Pottery Lessons
Note: This takes place before 'Trespassers Will Be Attacked On Sight'.
Characters: Robin, William
Location: Moledeep
Moledeep: Dibbun's Garden
Robin is sitting on the shore of the pond, his footpaws dipped into the nice cold water. It feels rather good since he's been running all day with Christopher. His arm is still in the brace so he leans on his good arm. "Hm. I wonder." he mutters to himself quietly
William is sitting by the pond working a lump of clay in his paws the otters who had been swimming had recently left to go back inside. The rat look up when Robin comes into view. "Chris wearing you out?" he asks with a smile.
Robin uhs and looks to Will as he makes himself a tad more comfortable. "Heh, yeah." he nods. "For a stoat, he's pretty energetic." he laughs. "All the stoats I've ever met have been lazy...aside from my family." he smirks.
William nods. "He's also little. Younger beasts run around more."
Robin nods. "But still. I'm not used to running around with a little one." he nods. "But Chris just keeps on going." he laughs
William hms and nods again. Working on his latest project seems to be more interesting then his eldest nephew right now.
"What are you making, Will?" Robin asks with a tilt of his head, watching the rat closely.
William shrugs, "Just a figurine." He hasn't been working on it long so it isn't very clear what sort of beast it's meant to be yet.
Robin smiles a little bit. "Cool." he nods before tilting his head the other way. "Wish I could make stuff like that." he nods. "Dad can work with rock, Kluna can draw, Chris is learning to sow rather well." he hrms.
William chuckles, "Oh my. Well if we're lucky some good might come of it and he'll be a tailor and make lots of money one day ..... or he'll pick another hobby once he gets around other dibbuns more .... ones that don't live here that is."
Robin laughs a bit. "Maybe he will. Or maybe he'll be a fighter like me one day." he shrugs a little then ows as he forgot his brace was on. "But I think Garnet and Chris are working on a small tunic for Chris." he chuckles a little.
William smiles, "Well between those two an Amy no beast around here will want for clothes. And with a little luck we wont want for food either."
Robin chuckles a little. "Yeah." he nods before laying on his back, looking to the sky. "Seems like everyone here has something their good at." he hrms.
William nods and chuckles, "Yeah seems like it. Making things is less stressful then kilin' a pack o tree-rats so ya can walk two steps."
The stoat nods and smiles. "Yeah. It does, doesn't it?" Robin laughs a little bit, continuing to watch the rat. "Uh. Will. Can I ask a favor?" He asks.
"Sure. What sort of favor were you thinking of?" the rat asks stopping to look up from his work.
Robin scratches ear and hrms. "Could you teach me how to make stuff with the clay?" he asks with a tilt of his head.
William adds the last finishing touches to the figurine as he nods, "If you want. It's not too hard once you get the hang of it. When do you want to start?" He stands up turning the new weasel figurine in his paw looking it over again for any imperfections.
The stoat smiles and nods before hrming a little, looking to his arm. "Well. How easy is it to do with just one paw?" he asks with a little bit of a laugh.
William chews on his lower lip thinking then answers,"Not very. You may have heard I broke an arm a few seasons back. .... Can't do as much with just one paw but it's not impossible t make things. Little things. Don't think you'd be able t use th wheel any with just one paw but we wouldn't be starting with that anyway. What kind of stuff would you want t make?" Will starts to walk off toward the tunnel and motions for Robin to follow if he wants to keep talking. The rat's headed for the kiln, a good place for Robin if he's ready to get to work and Will needs to either paint or put the figurine away anyways.
Robin hms a little bit and looks towards is arm, wondering if he can take the brace off now. Its been about a week, so he should be able to take it off, but he won't bother yet. He'll get Aik to tell him later. The stoat stands up and nods, following along behind the rat.
Moledeep: Worn Path - Kiln
A wooden stall sits on the side of the path kattycorner to the smithy.
Inside is a pottery kiln made from a solid stone boulder which has been hollowed out.
A door is set on the front on hinges and inside is a stone shelf so clay projects
can be set on it rather than directly in the fire below.
Wood is piled up under the shelf inside this stone oven.
When in use the fire underneath bakes the clay items on the shelf
above hardening them into useful pottery items.
To the left of the kiln are five vats for storing clay.
Color coded fitted clay lids keep the storage pits clear of impurities.
According to the lids the pits store: Red, Orange, Brown, Green and Yellow clay respectfully.
To the right of the kiln is a wide vase or urn for storing the ashes and pottery shards from the fire.
Above of the urn's lid hangs a rope which works the bellows.
The bellows for the kiln were copied from the bellows in the smithy.
At the other end of the stall a few feet from the kiln is a potter's wheel.
Behind the wheel is a small square table with clay jars and sorted tools laid out on it.
The vase by the kiln and the clay jars on the table are decorated in oranges and reds
each with a black bas-relief of moles either at work or play wrapped around them.
William enters the wooden stall that houses the pottery kiln and sets the figurine down on the table in the back. He moves the jars around on the table looking for ones he needs to finish the little weasel. "Look around all you like," he calls over to Robin but don't mess with anything yet."
Robin nods and steps inside, looking around, examining most everything. "Wow." he mutters to himself quietly as he moves around the room. "This is a nice stall you got here, Will." He nods with a smile.
William shrugs, "It hasn't fallen down yet. Aik, Kentar and I built it but were no carpenters so I'm just glad it stayed in one piece through th winter." He finds the jars he was looking for and pulls the stool by the wheel over nearer to the table and sits down. "Have a seat," he waves toward the chair on the other side of the table. "Kentar made the bellows too, copied th ones in th smithy obviously but they work fine. So aside for the furniture it was all made here one way or another."
The stoat chuckles a little as he sits down at the table next to William. "I see." Robin nods. "Dad's good at making things. Lots of things." he hrms. "Swords, kilns, statues. Usually big stuff." he grins. "We should see how he is with little stuff like clay figures or something." he nods.
William smirks, "I've yet to met a beast that can make figurines out of clay like I can. Wood yes, clay no. Though I think Kluna'd be more likely to then most. Of course I could be wrong. I can't draw or paint that well and he can. He really can. Almost should have him paint things for me but don't think he'd like that, but if he did at least I know I wouldn't have t pay him. He seems to not understand th point of selling things or getting paid for your work." the rat shrugs," His loss I guess."
Robin nods and chuckles a little. "Yeah." he replies with a bit of a tilt of his head. "So. How did you start doing making things with clay?" he asks, sitting back in his chair and watching the rat closer.
"I'm not sure. I started it, I'm not sure when. A long time ago when I was little like maybe around the twins' ages or near that. Far as I can recall I used to play in the mud, making stuff with it and one day I found some clay in th ground and started playing with that instead." Will shrugs. He doesn't really remember when it started but the explanation he came up with sounds close enough to be truth. It seems to him that he's always been making things from clay or similar. He can't remember a time when he wasn't
Robin nods slowly and closes his eyes as he listens to the rat speak. "Ah. I see." he nods. "Well. However long you've been at it, your amazing." he smiles. "Don't think I'd ever get to be as good as you are, no matter how hard I try." he then hrms. "And I don't think you'd be as good at climbing as I am." he laughs. He can climb just as good as Kluna or any squirrel. Getting down is something completely different however.
William nods in agreement, "Rats aren't really made for climbing. But I am getting better at it." He replaces the lids on the jars he'd been using and returns them to their designated spots having finished painting the 'kluna' figurine. "I'm going to wait for that to dry before I fire it, don't want to mess up the paint with moving it," the rat says pushing away from the table. "So you still want to try and make something? I may be good at this stuff but I'm really maybe a journyman if that not a master by any stretch," the rat continues walking the short distance over to the clay vats.
Robin sits up and nods once or twice. "Yeah, I would." he smiles. The stoat sits up and looks to his arm. "I can do it with just one arm...right?" he asks, having forgotten he already asked earlier.
William smiles having learned his lesson after working with Venei. "Ok get that thing over there to work with and I'll get you some clay to get started on." the rat points to a large slab of stone that has been cut so the top is flat and level then polished to give it a smooth surface. The stone is just the right hight to be used as a small table for any small to middle sized beast that's sitting on the floor. Will goes over to the brown vat and removes the lid. Brown is the most abundant color of clay he has followed by it's darker shades: orange and red. He scoops out a small pawful of clay and dumps it in a roundish lump on one end of the stone 'table' before walking back over to recover the vat. "Ok as you can't use the wheel you can just play around with that and see if you like it or not and if you do I can show you how t make a pinch pot. They're real easy t make and I think we can get could mange one even though you only have one good paw right now."
Robin hums and ohs, nodding as he moves over to the stone table thing. He gets himself comfortable as he watches the rat bring over some clay. He hrms a little and starts to tinker around with it slowly, trying to make something with the only paw he's got that's useable for right now. "Hm.
William sits down a little away from the stoat to watch him. He doesn't say anything he just sits there.
Robin hms and frowns as he tries to shape the clay into something. "You have any idea how hard this is with only one arm?" he asks with a light chuckle. He just keeps trying, sort of making...a blob of clay.
William smirks, "Yes. East coast. Broken arm. Only place I know of with grey and yellow clay too. That was not a good trip." He shakes his head but continues to smile remembering some not so bad parts from the trip as well.
Robin hrms and nods a little bit with a tilt of his head. "Hm. Yeah, dad told me." he smirks a little, shrugging. "Oh well." he stops and leans back. "Maybe I should wait until I get my arm looked at by Aik. Maybe he can take this darn thing off it soon.
William says, "Maybe. Though you still might be able to make a pinch pot if you wanted. All you do is make a ball of clay with a paw, use the stone to roll it against til it's as round as you can get it then flatten one end and squish it out thin but not too thin or it will tear. That'll be the bottom of the pot. It shouldn have /some/ thickness or it'll break when you put something heavy in it. Once that's done roll some clay into a log shape with one paw against the stone til it's really long but not /too/ thin. Squish one end to the edge of the bottom part and then trace the bottom of the pot with the coil of clay squishing or pinching it as the name suggests to the bottom part so it's all one piece. Keep adding coils to the first one going around til it makes a pot. Pinch the coils together to make the sides all one piece with the bottom. Lastly paint and fire it. Very easy."
Robin nods slowly, smiling a little bit as he starts to do as he was told about, rolling the clay into a ball slowly, working it with his only paw, and making it big. He then tilts his head a little as he squashes it down, making the bottom as flat as he's comfortable with.
William continues to watch Robin for a little long then stands up and walks off toward the door, "I'm going t go grab us something t eat. You just keep working." Food isn't his only reason for wanting to go inside but the stoat doesn't need to know that. Besides he make work better without somebeast watching him.
Robin has fiddled around with the clay a bit more before he looks up and ohs at the rat. "Yeah, sure." he smiles. "I'll be here whenever you get back. Take your time." he nods before going back to focus on what he's doing.
William does indeed take his time as it is a while before he returns but he does return with food. The rat renters with a tray of food in his paws and an half empty bottle of rum or is that wine? under his arm. As the rat isn't known to partake of such things and there are rules against doing so the bottle is a little out of place. Will sets the tray down on the wooden table and the bottle on the floor off to the side. Out of sight out of mind right?
Robin huhs and looks up as he hears Will come in. He spies the bottle just before its put aside, his eyes going wide. "Will!" he says in a 'surprised' voice. "I'm not -that- bad am I?" he laughs before going back to putting the finishing touches on the mold of the clay bowl or pot or whatever it is. It looks pretty good actually, considering he did it with one paw.
William laughs loudly at the stoat's assumption. "No you aren't. And even if you were .... well there are good reasons why I don't drink. The main one is very tall and rather old. Also dangerous. Actually I almost forgot I had that with me, had to remove it from someone." He doesn't say who but it shouldn't be hard to guess.
Robin huhs a little bit and tilts his head. "What? Oh, he's not, is he?" he asks. The stoat knows some of Aik's drinking history, thanks to Kentar. The stoat just shrugs a little. "I'm done." he nods, changing the subject back to his clay...thing.
William shakes his head, "Not really I'll take over from here you can go clean up", he nods his head toward the door. Between the well and water kept around the kiln and smith the stoat shouldn't have much trouble finding somewhere to clean up at. And if he doesn't there's always the pond or the kitchen sink though Garnet may protest against the last one being used. Will takes a length of wire and cuts the pot off the stone and moving it with some tools to the kiln which is kept lit through out the day and into the evening most nights
Robin nods and stands. "Right. Thanks Will!" he smiles, waving as heads off. "I'll be inside when I'm done, to see if Aik can take this darn thing out." he chuckles a little before heading off out the door.
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