Basic Clay Sculpting (Private, Minerva)

[Jerius]

A few minutes before the Tenth Hour of the Brightening, Jerius entered the Old Schola once more. Having registered for a Clay Sculpting class the brightening before, Jerius was eager to find the classroom and learn all he could about the basics of sculpting clay.

The elf stood still for a moment and yawned. He was also eager to get back to bed and take a nap, but the nice elven clerk he had met yesterbrightening had been quite clear: the class started at the Tenth Hour.

Jerius started walking through the halls of the Old Schola, taking the time to wave to the clerk in the Office as he moved. The elf walked by door after door, and still, Room 3B was nowhere in sight.

He stopped and sighed for a moment, looking around him. Maybe I should have asked for directions, he thought. He glanced over at room 3D, then did a double take. Was it...? He came closer to the door. Yes! I was right! he thought triumphantly, a smile spreading across his face. The elf had mistaken the B for a D. The right classroom had been in front of him all along.

Jerius made those kinds of mistakes.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, he walked to the door of room 3B, opened it, entered the room, and closed the door. He was feeling a little nervous, but he hoped he would learn a great deal this brightening. He turned to face his teacher, not knowing who or what he would find.

[Minerva]

Having located his classroom after that slight discrepancy, Jerius was lucky enough to find that he was the only apparent person in the room he had entered. It could have been taken as a tad strange, but then there was no denying that this was the room he was supposed to be in. Easels and a splattering of brushes littered the extent of the room, and crudely made statues belonging to those students taught here belied the presence of those who had come before him. Tables and chairs had been pushed roughly away to the far-lying walls of the room, apparently in order to make more space in the centre for purposes of an arty manner. A littering of windows on the wall directly opposite him allowed in a few scorching beams of sunlight, bathing the room itself in a warm aura of warmth and light.

A creaking of the door behind him, the door through which he had just entered, signified the entry of another individual. A tallish, slender man, with a shabby mop of brown, receding hair on his head, and clothes to match. A typical shirt and breeches were partially hidden by the once-white folds of an apron securely tied about his waist, cloth that was now stained in the reddish brown of dried clay. He was an amicable sort of fellow, his expression always soft, although at the same time maintaining a faraway sort of look, as though he were living in a world all his own. When he noticed Jerius already standing there, he gave a start, although the gesture was short-lived as his lips stretched themselves into an amiable smile.

“Ah, You must be my pupil ah…Jerius, wasn’t it? Well, I’ll be your teacher in ah…clay sculpting. Name’s Kelvin.”

After a spot of deliberation, the man offered one clay-stained hand to his pupil in greeting, before gesturing to the expanse of the classroom around him.

“All your lessons will be held here, in this room. One rule that I’d like you to follow at all times is not to take this too seriously ah…Art is a form of expression, creativity, and I’d like you to enjoy your time here.”

The man seemed to have an instinctive love of the word ‘ah,’ and used it quite frequently in the construction of all his sentences. After giving Jerius some more time to look around, Kelvin hauled out a couple of chairs, thrusting one towards his student whilst seating himself on the other.

“Now ah…before we get started why don’t you tell me about ah…why you want to learn about clay sculpting? What made you want to take up these ah…lessons?”

Patiently, the man waited for some response from Jerius. Whilst it did not matter what his answer turned out to be, it was a good way through which he could learn a little more about his pupil in an equally short span of time.

[Jerius]

Jerius looked around the classroom in awe, entranced by what he saw. As one who lived more or less in the slums, the golden-haired elf was one more used to very spartan surroundings. Now though, as his gaze fell upon the various easels, brushes and statues, his blue eyes displayed a sense of giddiness and anticipation, like a small child playing at the park. He started to move to the center of the room, almost feeling like a whole new world was opening up for him. When he had first signed up to learn clay sculpting, his primary purpose was to learn a profitable trade, but now, surrounded by all of this expression and creativity, he started to feel a deeper attraction to art and the possibilities it held.

However, the creak of the door behind him broke his concentration and dropped a silver on the track for his train of thought. Turning about in surprise, Jerius watched as a tall, brown-haired man entered the room. Is he another student? Jerius wondered. Or... maybe he's the teacher? Regardless, the elf moved toward the man, intent on making a proper greeting. It seemed, though, that the man was as surprised by Jerius's appearance as the elf was surprised by him.

Jerius smiled as Kelvin introduced himself, then shook the human's outstretched hand. "Nice t' meetcha, Mister Kelvin," the elf replied. He followed Kelvin's gesture to survey the room. "Oh, I think I'll enjoy it, alrigh'," he said. Taking the chair his teacher gave him, Jerius sat down in it, facing Kelvin.

Jerius thought about the question Kelvin asked him. "Why?" the elf mused. "Well... I guess I want t' learn clay sculp'in' 'cause... I want t' do somethin' fun with muh life. I ain't wantin' t' be one o' them peoples who do the same borin' thing ev'ry brightenin' fer the rest o' their life."

"Th' nice clerk in th' office went through all th' classes fer me, an' when she said clay sculp'in', I thought, 'That sounds fun, an' maybe I kin make a couple o' crowns while I'm at it,'" Jerius continued. "I want t' 'do whatcha love, don't love whatcha do,' as they say, an' I love t' do fun an' interestin' things," Jerius finished, a little surprised at himself. The words had just poured out, without any planning, and Jerius knew a little more about himself as a result.

This would probably prove to be a very interesting class.

[Minerva]

Kelvin listened to Jerius’ reponse with a notable expression of interest on his face. It was always nice to know your students set of reasons for learning a particular discipline of art, if only to gouge how one should approach the matter of imparting one’s own set of skills and teachings. The elf’s answer was one that Kelvin filed away as ‘pleasing,’ before nodding cordially towards his newest student, the smile on his face only having to broaden by the slightest amount before being recognisable as a fully fledged grin.

“Good answer. Clay sculpting for ah…fun. Very good answer indeed. As I said, don’t take these classes too seriously- the main aim here is to ah…to get you learned up in all the necessary skills and to ah…unleash the more creative side of yourself.”

Rising from his seat, the man then moved to one of the multitude of furniture piles lining the side of the room to dig out a table, small enough so he could lift it by himself, but large enough to hold a suitable large block of clay on its surface. Setting the table to the floor, Kelvin dragged the device a ways to rest besides where Jerius was sitting, before moving his own chair out of the way in a bid to create more space.

“Let’s get started right away, shall we?”

Gesturing for his student to stand, the human disappeared from view for a short while in order to fetch what looked like a sack of shiny brown…stuff. Dropping the hefty lump on the surface of the table with a dull thud, the man then emptied the contents of the dirtied sack onto the already mottled and stained surface of the table, right in front of his student.

“This is the clay. You won’t uh…be needing to use this much this brightening, so I’ll cut a piece off for you. Now I just want you to get a feel for the clay, get used to it’s texture.”

Vanishing from view once more for the briefest of seconds, the man returned bearing a considerably sized tray of tools, each with different shapes and uses. Knife-like tools, ones with blunted ends for smoothing purposes, and others that looked like nothing more than simple poking sticks. Evidently, Kelvin would endeavour to explain the proper uses of each before Jerius’ lessons were up. Using one of the sharper-edged tools to cut two generous slices of clay from the main clump, Kelvin then shoved one helping before his student, gesturing for him to get to work on it.

“Try moulding the clay with your fingers to make basic shapes. Whilst you’re doing that try to uh…think of something you’d like to sculpt as a finished piece later on. The clay’s damp now so it should be uh…nice to work with. Whilst you’re doing that I’ll go uh…get a pot of water. Let me know when you’re finished playing with the clay, or when you’ve thought of something you might want to uh…sculpt.”

With that, the man left Jerius to his own devices, heading to one corner of the room to fill what looked like a painted clay pot with a good amount of water, al in preparation for what was inevitably to come later on in these sessions.