Completed Pottery 101 [Lenell Belleste]

[Lenell Belleste]

Time stamp: 6th of Spring, 513 AV

Lenell jangled the small ring of keys that Nabisa, the lovely Konti who instructed in the Art Studio, had given her before leading Lenell to a tiny door tucked away in a corner between canvases and easels. The door, once unlocked, led not into the closet Lenell had expected, but into a long, detached hallway, only wide enough to admit any group in single file. Pottery was an artform, but the dusts of unmixed clays couldn't be allowed to mingle in a room full of paints, and so the university's Pottery Studio was detached from the rest of the Art Department, though the small door and long corridor allowed students and teachers to pass back and forth without having to face bad weather, and their size and placement kept them from blocking the natural light fed into the Art Studio through its wonderful walls of glass. There were several sets of keys like the one Lenell held, and they unlocked all the doors and cabinets in the Pottery Studio. Nabisa held the master set, and any registered pottery student got a ring full of their own. It was a serious trust and responsibility, and if Lenell lost hers, she would have to pay a replacement fee before receiving another.

At the end of the corridor was another small door, and this one led directly to the Pottery Studio itself. Nabisa had warned her that while the University had made sure to order new supplies of clays and glazes for Lenell's use, the equipment and the room itself would need some basic maintenance, as they had stood unused for a few seasons. The University cleaning staff had been sent in to give everything a good wipe down, but unless they made pottery in their spare time, they couldn't understand exactly how important it was to make sure the space and tools were completely free of dust and debris. An unexpected bit of impurity dropped into a clay or glaze mix could sometimes lead to a happy surprise of artistic worth, but mostly they just ruined things.

The first several feet into the Studio were as narrow as the corridor behind her. On her left, according to Nabisa, was the closet containing the cleaning supplies. On her right was a concrete wall that formed the end of a room full of drying racks. Past that wall, the Studio opened up into a large space with eight pottery wheels, several small tables that could be moved about to hold supplies, or lights for night time work, while above was a large skylight to provide natural light for work during the day. On her left side past the closet, a long work surface stretched away, with mixing basins placed here and there along it. The work surface sat atop a line of cabinets, the storage area for saggars, racks and jigger molds. Along the wall above the work surface hung a set of shelves, some closed and containing tools and glazes, some open to showcase student works. At the far end of the left wall was an open space with several barrels of dry and differing clay bases and additives. Past those were two more large and connected barrels, a filtering and storage system for water. Along the back wall ran another closed room, this one containing cooling instead of drying racks. The long walls of both rack rooms faced the central open area and were covered with lovely murals of pottery and potters laboring over wheels, kilns and mixing basins. Sconces lined all the walls, but were unlit during this clear, bright day.

There was another small door at the far end of the Studio, between the cooling rack room and the water barrels. Lenell fumbled through her keys to unlock and open it. Outside, a water pump stood close by on her left, and several steps away on her right stood a small stone building set on a larger stone foundation. This was where the kilns were housed, outdoors on their own, where they would pose no danger to works in the main Art Studio, or interfere with the drying and cooling rates in the Pottery Studio. A locked stone bin with two compartments hugged the outside of the kiln room, one side containing fuel for the kiln, and the other containing long, heat resistance gloves and various hooks and tools to remove hot, baked ware from the kilns.

Lenell figured that the kilns were the most likely place to need further cleaning. She unlocked the small building, walked in and opened the kiln doors. With a sigh for the state of her wardrobe, she drew her cloak close around her and pulled a flap up over her mouth and nose, then slid inside the small doors on her back. She looked up the kilns' chimneys and saw, as she expected, that they were heavily clogged with old spider webs, which in turn had made excellent nets for any floating debris that had drifted down the chimneys. She pulled herself out of the second kiln, dusted herself off, then went for fuel. Yes, she could try to awkwardly knock things down with a broom while flat on her back, but the only real way to do a good, deep clean on a clogged and dirty kiln was to fire it up as hot as you could, let things bake to ash, then sweep the whole thing out when it was cool. While she was waiting, she could check the action of the wheels, give both the rack rooms a second good wash down, clean all the tools, racks, saggars and molds really well, and make sure the water filtration system was ready to go and the water pump primed. That would surely eat up the rest of her day, but after that, she would be ready to create.

[Echelon]

Adventurer's Loot A Gift Experience is its own reward. Lenell's Loot : Lenell Belleste Skill XP Reward Cleaning +1XP Lore: Understanding Responsibility Cleanliness For Consistency's Sake Zeltiva University's Pottery Studio Items or Consequences: None Notes: None (You do know that one usually cannot juggle a job and a class at the same time. That said, since they are in fact the same subjects I am inclined to allow it to slide this time, just don't forget to put emphasis on how little free time Lenell has. Don't be afraid to make these classrooms large and ornate. The University is the one place that really can be quite outstanding, and enjoyable to work in, yes even the storage area. I was disappointing that you didn't go into a little more detail on cleaning, I could have awarded you more for that. Also, some day you really ought to mention how difficult it is to stoke the kilns when you can't really shop wood. This was a tad short, of course, though I understand the purpose and it fulfilled it quite nicely, thank you. We will work on the location more as we move forward with threads. ) - if you have ANY questions or concerns about this grading, please PM me.