Sculpting Clay (Beginner - Self Mod)

[Elric van Maer]

Month of Ioannes, Summer, Era XI Post-Fractum in the Age of the Darkening

Elric hoped his first brightening at the New Schola would be a good one. As he walked into the building for the now second time, he began to notice details he hadn't before. This was likely because the first time he had entered, he had done so in a bit of a hurry. This time he had to stay and take in his surroundings. This time he had his first class in clay sculpting, an art he hoped would entertain his various interests.

He walked the hallways of New Schola looking for the appropriate class room. He didn't have to look for long, for it was on the first floor and near the front door at that. If anything, Elric had taken the long route to find it in the first place. And then, having arrived, he walked in through the open door to find himself amoung two other students, a number of worn tables, and at the head of the class, a tall man sitting on a stool.

"Serale," the man said to Elric, "I'm your teacher, Edward, you must be Elric."

Elric smiled at his new teacher and shook his head to confirm the teacher's guess. Then he found a seat that suited him, in the front and near the door. The tables they sat at were in two colums, three deep. At most the room could probably only sit twelve students. There would be much fewer than that in this class. At the moment there was only Elric, a chubby red-headed boy named Stephen, and a middle-aged woman named Clydelle.

"Now that you are all here, lets begin," the teacher, Edward, said to the three, smiling.

Elric now understood how the teacher had known his name and was thankful for the small class. They would each get personal attention now, something Elric looked forward to with his interests and what not. He wanted to make sure he was doing everything right when it came to clay sculpting. And later on in the cycle, he would start asking questions to seek out his "other teacher."

"Okay, good. Now, as I've told you, I'm Edward. You can call me professor or Edward, whichever is more comfortable for you. To start I want each of you to put away any parchment and writing utensils you brought for this class. They will not be needed."

Nodding, Elric made a mental note not the bother bringing either to class next time. This time he hadn't even brought it out yet, while Stephen and Cydelle had. He didn't feel smart or even clever for having done this, just lucky that he didn't have to bother fidgeting with his bag.

"Now, a brief and fundamental breakdown of what this course is and how it can prepare you for future endeavors. First of all, welcome to Clay Sculpture. In this class you will learn the basic skills for creating, handling and molding clay. This class will prepare you for more advanced classes in clay sculpture. It will also prepare you for hobby crafts you may do at home. Some clay workers even begin classes in stone sculpting. My point is, clay sculpture can be rewarding on a number of levels so people take it for various reasons. I'd like to start off the class by asking each of you what yours are if you will share?"

The first to answer was Stephen, who sat behind Elric. He claimed to be in the class because his father had taken it awhile ago and wanted his son to also learn how fun sculpting clay could be. They were no doubt an affluent family to be able to send their child there just "for fun." Next to answer was Cydelle, who spoke with a soft and sweet voice. She was in the class as a favor to her daughter who wanted her to keep busy now that she was alone. She went on to tell the class that her husband had died of the pox and that she hadn't really been out and about since.

Elric answered with a zest that could only be attributed to new a student. "I'm learning clay sculpture so that I may become a profitable artisan one brightening!" Of course, by artisan he meant something a bit different than the general application, but was being honest none the less. Edward was pleased to hear that he had an aspiring professional in his class.

"Good, very good Elric. Very good all of you, lets begin."

[Elric van Maer]

"Alright, first of all, everyone take a look at the table in front of you," the teacher said.

Elric looked at the worn table in front of him. It was wood, painted black, and covered in spilt paint, scratches, grooves, and dried clay. It wasn't much to look at by any stretch of the imagination. The two other students looked as well, each with similar mental notes, though Cydelle found it quite fascinating and wandered what great works of art had been molded where she was sitting.

"These tables, while not clean or ornate, are very important tools. They are the canvas for your paints, which is the clay. They have been scratched, smashed, and painted a number of times. And the best part about them is that you don't have to worry about spilling anything, dropping anything, or keeping them clean. You may make them messy, you may stab them, you may do all but break one in half or light it on fire."

Elric smiled at the final comment, finding it humorous. These tables were indeed a tool for him and began to see them as so. Still, in his mind he wondered why metal ones hadn't been crafted. They could be wiped clean easily, would be stab-proof, and would look nicer longer. But then again they could also scratch and smudge, leaving a not so pleasant looking top. He figured it was likely due to cost. The cost of a wooden table of this large size was still considerably cheaper than a metal one, and perhaps the clay reacted better to wood than steel.

"Now everyone, look up here," Edward said, immediately stepping to the side to let the class see a large cloaked cube. What was underneath the cloak was meant to be secret, but to anyone with half a brain it was obviously the clay they would be using for class. Edward pinched the cloak on top with his right hand and pulled up, unveiling the surprise beneath. "This is your clay for this class," he said with a wave of his hand and toss of the cloak.

Sticking out of the top of the cube of reddish-khaki clay, were two small wooden pegs with wire attached. The teacher did not address them at first. "This clay is high quality clay brought in from the mainland. We also have high quality clay here in Demios. This clay is to stay in this room unless you have permission to take it with you home."

"If you would like some clay to practice outside of class, it is readily available to you in nature. I'm not suggesting running around the forest to find a clay deposit. Instead I'm going to suggest to you how to make your own molding clay. Simply add sand to mud and mash together. A good amount of sand is needed, as is a long process of needing the two together. There is sand on the beaches and mud everywhere, so it is free and readily available. Also you can purchase clay at a couple of the shops in town."

Edward grabbed the two pegs with the wire attached and held it up for the class to see. "This is cutting wire for the mass clay. The mass clay is what I call the original cube of clay I bring into the class. This cutting wire is to be grasped at both ends on the wooden pegs and then sliced into the clay, pulling it until one has a large enough piece of clay for their task." He showed them how to do it by placing his hands on each peg, his fingers wrapping around it, and then placing the wire on the top right corner of the mass clay in such a way that his arms were up and elbows down. Then he sliced into the clay down and towards him to cut out a corner chunk of clay. "The wire isn't sharp, so don't worry about cutting yourselves."

He placed the tool down and pointed to their tables. "You'll also notice a small bowl of water on each of your tables. This water is to keep your clay moist for easy molding. Make a mental note of that, it's very important."

[Elric van Maer]

Elric was the first of the three students to walk up to the front and get his clay. Edward had asked them to come forward and handle the wire, and Elric was eager to get started. He never figured it would be as fun as it was seeming to be. Taking the wooden pegs in both hands, he ran the wire through a corner in the block of clay, slowly bringing the wire towards himself. He quickly had a moist chunk of clay in his hands the size of a large candle.

"That will do nicely," Edward said as Elric headed back to his table. The tubby red-headed boy was up next, taking the pegs in both hands and slicing himself a chunk about the same size as Elric's. Cydelle also cut herself a piece of about the same size, though a bit smaller. It seemed to fit her nicely. "Very well class," the teacher said as all three students took their seats, "Lets start by placing the clay firmly down on the table so it sticks just enough to keep it upright."

All three students did just as he said. Elric understood the concept. If the clay was pressed just firmly enough into the table, there would be just enough binding traction to keep it from moving or falling over. "Now, everyone wet your hands just a bit, then grasp your clay and rub it smooth all the way around. You'll basically end up making it look like a cone shape or mountain perhaps."

As he was told, Elric wet his hands and grabbed hold of the clay. It was soft and dense beneath his fingers. And when he moved them, the clay moved with them, like a thick, resistant mud or even sand. He loved the way it felt beneath his fingers and was surprised at how firm he had to be with it in order to do any shaping. Still, he did just as the teacher had instructed him and enjoyed every second of the cool clay beneath his palms. He pushed hard with the tips of his finges to push the clay and then brought his palm down in order to shape it into a circular construction. The clay continued to get taller since none was being broken or pulled off. When Elric was done, he had a clay "thing" about two and a half feet tall. He looked around and saw that everyone else had pulled part of their off to round off.

"Good job all. I see Elric has taken a bit different path in the assignment. Nothing wrong with it of course. You want to go tall and that's a great attribute of a future artist." Elric nodded his head in thanks and thought about that for a moment. Perhaps it was a sign that he was doing the right thing, walking the right path. Perhaps Carmelya, the goddess he had all but forgotten had not forgotten him. Perhaps his prayers were answered.

"Alright, this is what we are going to do." He walked towards the front table where Elric sat and looked out at everyone. "I want each of you to pull off as much clay as you need from the chunk you already have at your table. And I want you to mold that clay into a bowl. I'm going to give you a little while to do it, and I'll be up here if you have any questions." He walked up to his desk, had a seat, and began messing around with a piece of clay as well.

Elric grabbed a large chunk of his portion of clay and got to work. At first he just started with rounding out the chunk he had, pounding it on the table to make it flat on both ends. Then he rolled it on the table as well. And then Elric placed his fingers in the middle of the cylinder and began to push down and dig out a hole. He widened the hole by pressing down and out and eventually had something that looked kind of like a bowl. It looked more like a mug that had been stretched and flattened, however that was possible.

Cydelle's bowl looked much better than Elric's, but Stephen's didn't. Stephen's couldn't have held water if it wanted to. It was so thin it had holes in it everywhere. The teacher, Edward, finally stopped the class and took a look at everyone's bowls. "Very good Cydelle, your technique was a good one. Everyone, Cydelle first basically flattened out her piece of clay, then shaped it up like a bowl." He then turned to Elric, "Yours is also not bad Elric, and I think with more time to prepare you would have made an even nicer piece." Next was Stephen's to which Edward smiled and said, "And Stephen, your shape is right, but you used too little clay and tried to stretch it too far. Next time, get more clay when it is looking thin." Stephen nodded in understanding.

"Next we learn to use a wedge."

[Elric van Maer]

Elric, Stephen and Cydelle were all handed wedges, which were simply triangular wooden blocks of wood, each quite small. Edward returned to the front of the class after handing them out and began instruction in their use. By moving a stack of books off his desk, the students could see the block of clay he had been working on his desk. While it originally had looked much like theirs had, it was now tall and cylinder in shape. Completely smooth in fact, this teacher definitely knew what he was talking about.

"Alright," the teacher said as he sat down at his desk. "Can you all see?" Each of the students nodded in confirmation and Edward continued. "Good. A wedge is a useful tool to the sculpter. It can be used to flatten sides, shape edges, and even make imprints." As he spoke, he demonstrated with the wedge each action he mentioned. First he placed the wedge vertical on his cylinder, showing how one could flatten a surface with it. Next he showed how to form edges by placing it horizontal on the top of his clay. And thirdly he showed how to make an impression by pressing one end of the wedge into his smooth clay.

"I can use the edges and corners of this wedge to form details in my sculpture, like broad facial features or flower features." He pressed into the clay a couple more times in a circle and then turned it towards the class. The result was a flower made out of wedge marks. Whilt it lacked any great detail, it was aesthetic in its own right. This excited the students who couldn't wait to "draw" with their wedges. "Now I want each of you to take some time to experiment with your wedges in any way you'd like. You don't have to make anything in particular, just invision something and work on it with your wedge."

Each student, wedge in hand, began toying with their new found tool. Elric flattened out his "bowl" and kneeded it into a ball. Then with the wedge he placed it against the table and flattened out two of the sides. And then the other two, and so forth and so on until he had something that resembled a box. He was amazed at how useful the wedge could be. "Such a simple object with such a wide scope," he thought to himself. Each student was happy to mess around with their wooden wedge. Stephen had flattened out his bowl and was making marks in his clay in the shape of a undetailed face. Cydelle chose to use her wedge on her bowl, flattening the top edges and decorating the sides ever so softly.

After a good while, Edward stopped helping each student individually and stepped back in front of all of them at the head of the room. "Alright students, class is over now. I know, you wish you could sit there and play with your clay all brightening, but I have an advanced class to teach now. Remember what I told you about how to secure clay outside of this class. Also, be thinking of a project for yourself to sculpt. I want it drawn out on something by the start of next class. You can even come early and use chaulk to draw it on your tables. I'll see you tomorrow."

Each student put down their wedges and clay. Elric wet his hands in his water and dried them by shaking them to the floor. Then with the others he stood up, grabbed his things, and left.

[Elric van Maer]

Ah, clay sculpting. Elric liked it enough, but his mind wandered to his real loves, science and alchemy. He wanted to get back to Vortex and start his next level class in alchemy, but he knew the only way to do that would be to get there on his own. His parents wouldn't support him any further, but he had a decent sum in his pocket and perhaps he could find a way there as soon as his sculpting class was over. Either way, he took some pride and enjoyment in his new found artistic skills. He arrived the next brightening to class with a great idea for a final project.

"Hello," Edward said to Elric as he entered the classroom. Elric smiled and nodded as he hurried to his table, "Do you have a good idea of what to make for your project?" Elric nodded and commented "I want to make a crucible." Edward's head snapped in shock, "A crucible, but why do you...you know what, nevermind. I'm just shocked you even know what one is." Elric could have said the same thing to his teacher but declined the chance, "Do you think I'll be able to do that?" His teacher nodded, "Well, make sure it's thick and we'll bake it so it will be functional."

Elric was excited and immediately took the chaulk from his pocket and began drawing his future crucible on the table. Next came in Stephen and then Cyndelle. Stephen also took out chaulk and began drawning on the table. Cyndelle was instead carrying a folded piece of parchment with her drawing on it. When Edward asked them to all share what they were going to make, Elric found out that Stephen was going to make a clay snake and Cyndelle was going to try to make a mug with a handle. "Alright you three, I already placed clay on your tables and you have small bowls with water to keep it moist, remember to keep it moist and if you need to make thick walls, use more clay."

Elric got started on his creation, as did the others. Using plenty of clay, Elric started by wetting it a bit with his fingers. Then he created the base of the crucible by rolling out a round base about one-inch thick. Edward walked over while he did that and smiled, "That's a good thickness if you want it to function. Might I suggest making rings and stacking them one on another for the sides, then bring them together and smooth out the inside at the end." Elric nodded, it had been a great thought actually and Elric started to do as told immediately. He began rolling small rings of clay, long enough to wrap around the outside of the base to make "walls." Then he laid each ring on to the base and on top of eachother, creating round walls. It only took five of these rings to make the wall tall enough, but now he had to smooth them out on the inside and maybe on the outside too. And he also needed to make sure with his teacher that they were thick enough.

"Good Elric." the teacher said as Elric showed him, "Smoosh the inside rings together to make it smooth, you might want to use some water and add more clay if necessary." Elric nodded and began smoothing out the clay on the inside by pushing the humps of the circles together.

[Zim Rage]

"Very good class," Edward said in his deep soothing voice, he spoak slowly and deliberatly, "When your finished with crafting your project we can put it in the kiln and bake it so it is permanent. Once it's baked we can paint them, if you like to add a nice touch as well, but the painting is optional."

Once Elric finished moulding his crusible he brought it up to Edward, and the tall teacher called out, "Alright class, our first project finished is Elric's here, I want to show you all how to fire a Kiln, get it up to temperature, and keep it that way. As you can see a Kiln is nothing more then a two part ovan, The bottem part is a furnace, you place the wood in there to burn obviously. Then you put the other part in the other section, on top of a tray, This lets the object get surrounded by the heat and is baked with convection makeing a more even process. Now you need to use a bellow to get the fire in the furnace going really fast, you'll know it's up to temperature when the gauge here says it is. Now different clays will bake at different temperatures, but for right now, you just need it to be in this range. Now let it bake for several hours. If you did everything right, then you'll get a solid object in one piece. Otherwise you might have several smaller pieces, or you'll still have a soft object. Everyone understand how to use this?" Haveing found no questions Edward turns to Elric, "Alright, your done for the day, you can stay here for a while, if you'd like, or you can go home early. It's up to you."

At that point Edward walked over to Cyndelle to help her with a question, perhaps it was just to flirt, but none the less Elric was free to go if he wanted.

[Elric van Maer]

Elric watched as the teacher prepared the kiln and showed them how to get it going. He noticed the gauge Edward mentioned and thought it over for a short moment. Such things fascinated him and in this case he had seen such a device once before at a fair. It was a glass tube filled with water, and in the water was a small hollow glass droplet filled with a lighter liquid and weighed down with a small weight at the bottom. He knew from a long question and answer session with a traveling gadgeteer that the heat from the fire would cause the light blue liquid in the tiny glass droplet to rise in the water of the gauge, giving a reading at to the heat measurement. In the case of this kiln, the ideal heat was measured by a red line painted on the side. Little did Elric know, this kiln was very uncommon, as it was quite modern.

Knowing that the teacher would be cooking their clay masterpieces, Elric bid farewell to the teacher for the brightening and decided to go home early as suggested by Edward. "Regular time tomorrow?" he said.

[Zim Rage]

"Indeed, Elric," He said with a glance over his shoulder between helping Cyndelle. A few hours later when the Kiln was finished bakeing Elrics crusable Edward went to the kiln and looked into it. The crusable was completed, with a sigh Edward put on his gloves, the same type that a smith would use while working with metals. "Another one," muttered edward as he pulled out the work of clay and placed in the next object, "Another one just like me."

The next morning all of the works were set out on a table for everyone to view each others works. Elrics was in the middle, Cyndelle's mug was to the left, and Stephen's rather unornate, unorigonal snake, laid lazily to the right. After everyone entered the room and sat down Edward said in his soothing voice, "Good morning class, today is the last day of this class. You all did very well. The only thing I really want to make sure you know how to do is to make sure you know how to make your own clay. As I told you before it's basicly just mud and sand mixed together. Well it's more or less 2 parts clay, one part sand. And it needs to be mixed well. So on your tables you'll see a bowl of mud, and a bowl of sand. Just go ahead and mix all of the sand in, I've already measured it out for you. Just kneed it together until it is consistant, if you think you have it, call me over and I'll check on it."

[Elric van Maer]

Elric nodded and began. He had not made clay yet, but the idea of making his materials from scratch interested him greatly. The same had been true for his Alchemy training, though he would tell no one here of his knowledge, less he be shunned or feared. It was common knowledge, or so it seemed, that many were slow to embrace Alchemy as anything more than heretical witchcraft. Elric didn't understand this, but knew that the usual argument called Alchemy unnatural arcana and therefore heretical and evil. He simply didn't agree.

He noticed the two parts mud to the one part sand and took a moment to retrieve his notebook and write it down, as it may come in handy sometime later. Then he went to work, mixing the sand in with the mud and kneading it with his hands. The cool mud and gritty sand felt interesting between his fingers, almost good, but almost irritating at the same time. He really dug in, his hands often buried in this mix, his fingers grasping clumps of mud and smoothing them out with tight squeezes. He felt like he was kneading dough for bread, which he had done once before with his nanny during a summer trip to Narim. He thought back to it and smiled.

Elric watched as the mud and sand seemed to disappear to leave behind a more clay-looking substance. He decided it was as good a time as any to call over Edward, his teacher.

[Zim Rage]

Edward came over and inspected the clay, after packing it into a nice squar and throwing it down into the dusty table several times with many a loud thud, he packaged it up in some wax paper and handed it to Elric, "There you go, you can take your creation and your clay. I hope you enjoyed this class and continue with sculpting, Elric. You have a lot of potential in what your doing, I can see it already." Edward gave a pat on Elrics shoulder and went back to Cyndelle's table.

[Minerva]

OOC: Beginner clay sculpting approved! +2 exp.