Solo A Child for a Child

[Seirei Dawnwhisper]

Timestamp: 11th Day of Spring, 515 AV


Seirei sat, making herself comfortable as she considered the request she had gotten the other day. One of the traders currently visiting Endrykas had lost her husband a few seasons ago, due to illness. She was the leader of those who had survived the fever, and had been instrumental in getting the surviving members of the caravan back on their feet. But she was also the mother of a five year old child. A child that she had very little time for now that she was the leader of their caravan.

The woman had approached Seirei when she had been browsing through the trade caravans yesterday. Apparently several of the caravans currently visiting the city had a loose alliance where they did what they could to help each other out. When a customer was looking for something that they couldn't provide personally, they would recommend one of the other caravans in the alliance. Word passed quickly between the caravans, and since Seirei had been looking at different kinds of wood, the traders had guessed that she might be a carver. And it was for that reason that the woman had approached her with a commission.

Seirei stared at the blocks of wood that she had been given for the job. The trader and her husband had given their daughter a doll soon after she had been born. As the child grew, that doll had become a very special friend. A well loved special friend. And that was where Seirei came in. The beloved doll was old, and it was starting to show its age. Seirei could do nothing in the way of sewing, and repairing the doll's dress, or stuffed body. But she could carve a wooden head for the doll to replace the one that had cracked, and was starting to splinter with age.

As Seirei continued to study the blocks of wood, she couldn't help but think about the child that her efforts were for. Seirei had been that little girl once. Their circumstances had been different, but there were similarities, too. Her mother had never been the leader of their caravan, and her own passion for carving meant that she spent a great deal of time learning from her mother. But there had been times when her mother had been too busy for her. Times when her work was so delicate that a small child was a distraction that couldn't be tolerated.

Life within a trade caravan was always changing. There were the core families that lived with the caravan permanently, of course. Seirei's own family had been one of those. But there were always families who came and traveled with the caravan for a season for a season, or a year or two before moving on. Sometimes life constantly on the move wasn't something people could endure for long. Other times, the family didn't get along with the others in the caravan, and they moved on before long. Or a woman got pregnant, and had to leave the caravan when her pregnancy grew too advanced for her to travel safely. Things happened.

There weren't always a lot of children to play with in the caravan. Sometimes there were children, but they were to old, or too young to be interested in Seirei. Other times, there were plenty of children, but they just didn't get along very well. Seirei had been very lucky to have a couple of very close friends her own age that stayed with her. The other children came and went over time. So Seirei understood the need for a child to have a special friend that would never leave them.

The child that Seirei was making the doll head for didn't have many other children in the caravan to play with. And most of the ones that were around were too old to be close friends, according to the child's mother. So her doll was her best, and only constant friend. For that reason, Seirei was determined to do the best she could in making the doll head. If the doll she was making a replacement head for was a lonely child's treasured friend, then Seirei could do no less than her very best to fix the child's friend.

It was for that reason that Seirei studied the blocks of wood so carefully. She wanted to choose the best one for the task. Both blocks of wood were roughly the same size. And both were of good quality. One was slightly darker than the other, but both had a nice, dark, even tone to them. There were no flaws in either that Seirei could see. But after close examination, Seirei noticed that the grain in one of the blocks of wood had a more pleasing look to it that the other. It was a very subtle difference, and one that a child likely wouldn't notice on a conscious level. But Seirei wanted the doll's head to look as perfect as she could make it. And since the head of the doll wasn't going to be painted, it was very important that the wood itself looked nice. So that was the block of wood that she chose.

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[Seirei Dawnwhisper]

Decision made, it was time to get to work. Seirei set the other block of wood aside, and picked up her chisel. She began by staring at the block of wood she had chosen until she had the image of what she wanted to create firmly in mind. Then she set her chisel against the block, near one of the corners. When she pressed against it, she felt the chisel bite into the surface of the wood. She pushed the chisel away from her, scraping off a curl of wood as she did so. It was a comforting sensation. A second curl of wood joined the first. Then another. And another. Her efforts paid off, and the corner of the block slowly disappeared, replaced by a rounded surface.

Six of the other seven corners of the block received similar treatment. But the final one was left as it was. Seirei needed to leave a "neck" of sorts. Something that could be inserted into to cloth body of the doll itself so the head could be firmly attached to the doll.

Once the corners were rounded down, Seirei began work on the four edges of the block. Like the corners, they had to be rounded down since the desired shape of the finished product was a sphere. But of the two tasks this was the more challenging of the two. When rounding the corners, she had been dealing with a smaller area. Had she made a mistake, and taken too much wood off, she would have been left with a small depression in the wood. She would have been able to even it out without too much effort.

With her current task, a mistake would be more difficult to correct. If she took too much wood off while rounding out the edges, a larger area would be involved. A mistake now could leave the doll head with a slightly lopsided look that might not be correctable. If she tried, she would be able to even it out, of course. But doing so might leave the finished product too small to be usable for what she wanted.

So Seirei paid close attention to what she was doing. She hummed softly as she worked, but the song allowed her to focus more easily on the task at hand. Ever since she had given birth to Lukar and Lira, she had grown accustomed to listening for the slightest sound that might mean that the twins needed something. She was used to constant noise of some sort in the background. And if it grew too silent, she began to worry. Silence often meant that something was wrong...or was about to go wrong. So the soft sound of her humming was a comforting one.

When she was finished rounding out the edges of the block, Seirei paused to examine her work. She was rewarded by the sight of a mostly rounded sphere. It was larger than she wanted it to be, but Seirei decided that she would work on that later. Instead, she flipped the sphere upside down so that she could work on the corner that she had left for the neck.

Using she chisel once more, she began shaping the corner into a narrow rod shaped thing coming out of the sphere. With careful shaping, it was roughly as thick as two of her fingers pressed together. Further shaping made the rod approximately the same length as her middle finger. Seirei examined her work, and nodded with satisfaction. That should give the trader something to work with when it was time to attach the head to the stuffed body of the doll.

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[Seirei Dawnwhisper]

Shaping the rod needed to attach the wooden head to the doll's body left the sphere somewhat misshaped. But Seirei didn't mind because correcting the shape of the sphere would also allow her to make it small enough to fit the doll it was meant for. That was the next task, and Seirei got right to work. She started at the bottom of the doll head, using her chisel to shape the area around the rod she had created. From there, she moved up, using her chisel to even out the sides so that the head didn't look top heavy. Once she had taken off enough wood to get the doll head down to the size she needed it to be, Seirei began rounding out her efforts in order to regain the desired sphere shape.

This was a very delicate task because she couldn't afford to take off much more wood as she corrected the shape. If she did, the doll head would be too small for the doll, and her efforts would have been wasted. So she kept the image of what she wanted to create firmly in her mind as she worked. Each and every stroke of chisel against wood was carefully thought out before it was made. She pictured what the doll head would look like once she had removed the curl of wood, and compared that to the image she had in her head of the final product. It was slow, painstaking work, but her efforts were well rewarded when she saw the image in her head taking shape in reality.

When she was done shaping the doll's head, Seirei set her chisel aside, and examined her work carefully. Satisfied that it was the right size and shape, Seirei picked up her smoothing cloth. Using small, circular motions, she began smoothing out the rough areas she had inadvertently made as she was shaping the head. Since this was going to be part of a young child's toy, it was very important that she get this next step in her project done perfectly. Any rough areas that she accidentally missed could result in splinters that would hurt the child. And that was unacceptable.

With that thought in mind, Seirei finished her first attempt at smoothing the rough areas on the doll's head, paying close attention to what she was doing. Then she examined her progress minutely, running her hands over the surface of the head to test for places she had missed. She found a few, so she started over from scratch. As she rubbed the smoothing cloth over the doll's head vigorously, she thought of her twins. In a few months when they were old enough for such things, it might be nice if she made some dolls for them, too. Well, the heads for the dolls, at least. She would have to try and find someone who was willing to make the soft stuffed doll bodies for her, and attach them to the heads. Perhaps Teisaia or Rytira would be able to do it for her. And if not, they probably knew someone who could.

Seirei examined her work again. This time, she was happy to see that she hadn't missed any rough areas. She set her smoothing cloth aside, and studied the doll's head. The trader had told her that she had some yarn that she planned to glue onto the head that Seirei made for hair. Seirei tried to picture what the head would look like once that had been done. She needed to etch the doll's facial features onto the head, and before she could do that, she had to picture exactly what she wanted to do in her head. Things like placement of the eyes in relation to the nose, and the hair were very important. And since she didn't have a model to work from, she needed a very clear image in her mind that she could use as a reference.

That was where Seirei ran into trouble. She needed a very clear mental image to work from...but she couldn't picture one. Not one that was good enough to work from, at least. The facial features she kept imagining were vague, jumbled ones. Eyes, noses, ears, and mouths came in all sorts of sizes and shapes. And those blended in Seirei's mind as she tried to imagine them now. With a sigh of frustration, Seirei set the doll head she was working on aside.

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[Seirei Dawnwhisper]

It was quickly becoming clear to Seirei that she needed a reference to work from. So she got her sketch book and charcoal sticks out. She had the clearest idea of what she wanted to do with the eyes, so she practiced drawing those first. Eyes in their most basic form were ovals. Seirei started with those first. She opened her sketch book to the first blank page, and began drawing ovals of all different sizes. As she drew them, her hand got used to the feeling of drawing the lines needed to form the shape.

When she had drawn several ovals, she stopped to look at what she had drawn. Eyes had angles at each end, forming the corner of the eye. So she practiced drawing angles next. Once she had drawn a lot of those, she combined the two shapes. That gave her the basic eye shape that she needed. Seirei practiced drawing an eye over and over in a variety of sizes. She wanted to master the feeling of what it felt like as she drew the shape she wanted. That would help her when it came time to make the actual eyes for the doll's head. The movements would feel right to her.

Eyes had colored pupils, so that was what Seirei started to practice drawing next. Pupils were circular, so she began drawing lots and lots of circles. Big ones, and small ones. Ones with thick lines, and ones with thin lines. As before, she focused on what it felt like to draw the circle as she practiced drawing the basic shape. Once she had gotten a firm grasp on that, she added a smaller circle within each circle she drew. After all, pupils were a ring of color surrounding a black dot when it came to drawing them. So she continued practicing drawing circles. But this time, she drew circles within circles.

After she had gotten a good feel for that, she began putting it all together. Drawing the eye shape first, and adding the circle within a circle inside the oval of the eye. This was harder to do than practicing the basic shapes because she had to worry about the sizes of each shape. If the circles that were meant to form the pupil were too big for the oval part of the eye, it would look wrong. The same was true if the circles were too small. As a result, this step was the hardest to master.

Seirei knew that since she was working on a child's toy, it wasn't absolutely crucial to add a lot of details to the doll's facial features. That was a good thing since her drawing abilities wouldn't allow her to do so. But she wanted to get what she could do perfect. It was a matter of professional pride to give nothing less than her best effort no matter what she was working on.

Once she was satisfied with her ability to draw the eyes, Seirei picked up the doll's head once more, studying it carefully. She imagined what it would look like once the hair had been glued on. With that image firmly in mind, she used her charcoal stick to draw the eyes. She wanted to draw them while she had the feeling of the proper movements fresh in her mind.

She examined her work, and decided that the eyes were as good as she could make them. So she set her charcoal stick aside, and picked up her pick. She studied the doll head carefully, wanting to get the placement of the eyes right. Then she carefully etched the eyes into the wood. She worked slowly, wanting to get it done properly. The pick left a nice, even indentation as she pressed it into the wood lightly. With each line she made with the pick, the shape of the eye began to form, and the charcoal drawn lines were replaced by indentations etched into the wood.

Once again, she examined her work. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it wasn't that bad, either. And for a child's toy, it was good enough. So Seirei went back to the drawing board. Literally. She set the doll head aside in favor of her sketch book. She began practicing drawing noses the same way she had worked on eyes.

Since she didn't need a great deal of detail, she focused mainly on drawing curved lines. She tried drawing them at different angles, and different lengths. She tried drawing angles, but quickly decided that she didn't like that type of nose for what she was doing. Likewise, she decided that a simple curved line worked better than a full circle after a few attempts.

It didn't take her long to find a shape that she liked. When she did, she turned her attention back to the doll head she was working on. With pick in hand, she took a few ticks to decide where she wanted the nose to be. Then she carefully etched it into place.

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[Seirei Dawnwhisper]

The ears were the hardest part. She could draw the curved line for the outer ear easily enough. But adding any kind of detail that would make her efforts look like a real ear was tricky. And while she didn't need much in the way of detail for a young child's toy, it had to look like an ear. The problem was that she hadn't spent a great deal of time studying what an ear looked like. Still, she knew the generic shape, and that would have to do.

Seirei used her charcoal stick to add a second curved line just inside the first, creating a rim of sorts. But she made the second one shorter than the first. Then she extended the first curved line, making a weirdly shaped oval where the bottom was considerably more narrow than the top. After that, she added something similar to an elongated spiral, but one that ended in a triangular shape rather than a circle.

She eyed the ear she had drawn. It looked like an ear...sort of. So she practiced drawing it over and over again several times. When she was confident that she could recreate the image on the doll's head, she set her sketch book aside, and used her charcoal stick to draw an ear on each side of the head. As she did so, she took a few chimes to decide exactly where each ear should go, and to be certain that they were even. It wouldn't do to have them on different spots so it looked like one ear was higher than the other, or something.

When she was ready, she exchanged her charcoal stick for her pick, and carved the ears into the doll head. The mouth was a much easier prospect. Since she didn't need to worry about making it too detailed, she decided that a simple curved line that would give the impression that the doll was smiling would be good enough. She didn't bother to practice drawing it first. Nor did she take the time to draw the smile onto the doll head first. But she did take the time to position the mouth properly so that it wouldn't make the rest of the face look weird.

Once she had finished carving the facial features, Seirei put her sketch book and charcoal sticks away. Then she got out her paints, and a few bowls to mix them in. Since she wasn't planning to paint the head itself, she didn't think that most of the facial features needed to be painted in. But she thought that adding a little color would be a nice touch, so she decided to paint the eyes. The trader's daughter had blue eyes, so deciding on a color was easy.

Seirei broke off a small corner of her blue cake of paint, and added water from her water skin. She did the same with the black paint. When both were at the desired consistency, Seirei poured some water into a third bowl so she could rinse off her paint brush as needed. Then it was time to get to work.

She started by dipping the smallest brush she had into the black paint, and coating the bristles completely. She then began tracing the outline of the eye with it. Every so often, she would stop to examine her work. She wasn't good at painting, but for this, she didn't need to be. She could paint in an even line, and all she was doing was following an outline of a simple shape. On impulse, she added some small curved lines for eye lashes. Finally, she painted in the center of each eye.

When she was done, she rinsed the brush off vigorously, before dipping it into the blue paint. Like before, she made sure to coat the bristles completely. She used the blue paint to fill in the middle circle of the eye; the part that was meant to be the pupil. Then she rinsed off the paint brush, and examined her work. She was satisfied that a child would like it, so she decided that she was finished.

Seirei set the doll head aside so that the paint could dry. Then she picked up the second block of wood. The trader had given it to her in case she messed up her first attempt. But Seirei decided that she would use it to make a second doll head. That way, the trader would have a replacement already when normal wear and tear required the head to be replaced again. Although she hadn't been asked to make two replacement heads, Seirei figured that making a second one for no additional cost would build loyalty. The trader would hopefully be pleased enough by her gesture that she would mention Seirei to her friends. Perhaps word would travel, and other business would come to her as a result. With that thought in mind, Seirei picked up her chisel, and got to work once more.

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[Tribal]

G R A D E S

Seirei

Experience

• Observation: 4
• Planning: 2
• Carving: 3
• Logic: 1
• Endurance: 1
• Drawing: 2
• Painting: 1
• Cleaning: 1

Lore

• Carving: A wooden doll's head
• Life with a traveling caravan isn't easy
• Wood: Working with the grain
• Assembling a wooden doll
• Observation: Examining finished work for imperfections
• Drawing facial features
• Painting: Brush sizes and their uses

Notes

Nice, I liked the idea of carving a doll's head; good change from your usual. Enjoy the rewards.