Timestamp: 80th of Summer, 518 A.V.
Kelski had a long day ahead of her in the workshop. So she left Ebon minding the retail shop and set up in her workshop with Little Rhaus and Ember in tow. Ember would run as she saw fit, but Little Rhaus whom they'd all started calling LR would sing to her. The building itself seemed groggy, as if just waking up. Kelski had read in her tome that such things were common but it was up to her to wake up the structure and keep it awake. Kelski knew if she couldn't do that, the mood of the workshop would infuse her and make her own work very hard. So she placed her hand against one of the wooden walls near the forge, bowed her head, and concentrated her emotions. She visualized energy and light and bright awareness and fused it into the wall, pushing it through her will. The groggy presence took notice, and Kelski shared the plans she had for the day with the structure, showing the building how she would visit a special place later to get her design for the ring just right and how excited she was to start a new project. The building responded with its grogginess dissipating and its awareness growing interested. Creating? Kelski could tell it was interested in the process of creating. Such things made sense to her because she knew from her readings that the buildings were all about creation.
"LR will you play for us? Something soothing and hopeful, maybe a little energetic?" Kelski asked of the statue whom she'd already boosted up on the counter. Ember was sitting at another workstation, coloring with some sort of jewelers chalks Kelski had given her. Ember wasn't interested in learning a craft. Her life span was going to be too short to worry about such things. But adventures were great, and Kelski would keep her busy and take her along when she went to sketch the do the fieldwork that was required today.
Finally with Rhaus strumming a bright tune, The Gem more awake and watching and Ember out of the way, Kelski got to work.
First and foremost, she had to design a completely original piece for the wedding ring of one of the prominent associates of Goldfinger. It seemed the woman loved the long elegant decorative goldfish that she kept in her extensive gardens in the gated community. For that reason, her husband had declared he’d wanted her wedding ring to be a massive blue sapphire cut in the shape of a square wading pool, with two elegant Koi Fish with long interwoven fins entangling each other acting as the stone setting. It had to be in twenty-four carat gold. His only instructions to Kelski were that the stone needed to be brilliant and look different at every angle yet still resemble the wading pool at their home in the garden.
After a quick visit to that pool and garden with Ember to verify the size and shape of the stone she'd design, Kelski got started planning. In Jewelcrafting, half the work was planning and laying out a design, getting customer approval, and executing it. This was the business aspect of her job and unless she did a good job with the art, her customer couldn’t see her vision.
Taking her sketch pad, Kelski had carefully measured the diameters of the pool – so she could miniaturize it in jewelry – and then sat a whole afternoon sketching the koi while Ember carefully and respectfully explored the gardens. Making line after line on her parchment, Kelski had really admired how sinuous the fish were, twisting and turning in their lazy circles around the pond. Their fins were truly beautiful and it was no chore to be out and sketching them for work. The only amusing aspect was how the fish had tended to avoid her at first, even refusing to take food from her as if sensing her fish-loving eagle soul. In the end they caved and joined her, taking food and modeling for her charcoal. Their elegant motions would make crafting jewelry beautiful and interesting. The Kelvic only left when the fish made her grow hungry and she had a rough sketch of the wading pool itself, several likenesses of the koi and knew exactly what she was going to do.
As far as Kelski was concerned, the ring had to be made in three stages. First, the band had to be made, sized, and then incorporated into the other features. It then needed to be pronged in an open face eight point setting, and the koi had to be designed around it to fit down and be soldered in place with a gentle hand caging in the cut sapphire so it could never be lost. She made a mock up sketch of the final ring, carefully to add in the details, and then scheduled with the Goldfinger associate a certain Kalvin Devanto, to come in and approve her final rendering. She also asked him to bring his future wife so she could be fitted to a proper sized band. The sketches she showed to Kalvin Devanto, and she only fit ugly plain ring blanks on Nancy Devanto-to be’s finger… withholding the surprise of the ring. Much to Kelski’s joy, it turned out Nancy’s finger was a nice fat eight which gave Kelski more room to play than she would have with her design if the woman had been say a six or four.
Kelski then had to order in a chunk of sapphire of gem quality large enough to work. She sent Aer’wyn down to the port to pick it up when the buyer sent word he had acquired one. The almost twenty carat piece was rough, so much of it would have to be cut away forming the stone itself. But when she examined the stone under her lens, she saw two potential slabs big enough for the two or three carat stone Kalvin Davento wanted.
Taking a moment, Kelski held the rough sapphire in her hands and concentrated on it. She felt for the djed in her body and gently encouraged it up to her eyes. Without her jewelers lens, Kelski focused her djed letting it pool in her pupils and looked at the stone again. There was nothing special about it revealed by the auristics. It was solid, though several inclusions were within that compromised the beauty of the stone in its rough form. Her magic completely backed what her lens had told her and she released the djed to flow back into her body.
Next, she had to decide on stone cut. There was one obvious choice. The Barion Cut. It was a mixed advanced cut that was fairly rare in the jewelcrafting world. It wouldn’t be easy, and Kelski liked a challenge at this stage in her skill. The neat thing about it was that it placed a brilliant pavilion onto a fancy shaped gem. And if Kelski could step-cut the crown, she would get an amazing brilliance far greater than most other rings held. Barion cuts could be done in almost any shape, and a rectangular stone mimicking a pond would be perfect. She carefully sketched out the step cut elongated stone then got busy working on its pavilion which would show tons of light refraction beneath despite the Koi surrounding it. What was so amazing about the barion was that when cut properly it gave quarter moon facets directly beneath its girdle. They would create a characteristic crisscross shaped pattern in the center of the stone that would resemble water ripples and should delight the future Nancy Davento. It also did something nice for her as the artist. It maximized the rough gemstone she had, concentrating on its deep color rather than on hiding inclusions if it had some. The light discipline inside the gem would be amazing and it would look like a ‘fountain of light’ inside. The Devanto’s should be very pleased if it all worked out to her liking.
Kelski smiled. It might even be one of her finer pieces if she worked it right. And, lucky for her the chicken Goldie had just laid another egg so she didn’t have to go out and find ore anywhere. She had a nice 24 carat egg to melt down and use. So… with ring size verified, sketch approved, ore acquired, and raw stone sitting in front of her Kelski made her checklist.
- Form ring
- Add prongs
- Cut rough into the barion cut she wanted
- Sculpt the koi out of jewelers wax.
- Do a lost wax casting of the koi
- Assemble ring
- Polish ring
- Final approval and delivery
It would take her several days and unfortunately it wasn’t her only custom piece going. But Kelski was fine with that. She loved her work and didn’t mind staying busy day and night. It distracted her from all the things she didn’t want to think about during the day.
Count: 1504
