Completed Setting up shop (1/2)

[Alexandra Gainsborough]

44 Winter 517 Finally finding a workspace that is at least somewhat suitable was a challenge but here I am. It was not to hard tracking down the simple supplies and the improvised ones but a heat source, now that took a little more doing. The most daunting task however was to find some interested buyers, in the past these details were always handled for her and now she was not quite sure who would be interested in her work or what kinds of goods might be useful. As always the city provides and on her hunt for a buyer she ended up finding several in town, now it would just be a matter of producing quality goods. First things first it would be the setup and because Kalea's Kiln was not setup for her kind of work steps would have to be taken. First with a little help from a few of the others taking classes she turned the kiln she had rented on its side. This would make for a decent makeshift glory hole. The next hour would be spent collecting extra tile and brick to fill the kiln with and shape the mouth of the kiln. Care was taken to make sure she filled as much of the dead volume inside as she possibly could, extra space after all meant wasted heat; wasted heat meant wasted fuel and that was not a luxury she was a custom to. Taking her crucible and filling it with fine sand she would place it into the center of the kiln and take a few steps back. "That should do." She would mutter to herself before taking a few more fire bricks and closing most of the mouth that lead to the soon to be molten glass. Once she was satisfied with the setup next up would be getting everything ready for the firing process. She would setup for a fire stacking and arranging sticks as she had done in the shop many times before. Taking some flint and steel provided from by the shop she would ignite the kindling and wait for the temperature to rize. "I wonder if they will give me a discount because I will not be using the community clay supplies. Maybe not, I will be using a lot more heat."  Each of the tools were new and unlike the ones she was accustomed to. These were cheap, crude in comparison to what she was use to working with. "I am not in wind reach any more." Looking over the molds she first set each of them down on the table she would be using. Each of them was a basic shape she was required to make before she was allowed to even touch a blow pipe. The blow pipe was just as bad, one good mistake would easily render it useless. "I should visit the blacksmith after this and get some proper tools." She would roll the pipe back and forth between her hands while the base remained on the floor. It had a decent balance at least. And now she would have to wait. Slowly the temperature would rise inside the kiln and start to melt the sand into the warm gummy mess that would be glass. For now however Alexandra had time to sit around and ponder her tasks at hand. "Bottles and bowls. Bottles and bowls should be where I start. Everyone needs a vessel." A small smile slowly tugged at her lips.

[Alexandra Gainsborough]

Time would pass like molasses flowing out of a jar. Lexi would pick up the first mold and turn it over in her hands. It was a simple triangle in shape and would work for one of the simple toppers she had planned on making. She felt her skills were mildly passable at best and knew these tools would only slow her down. However she had no real rush, she had enough money saved up to have a place to stay and enough to keep her belly full for a season. That should be more then enough time to get things right. Setting down the mold she picked up the blow pipe and examined it's construction rolling it on the floor and between her palms. A wave of disgust washed over her face. Letting out a little sigh she took in breath and put her lips up to the pipe. With one quick puff she forced a short jet of air through the long clay pole, moving the dust on the floor. "Well at least I can use this thing. It's round to, that's a plus." Picking up the long pole she holds it up to her eye and points it at the flame. The hole was narrow and uneven with lots of pits and mounds, nothing that would change the quality of the end product but imperfect non the less. Setting down the pipe carefully as to not damage it she moved closer to the fire. Taking a deep breath she sat a few feet from it on the ground and closed her eyes. Sitting cross-legged she would place her hands on her knees and wait. Seconds seemed like minutes and minutes seemed like hours as she tried to steady herself, clear her thoughts and let a calm wash over her. Calm however was not something she was good at. As minutes seemed to turn into hours minutes were all she could bear. Eyes snapping upen she pushed herself up to her feet quickly and walked a couple circles around the room. "I really wonder what I might be able to use. This place is filled with so many things. Pigments and colors I wonder what might work with glass. Clay has to be worked in a fire just as glass does so maybe I can find something that will work. I wonder if adding different color clay is all potters do. It must be more complex then that right. Maybe I can ask someone here. I mean I am surrounded by lots of potters after all. I've seen tall potters, thin potters and even a hairy potter." And with that she would circle around to the door and go wonder the halls for a bit. Anything to keep her mind from getting the better of her. Getting easily distracted she decided to explore the halls instead. This lead her to poking her head into several different room, all with open doors and watching trying her best to go unnoticed. The intricacies of any craft were a wonder to her. It took detication, skill and persistence to master anything and watching someone else find a passion they would follow was an amazing thing. She stood in one doorway with a small smile on her face as a women worked on a clay pot. It was the first time Lexi has seen anyone working in this way. They would take clay and roll it out into long lines then take each line and coil them around stacking layer upon layer. Thus process would take some time. From here she walked past a few empty rooms each one with a somber feeling as if it was missing the life given to it by any person who might enter. The next room would have someone sitting at a table kicking a wheel. It took Alexandra a moment to figure out that each kick made the table spin "how clever" she muttered to herself and watched on for a moment. The clay would spin in a circle and the artist would move his hands around guiding it into the desired shape. This reminded her of the way glass was made with each slow fluid movement leading into the next. A small push in one direction or another would be all it took to make the material move. "Beautiful..." she muttered as she gazed off into the clay. Shaking her head she came back into herself. She started walking back to her room with a small smile on her face and a warmth filling her soul.

[Alexandra Gainsborough]

After making her way back to her workspace she felt ready to begin. Hoping the sand was also ready to be sculpted she moved over to the kiln grabbing some tongs along the way. Sliding one brick to the side she slid the tongs in she tipped the vessel holding the molten liquid just enough to have a look inside. The sand had turned into a glowing pool of glass ready to be worked much to her excitement. Setting everything back in place it would be time to get started. With what looked like a single swift action she set down the tongs and picked up her blow pipe. Moving back to the molten pool she dipped the end of her rod into it pulling out a small mass and began to slowly spin the pipe. As the mass gathered on one side or the other she would stop and let it slowly sink, using gravity to aid her efforts. Pulling back from the fires the mass showed it's true orange color. Alexandra would slowly work the pipe spinning it around and around until the bright orange color started to fade and become more of a crimson red. The glass would cease to move in this state and would be rushed back into the flames all the while moving in a slow circle around the blow pipe. The moment she had been waiting for would finally come to pass, the mass appeared to be uniform in shape. Pulling it from the flames she pressed her moist lips to the post letting a quick puff of air expelle from her lungs. Quickly she pulled her lips away and covered the now exposed hole with her thumb trapping the air inside. The air would soon heat and expand turning the mass at the end of the shafts into a small thick bubble. Immediately she returned to spinning the bubble but it had already gotten out of round. Back into the fire it would go to reheat the now thinner walls of glass. It would take several trips in and out of the flames, never once did she stop trying to correct her imperfections. With each time back in the fire her moments became more forced and mechanical in motion. Taking a pair of tongs from the table once more she grabbed the glass and pinched near the base forming two sections. The upper section would contain the bubble while the lower half would be just a round ball before it found its way into the kiln once again. Drawing a quick breath she pulled the tube out once more pressing her lips onto the handle and pushing a little more air down the tube before quickly capping it off. The bubble was about the size she wanted, now it would be time to form the base. Back into the breech once more for a nice reheat as she grabbed a shaping tool. She would wait tapping her foot as if the flame was taking much longer then it should have. Pulling it out she rushed to get the work done pushing the bottom in with her tool, tossing it on the table and quickly grabbing for another. The glass would get harder and harder to work until she had no choice but to put it back into the kiln

[Alexandra Gainsborough]

The next few hours would be filled with this repetitive process making several different vessels each a unique snowflake and worse then the one before it. The room itself seemed to darken and grow ever so slowly until the doorway was a pinhole in the distance and the only soure of light came from the kiln itself. Alexandra to busy with her work to take note of anything else. Taking a few steps to the right she moved over to the table to examine what she had done picking the first small bottle she turned over the glass in her hands. The glass was mostly clear with some small imperfections but nothing to that she would turn her nose at. The shape on the other hand was poor at best. "This is complete and utter fucking shit!" Setting down the glass haphazardly it falls onto it's side and she moves onto the next. Taking a moment or two to look this piece over she could see it was that much worse then the previous, the next one wouldn't even have to leave the table.  The silence was quickly broken by a voice that said exactly what she was thinking "You can not blame the tools for your poor quality workmen ship. I knew you would never become anything. You were nothing without me. A piece of shit I kept around to clean up after the real work was finished." "Your wrong!" She yelled spinning around and throwing the vial she had still in her hand. The vial missed and shattered off someplace in the darkness. Her old master stood before her several feet away. Stepping closer he seemed so tall, it was almost as if he grew two feet since the last time they came face to face. "What do you want? I thought I got rid of you!" Stopping no more then a foot from her he smiled towering over. "You can not get rid of me that easy. You belong to me. I took you from the trash heap and you have no respect for me." Her fist clenched, fingernails digging deep into her pams. " Why would I have..." she was quickly cutoff by the back of his hand. She could feel every vertebrae in her neck Crack and her lip start to swell but before she knew what was going on she was on the floor. Blinking a few times her vision returned to her, seeing her reflection in his boot startled her a bit. She had been here before years ago. She tried to push herself up but could not move. Feeling pain in several places she tried to move anything but it was all in vain. The next thing she felt was a warm breath on the back of her neck and the soft sound of laughter. "You belong to me. You are my marionette and will dance when I say to dance." As if held up by strings she slowly began to float to her feet. The man before her motioned as if pulling on a string and her body followed his every command. She tried to say something but no words came, to scream but she had no voice. She looked at him but saw a different man before her now, his voice unchanged but in appearance another she had grow up with the legend of. Sagallius was now face to face with her and whispered "You are weak..." He caressed her cheek "...and you are mine. I can have so much fun with my toys." He said before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a shard of glass. Slowly he ran the shard across her cheek splitting the skin and letting the blood flow. "Or if I like I can break my toys." Rage welled up in her eyes, the shift to a golden color had never been more pronounced. Taking the foot long triangle of glass he began to slowly press it into her abdomen, that nice area of exposed skin just below her navel. Taking every bit of strength she had her hand slowly moved gripping the shard her flesh splitting until glass met bone. Slowly she pulled the shard out of her belly never loosing eye contact. The look of shock washed across his face quickly blending into her instructor face before everything vanished into a puff of smoke. Alexandra found herself laying on the floor. She had full control of her body once more. She opened her clenched first only to find small cuts made by her fingernails and nothing more. She touched her belly then her cheek finding nothing but unbroken skin. She pulled her knees to her chest and started to sob softly. Was any of it real or just an illusion?

[Madeira Dusk]

Grades Awarded!

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request!

Alexandra Gainsborough

Skills

• Glassworking: 3xp
• Meditation: 1xp
• Logic: 1xp
• Observation: 3xp

Lores

• Glassworking: extra space = wasted heat
• Glassworking: testing the quality of tools
• Lore of talking to oneself
• Lore of the similarities between pottery and glass working
• Glassworking: using a blow pipe
• Gods: Sagallius

Awards & Retribution


Notes
Congratulations on your first completed thread!

I see you working hard to stay in the third person and past tense, and you’re doing a great job. If you wanted to improve your writing even more, may I suggest challenging yourself to remove ‘would’ from your vocabulary? According to Google, ‘would’ “indicates the consequence of an imagined event or situation”. Using it in fiction the way you do can take the reader out of the story by reminding them that it is a story.

So instead of: “Time would pass like molasses flowing out of a jar.”
You could change it to: “Time passed like molasses flowing out of a jar.”

It sounds more sure and solidifies the fact that this action happened in the past.

As always, take my advice with a grain of salt. And if you have any questions or concerns give me shout!