[Traveler's Row] Sifting the grain

by **Elann** on July 6th, 2015, 1:22 am

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Timestamp 27th of Summer 515AV

Time passed slowly as Elann sat about her home. The window was open, letting air flow into her apartment. The sun beat down upon the green mehendi bush she had purchased, making it stretch out in a way as to gather all light it could to itself. Courteously Elann would move it to certain spots at different times during the day and water it occasionally, giving it an extra bit of love. It was a tie to her old home and it meant that she could occasionally at least treat her hair in like manner as she was used to back home. Today was the day to procure such ingredients. As the plant had been fully grown and was receiving lots of warmth and life, she felt now was the best time to gather many of the leaves from it. A delicate decision this was. If she took too many of the leaves she would kill the plant, but she didn't know how many to take.

She was a rug maker, not an herbalist. She was going to try however and she stood with determination, moving over to her hutch and taking hold of the worn knobs that held closed the cupboards that contained her dishes. Giving the knob a twist she freed the latch from holding it closed and swung open the doors. Inside was her brand new pots, pans, and dishware. She reached inside to the back for her iron pot and the lid it contained. She understood the basic concept of what she had to do as it was part of her culture, but doing it was a bit different. She had always let her mother or another in the tribe do it for her. Taking the pot underarm she headed for her worn down coffee table that looked as though it had been left out in the rain for too long and what finish was on it was in patches. She set the pot there upon it and tapped her chin as she thought. She then went to grab a strip of her fine cloth and some coins. She knew she needed some sort of filter and some sort of abrasive weight to force the product through the sieve to truly get the type of henna she wanted to use for her skin. The separated waste of it would be what she used on her hair to condition it so that nothing went to waste.

Once having gathered the hefty pile of things she'd need, she laid everything upon her coffee table and nodded. Now was the painful process of collecting the leaves and grinding them in her mortar and pestle to a fine powder. She moved over to her hearth and stooped down to bring it with her back to the coffee table. Once there she sat upon her sofa and pulled the pestle out of the mortar and left it out. She then bent over to the mehendi plant and began to pluck the inner most leaves from the plant. She wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but she knew generally that plants needed sun to live, so she would take the leaves that got the least amount of sun right? She really had very little idea of what she was doing and once she had a handful of leaves she threw them into the mortar.

Other's Words ~~ My Words ~~ My Thoughts

by **Elann** on July 6th, 2015, 2:27 am

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"Okay...Now I just grind it up I think", she lifted the pestle, pleased with the small amount of leaves she took from the large bush and began to push down on the pestle. It didn't seem to want to make it into a powder though. She tried a few different methods and tried to remember how her mother used to do it. "I should have paid more attention." She was still a child though according to her parents and their culture, while being able to be married off, she wasn't really allowed to do anything in the form of cooking or taking care of her father, that was her mothers job. Her job was to make rugs, on occasion watch the goats, and have fun. After a little while she figured that twisting the pestle and changing the angle as she did felt like it really destroyed the leaves more and made a gritty feeling. She observed occasionally how the leaves at the bottom were getting smaller and smaller in size, and while a master apothecary could have churned out a powder in a few chimes, she spent the better part of a bell doing so for a small amount of leaves. Once it was done though she felt satisfied with the quality of it. She persisted until it had been ground down fine like she had seen it before, not settling for less.

Other's Words ~~ My Words ~~ My Thoughts

by **Elann** on July 6th, 2015, 2:32 am

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"Ouch", she said to herself as her hands now kind of hurt. They were more used to the repetitive motions of tying knots for weaving than churning or twisting with force. It was a good pain though and she was youthful still. Now that her mortar was half full of powder, she set it down and reached over to her fabric. She stretched it out over the edges of the pot so that it almost looked like a lid. She then pulled the fabric tight, letting it stretch a bit and tied it very tight along the bottom of the pot. Feeling like the sieve wouldn't go anywhere, she nodded and was pleased. She then took the coins and set them into the very middle of the fabric and what little stretch it had left to give was weighed down in the center of the pot. She looked at it a long time and considered what she had to do next. There had to be some tact given as henna stained very easily even in dry form. She could smell how her whole apartment now smelled of it as it released it's aroma from her grinding. She tapped her chin in thought.

"If I shake it now...it'll go everywhere", she gave it a test, putting the lid on and giving it a shake. The coins flew out of the divot she made and ended up flying out of the small gap between the lid and the pot. She set the device back down and took the lid back off, glad she didn't put any powder in it yet fortunately. "Okay...maybe..."she mused to herself as she put another line of fabric over the top of the other one. She snuck the escaped coins back inside and how thought to herself "I need to make a pocket, a sort of thing that won't let the powder get out of the pot's interior, or escape from the inside of the fabric. Maybe like a tea bag design?" She undid her cloth and put the coins off to the side. She then considered to herself again how she was going to do this. Suddenly it popped into her head, "Candle wax!" She could put the cloth inside just like before with a sheet of fabric on the top and bottom of them, pour all the powder inside the pocket and then seal the lid with her candle's wax. That would make it so that no powder could escape and the coins would continually beat the powder.

Other's Words ~~ My Words ~~ My Thoughts

by **Elann** on July 6th, 2015, 2:37 am

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"I am so smart", she laughed, totally joking with herself and not actually cocky at all in heart. Realistically it was quite the opposite because the second she said it she said to herself in thought, "No...all that I am is because of you, not me." speaking of Yahal. Confident this would work, she got to work on setting it up immediately. As she poured the small base of henna powder into the fine cloth she could see how it did not want to go through very much. That was a good sign she supposed. Yet as she looked down into the pot she could see small particles down in the bottom. She returned the coins to their rightful place amongst the powder where it lay in the center of the cloth, she put another piece of fabric over the top of the coin/powder mix, and then she put down the lid. "Okay...now the wax." She moved over to her candelabra and wriggled a candle free from it.

The wax that had built up on top slowly dripped down the side of it and she tried not to move it, balancing it to keep it contained. Once over the pot she carefully tilted it so as to let the wax drip down onto the cloth and over the edge of the pot, she then used her finger lightly to create a seal. She realized this would take a while and quite a few bells later she finally had the candle burned down enough to have coated the pot's ring in a wax. Were there better methods in doing this? Absolutely, but she had no idea. Holding tight to the lid, she began to shake the coins in the pot with fury, and the noise it made she had to wonder if the whole neighborhood could hear it. Clanging sound echoed off her walls for a good few chimes before she stopped. The wax seal held for the most part yet had little cracks in it showing it was not the most stable seal. Most likely it was because of her hands on the pot lid was the reason it didn't fly everywhere. Now the room was filled with an even stronger henna smell.

Other's Words ~~ My Words ~~ My Thoughts

by **Elann** on July 6th, 2015, 2:52 am

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She continued to shake but ever so quietly, just enough to where she could feel the cloth was pulling at its edges and that there was some sort of abrasion against the powder. It was much more quiet doing it that way and after a couple hours she felt the powder would have likely sifted all it could have. She took her knife and cut around the wax and removed the lid. It was then she could see the mess that was inside.

It was covering the whole inside of the pot, but it had worked for the most part. The cloth remained intact and there was a significant amount of henna in the bottom that was super fine. Taking one of her containers from the hutch she began to scoop course material out with one of the spoons she had so that it was not in her way any longer.

Once all the lingering powder and coins were out of the middle and into the container she very very slowly removed the fine cloth from the pot. It still had wax holding it to the edge but it was easy for her to pry free from it. Now with it set aside she stuck it into the container and dusted it off with little flicks of her finger.

When it was dusting no more Elann set it down on the table gently. She now gathered another small glass container and first cleared all the wax off the edge of one side, making sure none of it went into the mixture. She now had a spillway in which to pour her powder into the container.

With a very careful hand she attempted to lift the pot and scoop it into the glass jar. While it wasn't perfect and there was some spillage, she kept it mostly contained. As it came out she naturally observed how fine it was, matching it to what she had seen before in various places in her life. It was close, perhaps not as perfect as it could be, but it should be able to sustain her conditioning needs for winter if she kept at it plus a little extra fine powder for decorating things.

Other's Words ~~ My Words ~~ My Thoughts

by **Sayana** on August 23rd, 2015, 2:41 am

Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request. If there's anything I may have missed, please PM me and I'll be happy to look into it.

Elann

Skills

Gardening: 1
Herbalism: 1
Philtering: 5
Botany: 1
Endurance: 2
Observation: 4
Tactics: 1

Lores

Philtering: Preparing a filter cloth over a pot
Philtering: Using a mortar and pestle
Botany: Plants need sunlight
Using candle wax as a sealant
Philtering: Adopting a 'teabag' method of filtration
Philtering: Creating henna powder from the mehendi plant

Comments: Great thread. I never thought that much about how particles would actually get through the filter paper/fabric. I loved all the detail you put into it and still kept to rudimentary ideas for a novice. Great job.

Your Grader,

Sayana

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