Completed Artistic Projects

[Alija]

20th Summer 515
"Sorry I'm late," Alija quickly said as she entered the forge, dark and smokey but for the glowing embers and metal. Both Donovan and Rals were working separately on projects of their own, pounding on metal rods or drawing out small squares. "Kial got sick, he ate some bad food yesterday. I was up all night, and overslept," she explained, picking up a spare apron.

"Well, we're closed anyway, so don't worry," Rals grunted, annoyed. Alija dropped her hair, which she had been in the process of tying up, and asked why, curiously. This was never planned. The Armed Scholar rarely closed, and today was not a day that they were supposed to.

"Some rich folks from the Ancient Quarter decided that it would be alright if they demanded several ornaments and decorations from us - to be delivered tomorrow," Donovan explained, and Alija nodded, secretly hoping that she would be considered one of the rich folk. To live in a large, extensive house, to have authority of Zeltiva, it was all part of a dream she had. But she would never be as rude as this, causing the shop to close for the day. "They're paying a lot," Donovan explained, reading her mind as to why they would accept the request, at least not fully.

"So, what sort of things do we need to make?"

"Grab some scrap metal, start shaping it. Whatever, they said they don't care," Rals answered, back turned to the young blacksmith. Alija nodded, despite him not facing her, and took the last anvil, knowing what she wanted to do. She grabbed a spare horseshoe, one that had been badly made, too large for the intended horse. She didn't understand how she could have made that mistake, horseshoes being some of the first things she had ever learned to make, but at least she could put it to good use.

First, she heated up the bottom part, chiseling a mark for the center, to simply mark where to have the point of the heart she planned to make. Alija heated it again, this time a little more area covered, so a larger section was the glowing orange colour that she wanted. This meant that when she stuck it in the hardy hole and pulled it out a little, the shoe widened, becoming more "U" shaped than horseshoe shaped. The blacksmith repeated several times, working on both sides so it widened evenly. Straightening it up with a few sharp hammer taps, she prepared for the next step.

This time, the glowing metal was placed on the edge of the anvil, right at the heel, the center mark lined up with it. The hammer tinked as she created a "V" in the metal, working one end up and the other down. Occasionally, she put the shoe back on the face of the anvil, hammering flat to stop it becoming distorted. Eventually, she was satisfied with the shape created, and took a quick break to check on her companion's work. Donovan was making simple twists and spirals in long rods, which he appeared to be assembling into a large rectangular frame. Rals' creation still looked like a heap of metal, but he was slowly hammering away, drawing it out and upsetting it in strange places. She couldn't make any sense of it, but Alija was certain that it would be beautiful when finished. Everything Rals made always was.

[Alija]

Now came the detailed part. Alija planned to make both ends of the horseshoe into horse heads, before pulling them round to finish of the heart shape, so they would look like they were kissing. She heated up the very end, picturing the desired look in her mind before beginning to work. The first few hits dropped down the cheek, making an indent on the horseshoe, before moving it to the other side of the anvil, so it sat differently. A few more taps and she returned it to the original position, just shifted a little back. Once she was done, she flattened the top, so the the bottom sloped up with a fairly large bump in the middle, to form the muzzle and cheek.

She repeated with the other end, adjusting both until she was satisfied with the shape of the muzzle, and both were fairly symmetrical. She then tapered the neck back, working on the shape of the horses, while making both fairly similar but with their own uniqueness to them. It looked less perfect, but more realistic, something Alija had been trying to do with all her work. There was something more beautiful, she had found, in imperfection than perfection.

For the eyes, mouth and nose, Alija took a simple punch, and brushed the small flakes off the metal so she could make clear indents. She positioned the punch to make the nose, taking care not to move it between the two hammer taps. The ear was done in a similar fashion, as was the eye. The mane was shaped with small punches going down the back, trying to hold the horseshoe still. It wasn't the flattest surface to work with, but overall, she was pleased with it so far.

The other horse was done in a similar fashion, although she changed the mane up and made the small indents longer, giving it something to be different. It was unique enough to look interesting, and not like a mistake, so she decided to keep it. Alija put a little more work into the shape, rounding it a little so the heads weren't perfectly flat. Her hammer moved smoothly, the blows landing in the place they believed would work best. Sometimes, she felt like she wasn't controlling the hammer, but was only working to support. It moved in ways she wouldn't have thought of, the hammer being the true creator of all her work.

To bring them together, she heated the whole shoe, bringing them together with light taps in order to not disfigure the shoe. She brought one down first, before bringing the other to lie its muzzle on the first's forehead. Alija shook her head, not liking the look, so pulled them out again, this time trying to do both at the same time. She preferred the look she ended up with, with both fairly symmetrical, so finished it off with a last heat and quick brush with the wire brush, a few flakes falling off the metal.

For the finishing touch, she strung a string through the holes on the horseshoe, tying them on the end to create a a hanger. Perfect. The blacksmith held up her work, admiring the detail she had put into the heads. This wasn't actually that bad. Rather fun actually. She smiled, placing the horseshoe decoration down, and preparing for her next ornament.

[Alija]

This one would be a rose. For this, Alija had a fairly large spike that she had found a few days before and kept to reuse in a moment like this. She heated it at the base of the fire, before securing it tightly in a vice. Hammering parallel to the floor, she began to upset the metal, thickening it while shortening it. The soothing tap, tap, tap lasted a decent amount of time, joining her colleagues hammering. With the spike now flat, and rather small but fat, she took a chisel and began to to mark the face of the metal into four square shaped quarters. Once she had, Alija cut each one in half from corner to corner, so there were four inside and four outside sections.

The blacksmith heated the metal more, forcing the chisel to cut the section until about an inch down, with hard blows of the hammer which twisted the metal in places. She wasn't exactly happy with the way she had cut it, but Alija moved on anyway.

The section beneath the petals needed to be drawn out to form the stem, so she heated the metal up, creating small ridges before spreading them down. With constant flips and spins, the metal became rounded, and much thinner than before. Once the neck had been made, Alija drew it out more, occasionally spinning the hammer in her hand, or placing it down to wipe some sweat off her brow.

When all the metal, except for the rose head, had been drawn out to a thin stem, she returned to concentrating on making the petals. First, she used a pair of tongs to grab each petal and pull it down, a movement that made the steel more spread apart so each petal could be concentrated on separately.

As she was doing this, Donovan walked over, searching for some more metal to continue his sculpture. As he did, he spotted Alija's horseshoe heat, and picked it up, hanging it from his finger. "This is pretty skillful," he admitted, spinning it round to examine it, "How did you do it?"

Alija smiled, pausing slightly on her work and placing the hammer down next to it. "My father once showed me how to make a horseshoe into a heart - simple, really, just a little bit of hammering to get it in the right shape. I thought I would make it more interesting by finishing the ends off as horses, which was just guessing, really."

Donovan nodded, before gesturing towards the metal that was resting on Alija's anvil. "A rose," she explained, pulling a small piece of chalk from the pocket on her apron, and drawing the square face and how she had divided it, "Each one of these will be a petal. I just need to draw it out, then pull them closer together and into more of a flower shape."

She smiled at him, before returning to her rose, heating it up before starting to draw out the petal, just like she had explained.

[Alija]

Alija adjusted the hammer in her hand, getting a firmer grip on it, before resting the petal that she wished to work on flat against the anvil face, drawing out the metal as much as she could until she had a flat and rounded shape. Once she had done that, Alija placed the petal on the anvil horn, hammering around to make the petal a little more rounded, and then returned to the face, flipping the petal over to work on shaping the other side.

She repeated on every petal, occasionally moving one to get the other in a better position to work with. Finally, she had completed all eight, and began to prepare to put them into position to form a realistic rose. Alija only wished she had an actual rose to work from, but by now it was pointless to even go try look for one. She would just have to try picture the rose in her head as she work, and hope that it would turn out fairly realistic.

The inner petals were heated first, and with the tongs, she pulled the outer edges in a little. The first petal was wound in a tight circle, and the next layered on top of that. The metal moved as she wanted, so she tried to add creases and folds into the rose, giving it a little more life and less perfection.

The last two inner petals were pulled over to encase the other two, in a tight center section. Then the outer petals were moved into place, overlapping and slightly off where they connected to the stem.

No, that didn't look right. Alija picked up the rose at the stem, shifting it around in her fingers as she tried to distinguish what exactly was wrong with the rose she had made. Was it too large or too small? No. Too perfect or too wonky? Not really.

At last she realized that the rose was too closed, more like a bud than in bloom, which was what she wanted. Alija would need to pull the petals out a little, spread them out so the flower was more open than what it was then. Once again using the tongs, she grabbed the center of each petal, pulling it out at the top and folding it over slightly. Some she folded over more, while others only slightly. There, that was better. Alija smiled to herself as she flipped the rose around, preparing to add finishing touches to the stem.

[Alija]

At that moment she remembered how a rose had a few leaves, which had a special name that she didn't know, at the base of the flower, thin strips of plant. She had a slightly thicker section at the spot they would be found, so the blacksmith decided to try add them. She heated the section, before chiseling at it, chisel placed so the hammer blows that hit it would cause it to cut down from the very base of the flower and create a small separate leaf. Three more were done in a similar fashion, and she lodged the edge of the anvil between them and the stem, hammering down to make them flatter and more separate from the stem.

She kept the leaf in the same position as she added small chisel marks on it, before hammering the metal that had slightly distorted down. This created a rough, spiky texture along the edge of it, similar to what Alija believed a rose looked like.

After all four were done, she positioned them a little closer to the flower, each hammer movement a lot more gentle and careful, not wanting to wreck all her hard work.

She left it to cool as she used the wire brush to clean up the anvil, getting rid of all the metal that had been wasted. It was a lot, but she had no idea how to stop that. Perhaps she could ask Rals about it later. Thinking about her employer, she cast a quick glance in his direction, spotting the finished goat's head he had made. It was amazing, the detail put in it beautiful. A small tang of jealously built up in her, but she cast it away quickly. Hopefully, it wouldn't be long until she was making things to the same quality that he did. After all, all she needed was practise and determination.

She grabbed the broom, sweeping up the discarded material on the floor and mixing it with the coal dust and embers that had escaped from the fire, which had started to shrink, no longer needed by any of the workers. The bellows sat unused to the side, and the fuel supply had disappeared. It was strange how easily it had gone, and showed that the day was almost at an end. Time had flown by so quickly.

A tap on her shoulder brought her back. "A rose, my lady?" Donovan said with a grin, bringing out her metal rose from behind his back.

"Oh, thank you, kind sir," she replied, forcing a terrible impression of a posh person, "I would be honored." He passed the rose over with exaggerated movements, and took her hand, kissing the soot gently, before coughing as he breathed it in. Both erupted into giggles, only interrupted by the coughs Donovan occasionally had.

The two took their completed projects and brought them to the store room, placing them right by the door to be collected the next day. Rals appeared behind them, shocking them, as both thought he was still working.

"Finished?" he asked simply.

Both smiled, nodding.

"Both of you showed so much potential when you first came here. Glad to see the potential hasn't gone to waste," the blacksmith said, complementing their work.

"Thank you," Alija replied, nodding her head in respect. Perhaps she wasn't too far from becoming as good as a blacksmith as she wanted to be after all!

[Ball]

GRADE

Alija

Skills
Blacksmithing +3
Engraving +1
Carving +3
Socialization +1

Lores
Blacksmithing: Using a chisel to mark the center
Blacksmithing: Working both sides to keep the product straight
Blacksmithing: Symmetry
Blacksmithing: Clearing Away Metal Flakes for a Clearer Imprint
Blacksmithing: Tapping gently while heating to slowly curve ends together without damaging or breaking
Engraving: Red Hot Steel requires a delicate and steady hand
Carving (Metal): Chiseling metal to form a rose template
Carving (Metal): Applying heat and heavy hammer to cut into the metal
Carving (Metal): Downward Cuts to separate
Carving From a Drawing


I want apologize for taking so long. Amazingly written. I would've given more XP in Blacksmithing if you went further into details. It was a bit lacking I think, well done though nonetheless.

Also, don't forget that leaving hot metal like that to be cooled can lead to oxidation and then brittleness,. The rose and the ornament will break easily. Tempering them would be a smart move in the future. (Maybe something Rals or Donovan could show you later on?)


Any questions please don't hestitate to ask me, if you feel I didn't not grade this well enough or have concerns, please do not hestitate to PM me about it. As always, please mark your request in the grading queue as graded.

-Ball


CreditGoes to Lisana for this beautiful post template