Learning from the Artisans [Open]

15th Day of Winter, 510 AV Kietis squirmed on her spot before lifting her head to see over the taller, older Yasi in front of her. The Artinsan-- Not Artinsan, Artisan. You keep forgetting, she scolded herself. The Artisan was giving a brief lesson to some of the Yasi that had shown an interest or aptitude in glassworking, hoping to find some that had a raw talent for the skill, but Kietis could hardly pay attention to him for the distractions about her: namely, the children in front of her being two sizes too large to see past. They were of various ages, although most of them were older than she. As she had only seen nine years, not many of the children could be younger than her. Is it nine now? She couldn't remember exactly what number, but she was positive that she was bigger than she was a few days ago. Certainly she looked bigger; she didn't doubt that she had doubled in height over the past few days. ...Then again, she still couldn't see over the other children's heads. The Artinsan-- Artisan-- who was speaking to the small group changed his tone of voice, and Kietis rummaged through half-remember segments of his explanation in an attempt to figure out just what he was talking about. Attia had finally allowed her to go back into the Glass Reverie, and Kietis wasn't about to let that second -- third-- fourth?-- chance go to waste. The air was hot, nearly stifling, but she loved it nonetheless; or, more accurately, she was more than willing to tolerate it in order to have another opportunity to openly gaze at the creations lying around the area in various stages of creations. The speaker stopped, and again Kietis scrambled to determine what he had just said. She would most definitely have to be more careful than this.

[Tavaltia]

Tavaltia was wondering where the little Yasi that reminded him of himself at a young age was, she was a trouble maker who liked to tell stories. She even made makeshift clothing, he remembered wanting a pair of sontav bad enough that he built some out of strips of leather. They were poorly build and for all intents and purposes would never have worked. But they were his sontav and he was proud of them when he built them. This little girl had made herself a makeshift vinati.

When she only had a strip of old cloth she was able to make a vinati. He thinks to himself, what could she do with a needle, thread and a real set of leather. Probably hurt herself that’s what. But she has potential; there is no question behind that.

Eventually he sees her in the Glass reverie, daydreaming while one of the glass blowers babbles on. She wasn’t particularly tall, or particularly attentive for that matter, every time the glass blower said something she started shuffling around like she had already forgotten it, though she had one advantage over the rest of her class, she was creative, all those stories she told for her childhood, those would do well for her in creating almost anything, but it was time to see if she had skill with leather like she did with fabric.

Tavaltia walks up to the glass blowing instructor, and whispers in his ear so that none of Yasi can here. “There is a young Yasi here that have shown an aptitude at crafting clothing and I would like to see if she can sew thing out of leather, and since I currently have a few freshly tanned, and very supple easy to work with hides, I was wondering if I could take her along.” He then points at Kietis,

The glass blower will nod, and Tavaltia will say, pointing out at Kietis again “alright, come with me.”

[Kietis]

Kietis instinctively tensed as some unknown person pointed to her over the heads of the other Yasi. The younger ones-- for she now thought it only right to think of them as younger, seeing as she was such an important age as nine now-- sniggered and elbowed their friends, and the more daring ones (who were no doubt entertaining the notion that they could do so without drawing the attentions of one glassblower) whispered amongst themselves. The blood wasted no time in racing to her cheeks and warming her face; she managed to edge her way out of the tiny crowd and make towards the older Inarta. There was nothing innately unfriendly or menacing about him, but she kept her eyes away from his face, all the same. Her thoughts bounced about frantically and manically, searching for anything she could have done recently to draw unwanted attention towards herself. When she discovered nothing worth noticing, she went over the matter only very briefly before deciding that silence was the best response-- she had far too often attempted to talk her way out of trouble, only to land herself in a more severe discipline for it.

[Tavaltia]

Looking down at the young girl turning bright red, she was no doubt embarrassed that she was being brought into attention; He will try to smile comfortingly and chuckle a little bit while doing it. No one likes being singled out in a crowd, and he couldn’t blame her for feeling uncomfortable, everyone else was whispering and snickering, but kids will be kids, and there wasn’t much he could do about it. He will squat down to look her in the eyes and when she reaches him, he will put a hand on her shoulder and say in a whisper that only she can hear, “Don’t worry you’re not in any trouble in fact I’m here because you have earned special attention from the Leather Worker’s it just means that you did something special to catch our attention, In fact your wearing it right now, you made a vinati, We are going to find out if you can make one out of leather and thread, and then if you like it, you can keep it.”

He will stand up and hold out his hand to her, “Now give me your hand and we are going to go to my workshop, there is needles and thread there, as well as fresh made leather for you to work with. You can make the vinati any style that you like, and you can even make it with any color thread you like, and designs as well. How does that sound?” He will smile cheerfully and look at her, with a little gleam in his eye, this is his first student, and he hopes that he makes no mistakes, because if he does that could cause more harm than good. And if this girl turns out to be exceptional as her teacher he will be ecstatic.

[Kietis]

Kietis gasped as the older (and, she gathered, far more experienced) Inarta was suddenly at eye level with her, and summarily found herself captivated by the way the varying light sources in the Reverie were toying with the beads adorning his lip. She managed to listen well enough to his explanation to know that she wasn't in trouble for anything-- something that relieved her more than she expected it would-- and when his face split into a girn, Kietis could do nothing to stop the reflexive smile that tugged at her lips even if she had wanted to. Barely able to control a newfound excitement at this leatherworker's announcement (for she supposed that this was what he was, seeing as he was taking her to study a bit in the trade), Kietis latched on to his hand and followed him away from the Reverie, although she did glance sadly behind her at the furnaces just before they were out of sight.

[Tavaltia]

Tavaltia will lead the little girl to his workshop and on the walk there he will look down at her and ruffle her hair, “So what’s your name kid, I figure you have one of those, don’t you, If you don’t tell me though I already know what I’m going to call you. I’m gonna call you little green, because of your bright green eyes.” Looking down at her she was a rather average looking little girl, nothing spectacularly different about her. She was average height and build, nothing special, but she had a good head on her shoulders, and that would get her far, she would most likely be at least an Avora, a huge step up from where she was now. The nursery wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a good place to spend time, and no one truly liked it. “So do you just want to make the Vinati, or do you want to try and make something else as well? And remember, with me you can speak freely, I don’t want a quiet little Yasi, I picked you because of your creativity, and I want you to show it to me.” He will see her give a look back to the furnaces, and say, “don’t worry you’ll be able to work there and learn about glass blowing still, but you may enjoy this.”

[Kietis]

Kietis was, at first, unsure of how to respond. To say the least, she wasn't used to any of the Avora taking such a keen interest in any particular Yasi (and in her, at athat!), so she was quite dumbfounded at the questions that he was sending her way. Eventually, she managed to blurt out: "My name's Kietis, but Little Green seems just as good a name as any." Hardly anyone called her by Kietis, at any rate. It was always 'you' or 'her' or 'the little thief who's always in the kitchens'. Little Green didn't seem like such a bad name as some of the others she'd acquired. "I would like to learn how to make, ah, proper Vinati, if that would be all right." If she was honest with herself, she wasn't really certain what else there was to make in the leatherworking business; she was a bit sorry to admit that she had been so dazzled by the colorful creations of the glassworkers that she hadn't given other professions much of a thought.

[Tavaltia]

“Well then Little Green, you will learn how to make a proper Vinati today, and the decorations on it will be as colorful as you want them to be, I just have to teach you a little bit about the different kinds of stitching to use.”

He will turn her around to face an open door, “Now this is my shop, there is some leather in there all ready for you to try out, and just in case you want any help I will be sitting right there.” He will point at a large pile of furs stacked one on top of another, and pointing at a smaller pile, with a set of needles, threads, and some fresh leather next to it, he will say, “you are going to be working right there, so go sit down well I get my experiment piece.” He will reach down to the bottom of the fur pile that he will be sitting on and pulls out an older sheet of leather, covered in different threads, and different patterns none of which are connecting and some of them look like he came up with the idea for a new pattern and subsequently hated it, small tear marks surrounding them. He will point at four of the patterns and hand her the sheet of leather saying, “practice these four, they are some of the easiest ones to work on and you should be able to make a very pretty Vinati with just those four stitches.” He will sit down on his pile of furs, pick up his own needle and work, and start making a Vinati for her to compare hers to.

[Kietis]

Kietis nodded eagerly and stared at the sample he had handed her. After a moment of staring, and another, it occured to her that she would need to begin stitching if she was going to be any good at it. She grasped at the needle and thread and attempted to recreate the patterns before her, and after a second or two, she cried out in pain as the needle attacked her finger and drew blood..

[Tavaltia]

“And now Little Green you have learned the first rule of leatherworking, always wear a thimble.” He will walk over to her put light leather caps on all her fingers after making sure that the one that she had stuck was cleaned up, he will then look at her and say “now try and do it, but slowly, these will help you from getting pricked, but they won’t stop it, and when you go slow you are more likely to get it right.” He will guide her hands into the right motion, “Try moving your hands like this, it makes you less likely to stick yourself.”

He will walk back his chair and pick up a special project he has been working on, a small bag for the dice that he has been saving up for, Ovek would be proud of this creation of his, one day he take a truly impressive risk, but for now he had to settle for bad dice games. At least for now at one point he’ll take the ultimate risk and win, whatever that may be. He always wondered what it would take to survive a high cliff jump.

Not right now though, he needed to teach his skills, he has custom patterns, and new ideas that he needs to hand down, it was his duty as an artisan, and that was something that he couldn’t deny. One day soon more like than not.

Maybe he will become an Endal one day, and then he can try some creative hunting styles, like jumping off an eagle onto a walrus with a sword. That sounded like fun.

“Little Green, I have an idea, let’s use this kind of thread, it’s strong and it’s the same color as your eyes.”