will be a special one - it will mark the 5th anniversary of the existence of the group. Might have to have some prizedraws for that one!

Also: I'm taking suggestions for our September Welly-moot theme! Email/facebook message me!


  - Jack

Welly-moot goes to Armageddon!

Armageddon is in full swing.

That sounded wrong. I don't mean the end of the world is nigh - Armageddon is Wellington's annual fantasy convention. This year, it was held at the Westpac Stadium (where some of the Lord Of The Rings' sound effects were recorded, back in 1999).

I'd spoken about the event to Annabel Graham, the jeweller who has created our gorgeous badges for us (see right-hand side-bar, here on our blog). Annabel had offered a bit of wall space from her Whovian Jewellery stand for our banner, and I had two days off between LOTR-touring to help her out a bit, so I decided to take her up on her offer.

The event started today (Saturday), so on Friday we came to set up the stand.

The Welly-moot banner was still on bamboo sticks from the last event, which I thought might help hold it up, but in the morning it had fallen over. Luckily I'd brought some tacks in with me, which solved the problem completely.

Pic: At 8:30am, the queues had already started; the show wouldn't open until 10:00am!

I spent a fun (if tiring) Saturday with Annabel, discussing rather a lot of Doctor Who with rather a lot of Doctor Who fans.

I didn't take photos of all the Doctor Who fans, but here's a few special visitors for the Welly-moot. Pay special attention to the last two photos! :)

Pic: Welly-mooters Erin & Erika were the first to say hello, and promptly bought their Welly-moot badges

Pic: Welly-mooter Wayne soon appeared as well, in appropriate attire.

Pic: Welly-mooter Cinnamon came to say Hello as well. Apparently Ash was there as well but I arrived too late with my camera.

Pic: Oh, and did I mention Radagast the Brown? Radagast the Brown also came by.

Pic : Although what possible appeal a Doctor Who Jewellery store would hold for Sylvester McCoy is beyond me. ;)

All in all, a fun day, and we got to meet some awesome people. Apart from the obvious, we also ran into "our" Riventroll sculptor Kim Beaton who was doing live sculpting demonstrations with the newly named concrete "Pal Tiya", and Weta effects wizard Gino Acevedo. If you are in Wellington for the next two days, make your way to the Westpac Stadium - over the next few days there will be a lot more Hobbit actors around!

  - Jack

Welly-moot Pins

The Welly-moot badge is available!

As you can see to the right of this (and every) post, we now have the Welly-moot pins available for sale, directly through this blog (if you're reading this through Facebook, Google+, RSS, or any other way, and you don't see the links, please come to the blog itself on www.welly-moot.com).

pic: This is the bronze pin.

The standard Bronze pin is 25mm wide, and will set you back $22 (including p/p), or if you want it in Sterling Silver, that's $52 (including p/p).

If you're ordering from overseas, add an extra $8.50 for international shipping, by adding the shipping amount to your shopping cart.


All amounts are in New Zealand Dollars, and will be converted automatically by your bank (though they may charge you a small fee, I guess). Let me know if there's any problems!


The payments go directly to the artist Annabel Graham (who designed it for us), with a small amount coming back to the group as well, to (not actually) cover our expenses.

If you're not yet a member of our little group, you can still buy the badge - we think it's too cool not to share!


So wear your Welly-moot pin with pride! I expect to see a few at the next meeting!