1st Vhalar, 720
Location: Luna's Dream Orphanage
The topic changed quickly after that, and the kids asked Ari'sora to help them make some gifts that they could give the refugees. Natts had given them a new book that was about simple crafts that could be made out of wood, and that had given them the idea of making gifts for the refugees. Ari'sora quickly agreed, and they all looked through the book together. The different types of carving tools were mentioned. Ari'sora found that she knew what some of them were, but she had never even heard of others.
As they looked through the book, several projects were dismissed right away. Some required the use of tools they didn't have while others looked too complicated. After a while, they had narrowed the choice down to two options; necklaces and bracelets made with wooden beads, or signs carved with words of encouragement. In the end, the necklaces won out because Ari'sora pointed out that they would need to be fairly skilled to carve any kind of images into the signs. That, and even carving the words themselves would be too difficult for some of the younger children to manage. And since they already had bags of beads that had been carved earlier in the season, they would be able to make the necklaces immediately rather than carve the beads and wait several trials for them to dry out so they could be used for necklaces.
One of the older kids went to get several bags filled with wooden beads that they could use. After a few bits, Ari'sora decided that the first thing they should do was to sort out the beads. Some of them had holes drilled into them already, and some did not. Each went into its own pile. Once that had been done, Ari'sora took a closer look at the beads themselves. Some were prettier than others. The prettier ones went into two more piles; one for beads that had holes, and one for ones that did not. These were ones made of a variety of woods. Each one was a slightly different color, but each was beautiful in its own way. The natural beauty of the wood needed no embellishment.
The ones that were left went into two more piles of their own. These were ones that looked rather plain and ordinary. The next step was to separate the "good" beads from the "bad" ones. Seeing as how they had been made by children, most who had little skill for working with wood, most of the beads had flaws in them. Those went into two piles while the beads that did not made two much smaller piles; one with beads that had holes, and ones that did not.
"We don't have very many beads that we can use, do we?" Harold asked in disappointment.
"I wouldn't say that just yet. Here, look at this. According to this book some flaws can be corrected. I don't have the skill it would take to sand out a flaw or even it out without destroying the shape of the bead...but look at this."
Ari'sora rummaged through the pile of flawed beads until she found one that had a small jagged flaw running through the center. With a great deal of concentration, she studied it for several bits. Then she took a sharp knife, and made a small cut where the flaw ended.
"See? The flaw is still there, but now it looks kind of like a lightning bolt, doesn't it?"
The kids gathered around to see what she had done. It was far from perfect, but that one simple cut had turned a flaw that might have rendered the bead unusable into something that looked kind of interesting. Someone who was good at working with wood would know it was a flaw, but someone who was not might not notice.
"It does!" Harold exclaimed.
Ari'sora grinned at him.
"According to this book, some flaws can be disguised as a design. And others can be hidden by painting the flawed bead."
The kids nodded in agreement once they had thought about it for a few trills.
"Actually, it would be a good idea to have some beads that were painted, and some that were not because it gives us more variety." Cheryl pointed out.
This time it was Ari'sora's turn to nod. She hadn't thought about it before, but she realized that Cheryl was right.
"And look at this. Some of the beads in these pictures are plain like ours are, but some have really intricate designs carved into them. We couldn't do anything like that, but we might be able to manage a simple design." she said excitedly.
Ari'sora nodded again.
"We could try to do that, at least." she agreed.
"Can you drill holes in the beads that don't have them already, Ari'sora? That will give us more beads to work with." one of the younger children asked hopefully.
Ari'sora quickly said that she could, but when she went to do just that, the first bead she tried to drill a hole into shattered. So did the next four. Finally, she stopped, and consulted the book they had.
"Actually, I don't think that I can. According to this book, it's best to drill the holes in the beads before the wood dries out completely. But it also says that we can wrap them with wire and use them in most things that beads that do have holes in them can be used for."
"Can you do that, then?"
Ari'sora shook her head.
"I don't know how to. But maybe we can learn how to do it together another trial?" Ari'sora suggested.
The kids beamed at her. They didn't have any paint that they could use to paint some of the beads, but Ari'sora and the older children tried to correct some of the flawed beads by carving simple designs into them that turned the flaw into a design. Sometimes this worked. With other beads, it shattered the bead, or simply made the flaw even worse.
When they had enough beads to make a lot of necklaces with, the kids got started making necklaces while Ari'sora started making some more beads so that they would have more to use another time. It was easy enough to go outside and find a bunch of twigs that had a diameter of less than half an inch.
Once she had enough twigs to work with, Ari'sora came back inside. She carefully peeled the bark off of the first twig. Then she used her knife to scrape off the remaining bits of bark missed when she was peeling it off. Using the same knife, Ari'sora cut the twig into pieces. Each piece was a little bit larger than the size she wanted her beads to be. That would give her a little room for error if she made mistakes. Finally, she used the smallest drill bit she could find in the kits that belonged to the orphanage to drill out the center of each piece of wood. Ari'sora had made beads before, so she knew how fragile the pieces of wood were. Because of this, she was very careful as she did so and she drilled them by hand rather than using her drill. Even so, she broke some of the pieces.
As Ari'sora worked, she consulted the book they had often. While she had made beads a number of times before, that didn't mean she was especially good at it. She would happily take any help she could get.
When Ari'sora was finished with the first twig, she repeated the process with the others. One by one, she peeled the twigs, scraping them clean to make sure she didn't miss any bark. Then she cut the twigs into the sized pieces she wanted, and drilled the centers out of each piece. She lost several when she broke them accidentally, but she still had a decent amount of pieces when she was done. Finally, she set them aside so they could dry. In a seventrial's time, she or one of the kids would be able to shape them into their final form.
The kids had finished making their necklaces by the time Ari'sora had finished making more beads, and she admired each of the children's efforts. The necklaces, while obviously made by children would make good gifts for the refugees. Hopefully they would be enough to brighten their trial when they received them.
