Fall 3rd 514
The pycon's izentor gleamed over the pycon's shoulder, the slightly metallic mark standing out from his normal clay as he started work on a new project. He was to make a mold for the university, and this was a source of contention between him and Johann. The pycon fumed as he picked up the wood working tools on loan from the Laviku's Figurehead. Johann knew perfectly well that Watcher had no experience carving anything, let alone wood. The egotistical man gloated over the fact and probably wanted to gloat over the fact that the Izentor marked pycon couldn't excel at everything. But at least Boris was being amenable for now. In fact, the woodworker watched him from across the room as the pycon shuffled about with the blocks he would be turning into his mold and the tools.
The change of scenery was nice though. He would have to return to the glassworks to do the actual casting, but for now the quiet woodcarving shop Laviku's Figurehead was a fitting place to sulk and work. "Is there anything I should know before I get start?" The pycon addressed the woodworker with a stylized frown. "Johann said not to help you out, little man. But that seems a bit unfair." Boris said, taking a swig from a bottle of what looked like some sort of kelp based alcohol, "Just remember that when you are carving, start with your largest tool to get as much of the material out then use progressively smaller tools until you get the detail you need..." He trailed off for a moment before giving another useful tip, this time for carpentry, "Make sure you work with the grain of the wood whenever possible, as well. There, now you are an expert carpenter." The great man chuckled, his heavy body rippling with the force of his laughter at his own joke.
Watcher shook his head and looked over his blocks of wood. From what he knew about casting, the two would need to be mirror images with a hole on top to pour the glass into. He would need to take these blocks of particularly fire resistant eucalyptus and match them perfectly to make a sphere. From there it was a matter of pouring crystalline glass into the mold and then polishing the spheres into a clear finish. The university required strange things indeed, and often with scary exactness.
Watcher took a bit of charcoal out and began mark over the blocks. The sphere needed to be 3 inches in diameter and needed to be perfectly smooth. A thought occurred to the pycon as he measured, "Why not work the other way around?" The glassworker could make a wooden sphere, polish it to a perfect smoothness and then make a negative mold over that out clay or even packed sand. Johann was testing him, clearly, he said make a mold with wood... not that the mold itself had to be made from wood... just that wood needed to be used.
He shook his head and would have rolled his eyes if they weren't simple pits in his stylized head. Changing gears he took the one block, a 6 inch cube and nodded to himself as he inspect it. He could make what he needed from it, cover it in clay and fire a mold. Then he could make the 30 glass spheres he needed.
If Watcher's math was correct, the very center of each face of the cube did not need to be carved, just the corners. Theoretically he could cut and smooth the corners repeatedly until he managed to get the shape he wanted. The pycon was having trouble visualizing it, however. Taking a guess at how to go about carving this, he measured drew an X over one face with a straight edge and marked the center with a dot. He then erased the X, while keeping the dot in the center then measured 3 inches from this center. Eight points later, up, down, left, right and along the partially erased X he had a serviceable guide to make a circle. Carefully, and mindful of his darkening clay fingers, the pycon used his charcoal to make a circle on 3 perpendicular sides. Everything not inside those circles, at least going all the way through to the opposite side needed to be gone. The three "Cylinders" should converge into a sphere, or something close to it.
Aping what a human did when he was in though, Watcher took one of his eight hands and scratched his head while he worked. Now that he had a guide to work with, he could begin the actual carving. The heavy carving tool took several hands to lift, and several more to keep the block in place as he set the edge to the wood. Using the weight of the saw and the grain of the wood to his advantage as Boris said he began to carve.
The carving worked by following the guide on one face, creating a rough cylinder. It required to fix the guides on the other faces while he worked, but the carving was slow and tedious. Of little consequence. The pycon's hands pushed the blade into the wood and carved small shavings of wood with every pass as he whittled away the cube into a cylinder. The guide for the circle was imperfect unfortunately so he had to correct it later on by shaving one side down more than he originally intended.
Watcher was so totally engrossed in his work that he hadn't realized that the sun was beginning to set over the mountains and that Boris had left. He looked about the darkening workspace, the stylized blue wood panelling mimicking the domain of the shop's namesake deity. It was a bit... creepy to be alone. Hoping that Boris wouldn't mind, the pycon lit a candle, a dangerous proposition in a carpentry shop, and set to inspect his work thus far.
The cylinder was unacceptably crude. The shape was completely off and one side was smaller than the required three inches. His saw had even made these thick gouges in the wood. He would have to start over, ask Boris to help, or admit defeat.
He chose to start over.
My words
Their words
The pycon's izentor gleamed over the pycon's shoulder, the slightly metallic mark standing out from his normal clay as he started work on a new project. He was to make a mold for the university, and this was a source of contention between him and Johann. The pycon fumed as he picked up the wood working tools on loan from the Laviku's Figurehead. Johann knew perfectly well that Watcher had no experience carving anything, let alone wood. The egotistical man gloated over the fact and probably wanted to gloat over the fact that the Izentor marked pycon couldn't excel at everything. But at least Boris was being amenable for now. In fact, the woodworker watched him from across the room as the pycon shuffled about with the blocks he would be turning into his mold and the tools.
The change of scenery was nice though. He would have to return to the glassworks to do the actual casting, but for now the quiet woodcarving shop Laviku's Figurehead was a fitting place to sulk and work. "Is there anything I should know before I get start?" The pycon addressed the woodworker with a stylized frown. "Johann said not to help you out, little man. But that seems a bit unfair." Boris said, taking a swig from a bottle of what looked like some sort of kelp based alcohol, "Just remember that when you are carving, start with your largest tool to get as much of the material out then use progressively smaller tools until you get the detail you need..." He trailed off for a moment before giving another useful tip, this time for carpentry, "Make sure you work with the grain of the wood whenever possible, as well. There, now you are an expert carpenter." The great man chuckled, his heavy body rippling with the force of his laughter at his own joke.
Watcher shook his head and looked over his blocks of wood. From what he knew about casting, the two would need to be mirror images with a hole on top to pour the glass into. He would need to take these blocks of particularly fire resistant eucalyptus and match them perfectly to make a sphere. From there it was a matter of pouring crystalline glass into the mold and then polishing the spheres into a clear finish. The university required strange things indeed, and often with scary exactness.
Watcher took a bit of charcoal out and began mark over the blocks. The sphere needed to be 3 inches in diameter and needed to be perfectly smooth. A thought occurred to the pycon as he measured, "Why not work the other way around?" The glassworker could make a wooden sphere, polish it to a perfect smoothness and then make a negative mold over that out clay or even packed sand. Johann was testing him, clearly, he said make a mold with wood... not that the mold itself had to be made from wood... just that wood needed to be used.
He shook his head and would have rolled his eyes if they weren't simple pits in his stylized head. Changing gears he took the one block, a 6 inch cube and nodded to himself as he inspect it. He could make what he needed from it, cover it in clay and fire a mold. Then he could make the 30 glass spheres he needed.
If Watcher's math was correct, the very center of each face of the cube did not need to be carved, just the corners. Theoretically he could cut and smooth the corners repeatedly until he managed to get the shape he wanted. The pycon was having trouble visualizing it, however. Taking a guess at how to go about carving this, he measured drew an X over one face with a straight edge and marked the center with a dot. He then erased the X, while keeping the dot in the center then measured 3 inches from this center. Eight points later, up, down, left, right and along the partially erased X he had a serviceable guide to make a circle. Carefully, and mindful of his darkening clay fingers, the pycon used his charcoal to make a circle on 3 perpendicular sides. Everything not inside those circles, at least going all the way through to the opposite side needed to be gone. The three "Cylinders" should converge into a sphere, or something close to it.
Aping what a human did when he was in though, Watcher took one of his eight hands and scratched his head while he worked. Now that he had a guide to work with, he could begin the actual carving. The heavy carving tool took several hands to lift, and several more to keep the block in place as he set the edge to the wood. Using the weight of the saw and the grain of the wood to his advantage as Boris said he began to carve.
The carving worked by following the guide on one face, creating a rough cylinder. It required to fix the guides on the other faces while he worked, but the carving was slow and tedious. Of little consequence. The pycon's hands pushed the blade into the wood and carved small shavings of wood with every pass as he whittled away the cube into a cylinder. The guide for the circle was imperfect unfortunately so he had to correct it later on by shaving one side down more than he originally intended.
Watcher was so totally engrossed in his work that he hadn't realized that the sun was beginning to set over the mountains and that Boris had left. He looked about the darkening workspace, the stylized blue wood panelling mimicking the domain of the shop's namesake deity. It was a bit... creepy to be alone. Hoping that Boris wouldn't mind, the pycon lit a candle, a dangerous proposition in a carpentry shop, and set to inspect his work thus far.
The cylinder was unacceptably crude. The shape was completely off and one side was smaller than the required three inches. His saw had even made these thick gouges in the wood. He would have to start over, ask Boris to help, or admit defeat.
He chose to start over.
My words
Their words
