<P> The Art Department was careful to respect nature, considering its importance to Tolkien, such as taking plants from the Edoras location into a nursery . They would sometimes mould shapes from real rocks and bark too, and take branches into a steel structure with polystyrene for more convincing prop trees . Brian Massey led the Greens Department, and even wrote a booklet on tree growth when he complained of the props "being too coney" for Lothlórien when time came to for Fangorn forest . The numerous props within the trilogy are all originally designed at different scales, and many craftsmen were hired, most notably Jens Hansen Gold & Silversmith to create 15 replicas of The One Ring . Contemporary jeweller Jasmine Watson created other significant pieces of jewellery, including the Evenstar worn by Arwen, and Nenya, the ring of Galadriel . Statues were sculpted out of polystyrene, although some thrones seen in the trilogy are in fact crafted out of marble, stone and wood as they would be . A former bank worker named Daniel Reeve was hired to write the numerous books, spines, documents, maps, diagrams and even Orc graffiti that appear in the trilogy . </P> <P> Jackson hired longtime collaborator Richard Taylor to lead Weta Workshop on five major design elements: armour, weapons, prosthetics / make - up, creatures and miniatures . Notable among the concept artists were Daniel Falconer and Warren Mahy, who enjoyed creating the forces of good and evil respectively . Jamie Beswarick and Mike Asquith also helped with the maquettes, as well as Ben Wooten with his extensive zoology knowledge, amongst many others . </P> <P> John Howe was the supervisor on armour, having studied and worn it . Stu Johnson and Warren Green made 48,000 pieces of armour from the numerous molds of plate steel, as well as a small group who spent 3 years linking plastic chain mail (eventually wearing their thumbprints away). Peter Lyon also forged swords, each taking from three to six days, creating spring steel "hero" swords for close - ups, aluminium fight swords and rubber versions too . Weta also created 10,000 real arrows and 500 bows . Howe even created a less crude type of crossbow for the Uruk - hai (the first army approved), based on a 16th - century manuscript . </P> <P> Weta created numerous pieces of prosthetics, and would have to monitor them on set too . They created 1800 Orc body suits to go with 10,000 Orc heads, lasting six days and one day respectively . Weta also spent a year creating Hobbit feet that would look like furry feet yet act as shoes for actors . In total, 1800 pairs were used by the four lead actors during production . Actors would also go in for face casts to create pointed ears and false noses . Most extensive was John Rhys - Davies as Gimli, who would spend four - and - a-half hours in the morning to apply Dwarven prosthetics . Gino Acevedo also worked on creating realistic skin tones for the actors, such as Bernard Hill's possessed Théoden and a younger Bilbo . Peter (s) King and Owen also led the make - up department in making numerous wigs and creating general dirt on the actors . As well as applying make - up, at the end of the day there was an hour of carefully removing the make - up and prosthetics . As well as the prosthetics, there were also numerous corpses of actors and horses . </P>

Who made the swords for lord of the rings