Art Class: Sculpting Coral

by **Phyolea** on November 3rd, 2013, 12:31 am

17 Spring 503 AV

“Phyolea, pay attention!” The young Charoda stopped dozing. She rubbed her eyes. “As I was saying, this coral is different from the coral that is used to build your homes. It doesn’t grow the exoskeleton, so it needs a higher level of care. It is more fragile. You must treat it gently. That is why you must grow this coral more slowly than the building coral when you attempt to sculpt it. Any questions?” The students stared at the teacher blankly. “Good. Now it’s time for hands on instruction. Gather your things, everyone. We’re going to locate this coral and we will learn to sculpt it.”

Everyone, including Phyolea, leapt up eagerly. They were past the boring instructions. Now they were going to actually do it. The students chatted away happily in Char. “Do you think I can sculpt a Hytera? I think that’d be pretty.” “I want to sculpt a statue of my mom!” “I wanna sculpt a playhouse!” The Charodae followed their teacher to a clearing with coral. The instructor pointed to the sculpting coral. “Everyone, go retrieve a piece from there. Be sure to remove it carefully so that you don’t disturb the ecosystem or kill the coral!” The children, almost unwittingly, used coral manipulation to remove pieces of coral from the massive growth. One by one the children gathered before the teacher with their newly acquired coral.

“Today we shall fashion a bowl.” The class groaned. “Watch carefully.” The teacher took a small, misshapen piece of coral and held it up for the class to see. Then she grew it out in the palm of her hand while gently spinning it and shaping it. When she was done, a perfectly formed coral bowl sat upon her palm. The kids stopped groaning. Phyolea raised her hand. “Yes?”

“We’re supposed to shape it and grow it at the same time?”

“Yes. You must sculpt it to take the shape you want. It is similar to a process the land dwellers use when they make pottery of clay. Also, spinning it helps to coax out the coral’s djed so that you can control its growth. Not all of us become great sculptors, but it is essential that you learn to manipulate the coral to do as you want.”

“But it’s hard enough getting it to grow right.”

“That’s where practice comes in, my dear.”

The teacher addressed the class. “Now, try to remember to grow the coral slowly. This type of coral won’t shape correctly if you grow it too quickly. It will become porous if you aren’t careful.”

A student rose his hand. “Do we have to make bowls? I wanna make something else.”

The teacher smiled. “If you can show me you can make a bowl, maybe I’ll let you work on something else.” The teacher addressed the class once more. “It is your turn now. Let’s see what you can do!” The teacher fashioned a coral seat for herself and sat upon it to watch her students.

Phyolea looked at the coal in her hand. She felt a knot grow in the pit of her stomach. How was she going to pull this off? She was too embarrassed to say her coral manipulation skills were already poor. Phyolea sighed. It was time to get to work.

by **Phyolea** on November 3rd, 2013, 6:09 am

Phyolea rose and approached her teacher. “Yes?” the teacher asked.

“Can I look at the bowl?”

“Certainly!” The teacher handed her young student the bowl she had created earlier. Phyolea felt the bowl. It wasn’t as smooth as it appeared to the eye. Phyolea could also feel that there were many coral microorganisms linked together. The more they grew, the more they would solidify the bowl. It was a deceptively intricate sculpture. Phyolea handed the bowl back to the teacher and returned to her work area.

Phyolea picked up her coral and placed it in the palm of her hand. She tried spinning it manually and growing it a bit. It grew, but it did not change shape. She switched to instinctively spinning it with her djed through coral manipulation and attempting to sculpt it with her fingers. She was pleased to find that the coral gave way to her touch. Getting it to shape in the manner she wanted, however, was a whole different ordeal.

Phyolea tried to spin the coral slightly faster while shaping it. Getting the coral tendrils to bind cohesively together proved to be much trickier than the teacher had made it look. Try as she might, she could not get the surface to bend to her will. How did the teacher make it so smooth? Phyolea looked around. One student had made something that looked like a ball. Another student had made something that looked like a disk. A few others had made some unidentifiable shapes. No one quite had a bowl yet.

Encouraged by the fact that she wasn’t the only failure, Phyolea pressed on. She spun the coral in the palm of her hand and pressed on the sides. She spun the coral with one hand and applied some innate coral manipulation with the other. The rough parts of the coral began to bind together. Phyolea smiled. She might be able to get the hang of this after all. She kept spinning the coral and it seemed to obey her. This isn’t so hard after all, she thought. Faster and faster the coral spun.

The teacher rose from her chair. “Phyolea… don’t spin the coral so fast!” she cautioned. Phyolea was engrossed in her work. She still smiled as she worked. This project was going well! She’d definitely be awarded a passing grade. “Phyolea!” The coral stopped spinning as Phyolea snapped out of her reverie. The teacher ran and pushed the coral away from Phyolea’s hand just as tendrils poked out from her masterpiece. It continued to grow rapidly, although Phyolea was no longer manipulating it.

The coral outgrew the shape that Phyolea had given it and was now larger than her arm. The teacher reached out and slowed its growth. The coral structure seemed to freeze in place. This structure looked nothing like the bowl Phyolea had shaped. It now looked like a leafless bush. Phyolea frowned. “I wasn’t spinning it that fast,” she observed. The teacher picked up the structure and walked it over to the coral reef from which it came. She applied some djed to cause it to merge into the rest of the reef. Then she removed a smaller piece and brought it to Phyolea.

“Try again.”

Phyolea held out her hand and let the teacher deposit the coral into the palm of her hand. She sighed inwardly. This was going to take forever. Why did the teacher assign them such an impossible assignment? What if she could never ever do it? Would she suck at coral manipulation forever and become a social pariah? Would she be forced to be the only grownup who couldn’t do basic things with coral manipulation? It wasn’t fair. Why did she have to be doomed? Why?

Apparently Phyolea’s distress was evident. “Don’t worry, child. I will show you how it’s properly done.” The teacher cupped Phyolea’s hands in hers while Phyolea held the coral with palms up. “Now, you spin the coral at this speed. Then you apply djed at the center. Don’t fight the coral. You have to be gentle. Remember, it is alive and should be respected. Life is precious.” The coral spun steadily. The teacher guided Phyolea’s other hand to the area where the bowl’s center would be formed. “Now, start shaping the coral here.” Phyolea tried to shape the coral. Applying the djed to the center caused the coral to form around the center point. “Now when you start forming the coral, you need to work slowly from the center. That’s how you get the coral to work together and become interlinked with one another. You don’t force the coral into being shaped. Otherwise you will cause them to form in ways that are unnatural.” Phyolea tried to bring her fingers slowly outward and upward as the teacher guided her hand. The bowl took on a more solidified shape.

“Now you try to finish it up.” The teacher went over to another student who was having trouble with shaping the coral correctly. Phyolea continued to shape the coral while making it grow. She dared not change the pace this time. It appeared to be shaping well. Phyolea slowed down the spinning and shaped the top edge so that it would be smooth. This top edge, however, would not obey. The coral had indeed been shaped like a bowl. However, the lip of the bowl refused to be properly formed. In fact, the more Phyolea tried to smooth it out, the more misshapen the edge appeared.

Some of the other students had given up. They simply could not get the coral to retain its shape while attempting to grow it. Some students were still trying to spin the bowl and shape it. None of them had a completed, well-formed bowl. The teacher addressed the class. “As you all know, this level of sculpting is beyond what young tadpoles such as yourselves would be able to do. Did anyone manage to form a bowl?” No one raised their hand. Phyolea’s hands were still busy crafting and sculpting. “How many of you thought you would build magnificent structures like some of your parents? Don’t worry young ones. This will come in time. Just keep practicing.” Phyolea had slowed the bowl to a stopping point. It still was malformed, but at least it could pass as a bowl.

Phyolea scrutinized the bowl. It had many rough spots and the edge was rough. However, she knew this would be the best she could do. She inspected the bowl thoroughly. She wanted to fully understand what she did wrong so that she could avoid the same mistake in the future. If it hadn’t been for her teacher’s guidance, she would not have even gotten this far. It was decided. Phyolea would try again someday.