Solo Written Large

[Eleret]

Spring 31, 513 AV morning Most of Eleret's tasks in the workshop were not quite like those projects she had previously devised on her own. They relied upon the same core expertise and skills, but were about producing one thing in multitudes -- or they involved tools she hadn't had the need to use in other settings. Above all else, she lacked the sense of beginning-and-end to her work here, because she produced small parts to be put together into a large system. But sometimes, a task was given her which required just one dedicated pair of hands and the application of concerted effort. Her task today was the carving of letters in a sign -- a very large sign, for it was to carry a ship's name for all the world to see. What manner of ship would be named the Tidal Daisy, Eleret could not guess; and though the sign was to be longer than she was tall, she didn't know how that might relate to the size of the ship. If it did at all. But she didn't need to know these things -- just what was to be carved. The board in question took up the entirety of her workbench, and hung over the sides into the bargain. Mindful of the end, she stepped around to the other side, a length of thin cord in hand. The Konti stretched the cord along the plane of the board, about three inches in from the long edge, double- and triple-checking its alignment with that edge before dotting glue where it folded over the ends. Three flat sticks cut to equal length let her dictate the size of the letters; a second length of cord along their bottom ends defined where the text would go. She checked the alignment of the lower cord with the upper, as well as the board's lower edge; when both guides were arranged to her satisfaction, she secured the second with dots of glue and removed the spacers. Eleret was meticulous about the measuring and placement of the guides, but not unduly slow; though care was needed, it was not exactly difficult to do. The letters would be a different story, as she took up a piece of charcoal and gave thought to how to fill the space between the threads. The letters needed to fill it all, and be evenly thick, yet not so large as to run off the end of the board before she reached the end of the name. For all the size of the sign, that was a rather more tricky prospect.

[Eleret]

Thankfully, charcoal could be wiped away. That was, after all, why she used it in the first place. Eleret drew the basic letters with smooth, flowing strokes, expansive to fill the space available: T, I, D. She stopped and erased the last letter, not having come all the way down to the bottom; then she redrew it, more successfully this time, and continued with the rest. D, A, L finished out the first word. Eleret then paused, reviewing that word as a unit. The letter sizes were okay, the spacing seemed fair; it looked workable. She moved her hand over to the blank half of the board and went on. D, A, I, S... but no, the I crowded the A and the S the I. That wouldn't do. The Konti wiped out both of the last two letters and sketched them out anew. I, S, and finally Y. There was less margin left after the Y than before the first T, but not to her critical eye too little; the left end could be cut down to match. Pronouncing that much good, Eleret went back to the beginning and made another pass with the charcoal, this time elaborating upon the frames of the letters. A point here, a flare there, an extra line linking, a crossbar. Some she had second thoughts on and erased; others she strengthened. Back and forth, sometimes three or four times over a single letter, until each looked the way she wanted. Only then did Eleret set the charcoal aside, removing the guide lines now that they were no longer required. Finally, she picked up a narrow gouge, the better to do actual carving of wood.

[Eleret]

With this tool, Eleret edged each letter with a shallow groove -- each line, each angle, each curve. She went over them all lightly at first, thin ribbons of wood curling away from her blade; then in a second pass etched the lines more definitely, and made yet a third to cut them deeper still. Wood, she had learned over time, responded rather better to many shallow cuts than a single deep gouge -- the latter was a good technique for ruining a work beyond all chance of salvage. So she took the time and effort to avoid making such an error. It had been some time since she had done work such as this, carving out large pieces of negative space on an otherwise flat board. The act brought her very first project to mind, long ago though it had been, when her expectations had been grand but her experience nonexistent. Now she knew much better how to see in the wood what she could make from it -- and to gauge more accurately how difficult the working would be. After a little while, Eleret paused and set the tool aside, shaking out her hands. The difference between that project and this lay not so much in the technique, but in the scale. Only a handful of letters in, and already she felt some need for a break. The Konti considered the task before her with a wry quirk of her lips. Maybe this task, however simple, would be a bit more taxing than she first expected. She shook her hands again, thinking them relaxed and loose, then held both out before, willing full tension into forearm, wrist, and hand. Fingers splayed to the point of a gentle but definite pull in the muscles, webbing between shimmering in the light. Eleret bent each several times: in, down, up, and back again; then finally she wiggled all of her fingers, before shaking her hands loose again. The brief exercise left her feeling fit to go back to the wood, so Eleret did.