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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2015 10:25:02 GMT
 | Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100% |
"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."
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Jacoben entered his current workshop for his craft, his hair held back by a bandanna and an apron over simple work clothing. He had been practicing his stone carving for some time now and gained a few levels in the sub-class, which meant he was now ready to work on more difficult objects in order to enhance his abilities as an Artisan. Today he was going to create his personal seal, an object which was used similarly to a signature in important documents, in addition it would serve as a maker's mark for any craft he made from now on. This meant that he would need to create something unique and easily identifiable, allowing others to know that anything that he made was created by him and not another.
It would be a symbol not only of the maker, but an assurance of quality. Should any of his creations prove sub-standard it would affect his reputation as a crafter, equally of course should he create something of high quality and increase his reputation. This meant that he needed to carefully consider what his mark was going to be, and how well he would be able to transcribe it from paper to stone. Sitting down at a simple desk the Fox-tail pulled out a piece of parchment and a piece of charcoal to begin the design process before he brought tool to stone. Tapping the charcoal to his lip as he thought of what would make an appropriate symbol, something that would be easily identifiable but not copied easily.
OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 258
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2015 10:25:50 GMT
| Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100% |
"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."
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After a while, he decided to settle on something that was fairly straightforward and hope that his own design was difficult enough that it couldn't be forged. As a Fox-tail he could eventually develop multiple tails to a maximum of nine, and as such a symbol of a nine tailed fox would be the most obvious choice of a design. With that thought in mind he began to sketch out a design for his stamp, the charcoal scraping across the surface of the parchment as he traced out a few basic designs that could be translated onto a small stone surface.
Discarding design after design Jacoben eventually began to settle on his final pattern. A nine tailed fox with its tails spread out in such a manner as to make the creature appear to be standing in front of a sunburst pattern. It took him several attempts to get a properly refined design, the hours passing as he planned out a pattern that would be feasible to carve out of stone. He could have carved it out as a hollow image, which would give a solid colour with a blank form within showing the symbol, however he felt that doing it the opposite way so as to leave a solid colour print much like more modern stamps. It would be much harder to carve without breaking it, and require considerable care to smooth and sand out the image, however he felt that this was worth the additional effort.
OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 248
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2015 22:34:21 GMT
| Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100% |
"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."
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The first step would be to carve out the handle, then he could make the blank shape for the stamp itself and finally engrave the image so that he had a completed item. With that in mind he took the small stone that would serve as the handle and retrieved his chisels and mallet, setting up his work bench with the other tools of his trade before he put on his apron and scarves to protect his hair and lungs. While he might have wanted a wooden and metal stamp rather than one made of stone, he didn't yet have the skill at his craft to work with metals so he would have to settle for what he could make for the time being.
First he began by squaring out the stone, carefully measured strikes from his mallet chipping the stone away until he had a thin rectangle of stone about as long as his palm and twice the thickness he wanted. The next stage was to round off the edges of this rectangle, gently removing the sharper points of stone over and over again until the hand grip of the stamp would become as smooth as he could possibly get it with a chisel. It was slow and somewhat monotonous work, but Jacoben found some measure of peace in the repetitive motions and watching as the item began to form beneath his hands.
It was nice to be able to do something useful while still expressing his art, even if Artisan wasn't as useful a class as some of the others. Of course, he did seem to have access to the recipes of a woodcrafter as well, so he supposed that was some way of making his crafting class useful on a wider scale... but what was important was that it made him happy to do this.
OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 339 (308+31 [1.1 Coconia Charm Bonus])
Tags: N/A
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2015 22:56:42 GMT
| Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100% |
"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."
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Jacoben paused in his labours as he scraped the simple stone as far as he could with a mallet and chisel, his fingers feeling the texture of the handle as he tried to judge how smooth it was. He could feel the ridges where the chisel had left its mark, which meant it was time for him to use his files to sand it down into something pleasant and comfortable to hold. Choosing a file with a curved edge to help him form a circular shape the Artisan placed the stone block into a clamp and began to sand it down with the file, dust filling the air as particles of rock were abraded off and sent into the air by the motions of the file.
He frowned to himself at this, and reached over to a small pot of water which he used to wet the stone. This would keep the dust from flying everywhere and also allow the file to move faster over the rock, though keeping the stone from coating him in a layer of dust was definitely his primary motivation in this action. It was nearly impossible to get out of his clothes otherwise.
Sanding was perhaps the most boring part of stone carving, it took a long time and it was hard to see your progress because the differences were so minute until you were done and could look back and enjoy the completed product. So it was that the foxtail simply zoned out while he was sanding, his mind wandering on to more interesting things even as he kept track of what he was doing so as not to over-sand a particular portion of the handle.
OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 310 (282+28 [1.1 Coconia Charm Bonus])
Tags: N/A
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2015 7:09:36 GMT
| Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100% |
"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."
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Selecting another file the artisan began to work at the end where the stamp would go, sanding away the stone to form a thinner portion that could be screwed into the actual stamp portion and attach it to the handgrip. When he was satisfied with the shape and size of that he put the stone to the side for now, it needed the other section before the stamp could be considered complete. Looking at the other piece of stone he had chosen he wondered for a moment why he couldn't have picked am easier design even for the body of the work, a simple stone chop would have sufficed after all.
Instead he was a slave to his own aesthetic tastes, a thought that he both lamented and enjoyed even as he took up the chisel and hammer once more. First he needed to make the overall round shape before he could add in the curved shape to it. Slowly but surely he broke the edges apart, switching to the file when it was no longer feasible to use the chisel.
Keeping the stone wet to avoid further clouds of dust, Jacoben slowly shaped the stone end of the stamp, giving it a number of curved layers that added to the aesthetic of the whole object. Once satisfied with this the Artisan put away his files and reached for the hand drill that would hollow out the top of the stamp and allow the handle to be embedded into it. It was rather tough spinning the drill by hand, but eventually he'd have carved out a deep enough hole to hold the handle.
OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 300 (273+27 [1.1 Coconia Charm Bonus])
Tags: N/A
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2015 8:30:32 GMT
| Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100% |
"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."
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Now came the trickiest part of the whole affair, actually carving out the stamp itself since he had decided not to make it a negative but rather have the image pick up and press the ink against the relevant surface. This meant that instead of taking away the portions of stone in the shape of the symbol he would remove everything except that symbol, a much tougher job which could prove to be more problematic than he initially had expected. Still, he was determined to see this through and so he would do his best to do so.
A stick of charcoal quickly sketched out the design he had planned, the image stark on the pale stone as it stared up at him waiting to be crafted. Taking up his smallest chisel, Jacoben began to carve, unable to use a hammer for fear of damaging his work he had to slowly and carefully scrape away at the stone to leave only the surface covered in charcoal in place. He could have only removed a very small layer of the stone to bring the image to life, but the more stone that was taken away the more solid the image would be and the less troubled by wear it would be.
It was a very difficult task, and he felt his eyes begin to water with the strain of staring down at the minute movements he was making with his chisel. His hands too had begun to hurt, the act of having them clenched so hard wearing down the muscles and tendons.
OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 287 (261+26 [1.1 Coconia Charm Bonus])
Tags: N/A
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2015 10:06:14 GMT
| Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100% |
"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."
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Stopping only to stretch out his hands, Jacoben continued to work on his stamp, blowing gently on it every so often to remove bits of chipped stone so that he could better view his work. It was a long and labourious process, but one that he did not regret. In the future when he was ready to work with metals he would be able to cast this stamp to form a proper mould for the molten metal, saving him from having to sculpt the symbol again. At points he found himself using a pick like scraper similar to a dentist tool in order to get the smallest of details right.
The Artisan let out a sigh of relief as he finally finished the intricate task of carving his symbol into the stone. Now all that was left was to join the handle with the head of the stamp and test it out. First he placed a cloth down on the bench before placing the stamp face down onto it. The last thing he wanted to do was damage his work now that he had finally finished it. A little bit of adhesive was placed in the drilled hole and on the thin portion of the handle before he lined the two pieces up and gently tapped on the handle. A few taps had the pieces join together, and soon it was a tight enough fit that the adhesive would function without a problem.
With the stamp done Jacoben took the time to use some of the spare stone to carve out a simple bowl that would hold the ink for the stamp. Tracing around the edge of the stamp face, he chipped away a circular divot deep enough to allow the face of the stamp to be covered by any ink that was placed in it. Carefully filing it smooth, he also added a little spout like channel on one end of it in order to make it easier to pour ink back into its pot. That done, he was ready to complete the final phase, testing.
OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 382 (347+35 [1.1 Coconia Charm Bonus])
Tags: N/A
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2015 10:38:08 GMT
| Jacoben HP: 100% MP: 100% |
"Any treasure you obtain without ever having to work for it is no treasure at all."
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Jacoben first made sure to clean up his work station, the tools being put away into their rightful places and the various shards and chips of stone swept up and disposed of properly. Then he retrieved the sketching paper he had used to design the stamp in preparation for the first test run of the actual stamp. This would give the adhesive time to dry sufficiently that his single practice run wouldn't disturb it too badly, meaning he wouldn't damage his yet to be completed work. He was also going to need some ink in order to actually use the thing, which meant a slow trip to the storeroom and an equally long trip back. Sitting back down at his desk he pulled out the small stone plate that was about the right size for the stamp and poured a small measure of the ink into it, the black substance sitting placidly in a thin layer on the bottom of the receptacle. Gently he raised the stamp up and placed it in the plate, coating it with black ink before bringing it over to the paper and firmly pressing the stamp onto it, moving it from side to side to ensure that the ink properly marked the page. Pulling the stamp away from the paper he looked down at the mark, the swirls and shapes that he had spent hours carving imprinted in black ink upon the page, staring up at him. A Nine Tailed fox with its tails spread like a sunburst, surrounded by the shape with the pattern neatly balanced in a way that he was quite proud of. Naturally it wasn't perfect but it was better than he might have hoped, and he could always refine it in the future if he wanted to. Humming happily to himself the Foxtail Artisan slipped the stamp into the velvet bag he had purchased to hold it safely and tucked the item into his robes, after all it was meant to serve as his signature. He poured the remaining ink back into its bottle and closed the cap before leaving the work room content with a job well done, the image of the stamp left staring up from the workbench where he left it -EXIT-  OOC NOTES:
Word Count: 411 (374+37 [1.1 Coconia Charm Bonus])
Tags: N/A
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