Xanadu Weyr - Craft Complex
This large area has been painted a soft cream with dark orange trim used as an accent. It's separated into a variety of smaller sitting areas, couches and chairs organized into rings and squares, tables set where they can be used easily. Recessed electric lights in the ceiling provide a warm glow, and a row of angled skylights on the eastern wall above the entrance give some natural light when bleary crafters first emerge. There's often a cart with klah parked off to one side to help with waking up or finishing that important project - or simply to be enjoyed with comfortable seating and good company.
Along the southern edge, an open archway leads to a library of books and records. There's something for every craft, it seems, from tomes of caprine diseases, to Pernese history and law, to gemstone identification, to sheet music, to sea charts and herbal manuals. There's even a few works of fiction, though none of it seems very well organized. Whatever is sought, it's probably here… somewhere. A few desks for studying are tucked in amongst the shelves, each with a lamp to illuminate the reading material. Near that archway, a long table holds a row of computers. They're connected to databases all over Pern, and are available for general use except when the computercraft requires them.
To the north, a pair of double doors open onto a grand hall, the vaulted ceiling designed with acoustics in mind. This space is used for lectures and concerts, rows of benches set up to face the front. Along one wall, instruments hang free or on shelves for anyone with the appropriate skills to use. There are often harpers here, practicing their craft.
A pair of hallways lead back from the western wall, one going to the apprentice dorms and the the private quarters for the ranking crafters posted at the weyr. The other provides access to the various workshops.
Gerazal is at his mannequin and he's working on a very lovely dark dress. He's pinning it up and he's humming softly to himself as he works.
Janaya peeks in around the frame of the door, scanning the room… aha! She grins, and slips inside, ducking between the rows of fabric and such as she tries to sneak up on Gerazal before popping up. "Hi!"
Gerazal jumps a little bit as he's surprised by Janaya, "Oh Hello Janaya, how are you doing? How goes being a candidate?" He asks as he continues to pin the dress and he hmmms as he looks it over.
Janaya beams at Gerazal's startlement, coming around to take a closer look at what he's doing. "Oh, that's pretty," she says of the dress, then grins to him. "I'm good! There's a lot to do, we're in teams, and we're shadowing wings… this seven, it's Asteroid!" Her grin widens.
Gerazal smiles, "Well thank you, this is for one of the bigger holders, she wanted a dress to wear for the next gather." He ohs, "So you've come to me because I'm a crafter?" He asks, "Not that I'm not happy to see you, I am, I just don't want to get you in trouble."
Janaya grins, and nods. "She'll be the center of attention, I'm sure!" She takes a walk around that dress, looking at it from all angles, then laughs. "Well, I mean, not just 'cause of that, but yeah! My rider today said how it was important to maintain connections with crafters not in the wing, 'cause you all work together… and I told her about crafters I already knew here, and she said I could go work with one." She grins. "So here I am!"
Gerazal nods as he makes a few adjustments and he looks it over, "There that should do it, I'm just finished pinning it before I start to sew it all together. How fortunate for me that you picked me and not the miner." He teases, "We can do plenty of crafter stuff. I'd be happy to teach you all about it. Is there anything in particular you'd like to do?"
Janaya nods, looking at that dress in progress. "Do the pins ever fall out?" she asks. "Should I be like… afraid of walking around barefoot?" She eyes the floor here, then grins. "Course I picked you, I don't wanna get covered in grime and stuff!" Her tone is teasing, and then she nods, beaming happily. "Well… hmm." She eyes the dress again. "Something like that's probably way more than one less, isn't it? It'd be nice if it was like… a project I could do and make something! Like… a bag, or a hat, or… socks or something!"
Gerazal shakes his head, "No, you can, I make sure that all the needles get picked up they are expensive and no sense in wasting them." He chuckles, "I'm glad that you did anyway. I've missed you." He gives her a smile, "Well don't candidates need white robes for the hatching. We could work on that, but it's up to you, it will be your project you'll have to work on it I'm just here to help and guide you."
"Oh, good," Janaya says with a grin, then awwws. "I miss you too! They just keep us super busy… and there's so many new people to meet, all the new candidates from all over!" She comes over and gives Gerazal a hug, then hmms. "Yeah, okay! And if it's awful that's okay, 'cause everyone will just be staring at the dragons instead of us." She grins. "So where do I start?"
Gerazal gives Janaya a hug back and he holds her close for a long moment before he lets her go. "Well we starts with the design, what do you want it to look like." He gets out a small notepad and pencil to offer to Janaya, "Do you want to draw it or describe it to me?"
Janaya takes that notepad and pencil, and hmms. "Well… huh. It's a robe, right?" She stares at the blank page. "So…" She draws a rectangle on the page. Elegant sketching, this is not. "And sleeves, but not long ones, 'cause it'll be hot." Two smaller rectangles, tacked on at the top of that big rectangle.
Gerazal smiles, "Yes it is and it's supposed to be easy to get on so it tends to be a bit billowy." He looks, "You've got the basics, now we could round the edges a bit, and what kind of collar would you like on it." He asks as he studies the drawing.
Janaya nods, grinning up at Gerazal. Yeah! She's got it… "Oh." She giggles. "Yeah, I guess it does need a hole for my neck…" Janaya hmms, pencil hovering over the page, then sketches in a scoop neck… actually, make that a keyhole. She puts in the little vertical bit, and adds a pair of overlapped swoopy-lines on the bottom. "Sorta… a slit on either side, like… up to the knees but with the rest of it to the ankles," she explains, because her drawing fails to really convey that. "Or is that too fancy?"
Gerazal nods, 'And a little too long, you are going to have to move out there, so you'll wand it to stop just about at knee height so that you can get out of the way of any dragons coming your way. It can be very dangerous out there." He suggets.
Janaya hmms, and nods. "So…" She looks at her drawing again. "Knee-length and billowy… okay." She adjusts it to just go right across, with that bit of rounding. "I'll still do the curved neck, though. Otherwise it'd just look bad… but that's the only hard part!" Or so she thinks, not having started. She'll learn! It's why she's here.
Gerazal smiles, "Sure a curved neck would be fine, maybe a have a bit of an open collar right here, so it's look a little less like just a boxy robe."
Janaya nods, sketching in something that more or less looks like an open collar where Gerazal indicates. "Okay… so…" She eyes the drawing for a moment, then grins. "I have a design!" Or at least the preliminary sketch of one. "What next? I gotta, what… pick fabric, cut it out, and sew it together?"
Gerazal smiles as he looks over the design, "Yes you do. Well first do you know how to sew? You'll be hand sewing this robe so that's why we've tried to keep it simple. Good thing you came in for new clothes before you were searched I still have your measurements so we won't need to measure you again."
Janaya grins, and nods. "So like… my measurement for around the waist would be… this times two?" she asks, pointing to her sketch with that pencil. "And… I sorta know how to sew. I mean… my mom showed me how…" But did she practice it? …nope! "I know how to thread a needle." Which is practically like sewing, except not.
Gerazal nods, "Well that's a good start, but how about I show you what stitch you'll be using and you can practice on some socks, we only want to have to cut the fabric for the dress once and we want nice and neat stitches." He says, "Well yes and no, i took your measurement around your waist to see how much I'd need and then you add more, not a lot more but just a little more, so that you have enough to work with and to account for any shrinkage that might occur."
Janaya giggles, and nods. "Okay. I can practice on socks… or old dishrags… or whatever." She grins. "It's not like I gotta have this done anytime soon, they haven't even let us touch the eggs yet so they're definitely not gonna be hatching for a while." Janaya hmms, listening to him about the sizing with a glance to her drawing and the dress on the mannequin before she nods. "Ohh. That makes sense."
Gerazal smiles, "Good, don't worry they are clean." He says as he goes to get a basket of socks and he sets them down. He gets out some black thread and a needle. "Here have a seat." He pats the chair and he shows her what stitch she's going to use before he lets her practice on those holey socks.
Janaya plops herself down, and leans in to get a good look. Socks! Clean socks, and she giggles for that. "They better be!" Now then… how does this work? Hmm… okay then. "That looks easy…" she says, only to discover that he just makes it look easy from practice, and her own stitches are jagged and uneven in comparison. "…huh." She holds up the sock and frowns at her row (or is that zig-zag?) of stitches.
Gerazal looks over the first one that she does, 'A good first try.' He takes out another one and he demonstrates, "I know it's a bit boring, but try to make little stitches, it helps to keep them neat." He offers her another sock to try.
"If they're little stitches, won't it take longer?" Janaya asks with a sigh… but she does try to do that, leaning in over her work and making teeny little stitches. At least that way they're mostly in a line… not quite an entirely straight one, but it's definitely closer.
Gerazal nods, 'It does take longer, but it looks better." He watches her and smiles, "You've got the small stitches, why don't you keep practicing. The more practice that you get with them the fast you'll be able to do them."
"Well… okay," Janaya says. "I guess that makes sense… and I do want it to look good, so…" She practices! So many socks, sewn up with somewhat erratic lines of stitches. At least she's getting all her bad sewing out of the way now… but doing that will take up all of the assigned time for working with crafters today, and her rider comes to take her to the debrief. "I'll come another time and work on it more!" she tells Gerazal, and smiles to him as she adds, "Thank you!" before she's heading off to more wing shadowing and lessons. The busy life of a candidate!