Little Wooden Spider [Memory]
Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 8:57 am
TIMESTAMP: 11th through 13th Earth's Rest, Ash 4620
NOTES: -
NOTES: -
► Show Spoiler
- - -
- - -
In the years that followed Averre’s passing, the Ferrier found himself drifting aimlessly through life. In the first decade after, he mostly lived within his own head. In the second, he toyed with trying to actually live again, struggling to find motivation to really do anything at all. He developed many a habit and hobby that ranged from completely self-destructive to semi-productive in this time, laying the groundwork for him to pick himself up again, whenever he should so choose. As he dragged the pieces of his broken mind into a shape that only vaguely resembles what it had been before, he built upon this groundwork.
One such hobby that was acquired during this period of extended mourning was crafting dolls that were usually made with the ability to double as marionette puppets. Typically, he preferred to create figures that resemble animals more so than people; when he did create people, they were often androgynous in their design and overall appearance. Given the fact that the construction of such things is a several step process, he started by making fairly small, simple figures with relatively plain decoration. Over time, both the scale and complexity of his creations slowly increased.
As he learned and his skills further developed, he found himself rather a fan of intricate creatures with more complicated anatomy and moving parts. For example, arachnids, birds, insects, fae creatures, and abyssal sea creatures. He found himself particularly fond of spiders. Eventually, some of his closer Valran– namely Lucia– stole away with a few of his finer creations and inquired about the opinions of others within the estate. Most found them charming despite the often macabre designs and strange beasts he chose to craft. With their encouragement, the Veir began to display them alongside the other woodcrafts, primarily instruments, that his family members created in the House’s business. Despite the rather different nature of the two types of product, they still fit the name being that they were manipulated, too, by strings.
11th Earth’s Rest, Ash 4616
During the mid-afternoon on a cold, cloudy day in mid Ash, the Ferrier sat locked away in his tower beginning to chip away at a few pieces of fine wood. He had just begun the process of creating another of his marionettes– the design was that of Poecilotheria metallica, or the peacock tarantula. Degare had illustrations of the little thing in a book on the subject of tarantulas that he’d acquired; while he’d never been to where it was native nor had he ever seen one in person, it was incredibly beautiful and so he wanted to expend the effort to create a facsimile of it.
After having carved and sanded down the main forms that would make up the arachnid’s body, he began the arduous process of whittling away at much smaller, more delicate pieces of wood to create each of the individual segments f0r all eight of the legs in addition to the spider’s two pedipalps–the sensory organ appendages that rest over the fangs. Once each segment was carved and smoothed out, he used a much finer tool to hollow out the pieces. This was a painfully time consuming process but he found the repetitive nature of it to be oddly cathartic in many ways. At the very least, it occupied his focus and kept his mind from its normally racing rumination. By the time he’d completed these two tasks, night had fallen and his eyes began to feel rather heavy. With a sigh, the Ferrier decides he will continue his work the next day.
12th Earth’s Rest, Ash 4616
Having told most of his staff to leave him alone for the next several days, he had this time to himself. Only two of his Valran even had the ability to enter his tower when it was locked and they knew better than to bother him if he’d requested that they do not…the only exception being if they haven’t heard from him or seen him in a number of days. For Degare, there was something peaceful about being utterly alone. After putting himself together for the day, he makes his way down to the floor of his tower directly below his bedchambers where the tools he used to craft his marionettes were stored.
Continuing from where he had left off the day before, the pale elf further worked on the texture of the wooden leg segments and the carapace he’d carved out the day before, making sure they were up to his present standards. The work he’d done the day before was pretty precise so he didn’t have to do much refining in this regard.
When each piece met his quality bar, he began the meticulous process of painting all of the individual parts. This particular spider was a brilliant hue of phthalo blue in combination with patterned markings of black and white and pops of yellow. Sparing precious little expense for his hobbies, the Veir opted to use oil paints for this endeavor. In his opinion, their pigments were the best and he was rather fond of how the paint itself applied to the wood he preferred to use. To start, he coated the entirety of each piece with the blue pigment using a smaller paintbrush for the little leg segments. Once this was done, he added the yellow markings that appeared on the joints then added the white patterns across the legs and carapace using a yet smaller paintbrush. After that step, the Ferrier painted on the black detail work and added depth to some of the other colors as well, then he went over the more precise decals with their respective colors again. Each of the parts looked pretty nice as they were, but tarantulas are hairy little things, so for the next to last step, he went over again with an even smaller brush to add white and gray brushstrokes– creating a fuzzy looking texture over the underlying design. However, he did swap to softer shades of tawny brawn for the fuzz on the carapace as it would appear that that is how it was on the original creature. Lastly, he coated each piece with a varnish to keep the paint lasting longer.
Now that the parts of the marionette themselves are completed, it would be time to begin connecting them together and articulating the puppet such that it had the ability to bend and move how one would naturally expect a tarantula to be able to skitter around. To begin this process, he started by creating joints between each of the leg segments. This was done by poking quite small holes on the edges of the pieces and tying them together with very durable, yet thin, threads. Degare was careful with this process to make sure that the knotting was clean looking, subtle and wouldn’t come apart, handling each of the limb segments with care so as not to break or crack the wood at all.
After both painting all of the parts and combining all the segments into eight full legs with periodic breaks, the day was spent and the Ferrier was much too tired to continue with the level of focus he wanted. Plus…it’s not like he was really in a rush.
13th Earth’s Rest, Ash 4616
On this day, it was raining, dark and cold. Rising from his bed, Degare assumed he’d be able to finish the little tarantula by the end of today given what was left to do. Slow in the mornings, he takes his time putting himself together again and then makes his way back down to where the spider and his tools were waiting.
Before he sat down to begin his work again, he made his way over to the windows with long, languid steps and spread the velvety curtains wide. The Ferrier loved weather like this; he had always found it cozy and relaxing.
Returning to his station, Degare gazes down at the pieces he’d left in neat organization the day before. The legs were complete, so the next step would be to connect the main pieces of the carapace together and then string all of the legs onto the carapace itself. The two main pieces of the body were also hollow to keep them light and easy to move, but the shell of wood was tad thicker than that of the legs for increased durability. The spider’s body pieces were also secured together by strands of thread attaching to internal joints he’d placed within the hollow pieces; he wanted the body to be able to move and appear flexible, like a real animal’s. The only two pieces that weren’t hollow were the spider’s pedipalps. Those attached through two small holes carved into the tarantula’s head secured with threads binding once again to internal joints within the head itself and attached to the back of the mock sensory organs. If one shook the now bound together body of the spider, the little pedipalps would rattle around a bit and the two body pieces would move to small degrees creating more realistic body motions for the puppet. Now that the carapace was complete, he took the time to carve in the small holes to it that would be used to attach the legs and then bound each one, completing the tarantula itself.
The final step, now, was to create the controller for it and string the translucent threads that would be used for manipulation through the joints. The controller he went for this time consisted of a longer bar that would run the length of the carapace and two more, this time shorter, that would cross it near the front and back of the longer bar. Running the threads he deemed necessary through the joints and binding them to the controller, the little spider was now fully functional.
- - -
In the years that followed Averre’s passing, the Ferrier found himself drifting aimlessly through life. In the first decade after, he mostly lived within his own head. In the second, he toyed with trying to actually live again, struggling to find motivation to really do anything at all. He developed many a habit and hobby that ranged from completely self-destructive to semi-productive in this time, laying the groundwork for him to pick himself up again, whenever he should so choose. As he dragged the pieces of his broken mind into a shape that only vaguely resembles what it had been before, he built upon this groundwork.
One such hobby that was acquired during this period of extended mourning was crafting dolls that were usually made with the ability to double as marionette puppets. Typically, he preferred to create figures that resemble animals more so than people; when he did create people, they were often androgynous in their design and overall appearance. Given the fact that the construction of such things is a several step process, he started by making fairly small, simple figures with relatively plain decoration. Over time, both the scale and complexity of his creations slowly increased.
As he learned and his skills further developed, he found himself rather a fan of intricate creatures with more complicated anatomy and moving parts. For example, arachnids, birds, insects, fae creatures, and abyssal sea creatures. He found himself particularly fond of spiders. Eventually, some of his closer Valran– namely Lucia– stole away with a few of his finer creations and inquired about the opinions of others within the estate. Most found them charming despite the often macabre designs and strange beasts he chose to craft. With their encouragement, the Veir began to display them alongside the other woodcrafts, primarily instruments, that his family members created in the House’s business. Despite the rather different nature of the two types of product, they still fit the name being that they were manipulated, too, by strings.
11th Earth’s Rest, Ash 4616
During the mid-afternoon on a cold, cloudy day in mid Ash, the Ferrier sat locked away in his tower beginning to chip away at a few pieces of fine wood. He had just begun the process of creating another of his marionettes– the design was that of Poecilotheria metallica, or the peacock tarantula. Degare had illustrations of the little thing in a book on the subject of tarantulas that he’d acquired; while he’d never been to where it was native nor had he ever seen one in person, it was incredibly beautiful and so he wanted to expend the effort to create a facsimile of it.
After having carved and sanded down the main forms that would make up the arachnid’s body, he began the arduous process of whittling away at much smaller, more delicate pieces of wood to create each of the individual segments f0r all eight of the legs in addition to the spider’s two pedipalps–the sensory organ appendages that rest over the fangs. Once each segment was carved and smoothed out, he used a much finer tool to hollow out the pieces. This was a painfully time consuming process but he found the repetitive nature of it to be oddly cathartic in many ways. At the very least, it occupied his focus and kept his mind from its normally racing rumination. By the time he’d completed these two tasks, night had fallen and his eyes began to feel rather heavy. With a sigh, the Ferrier decides he will continue his work the next day.
12th Earth’s Rest, Ash 4616
Having told most of his staff to leave him alone for the next several days, he had this time to himself. Only two of his Valran even had the ability to enter his tower when it was locked and they knew better than to bother him if he’d requested that they do not…the only exception being if they haven’t heard from him or seen him in a number of days. For Degare, there was something peaceful about being utterly alone. After putting himself together for the day, he makes his way down to the floor of his tower directly below his bedchambers where the tools he used to craft his marionettes were stored.
Continuing from where he had left off the day before, the pale elf further worked on the texture of the wooden leg segments and the carapace he’d carved out the day before, making sure they were up to his present standards. The work he’d done the day before was pretty precise so he didn’t have to do much refining in this regard.
When each piece met his quality bar, he began the meticulous process of painting all of the individual parts. This particular spider was a brilliant hue of phthalo blue in combination with patterned markings of black and white and pops of yellow. Sparing precious little expense for his hobbies, the Veir opted to use oil paints for this endeavor. In his opinion, their pigments were the best and he was rather fond of how the paint itself applied to the wood he preferred to use. To start, he coated the entirety of each piece with the blue pigment using a smaller paintbrush for the little leg segments. Once this was done, he added the yellow markings that appeared on the joints then added the white patterns across the legs and carapace using a yet smaller paintbrush. After that step, the Ferrier painted on the black detail work and added depth to some of the other colors as well, then he went over the more precise decals with their respective colors again. Each of the parts looked pretty nice as they were, but tarantulas are hairy little things, so for the next to last step, he went over again with an even smaller brush to add white and gray brushstrokes– creating a fuzzy looking texture over the underlying design. However, he did swap to softer shades of tawny brawn for the fuzz on the carapace as it would appear that that is how it was on the original creature. Lastly, he coated each piece with a varnish to keep the paint lasting longer.
Now that the parts of the marionette themselves are completed, it would be time to begin connecting them together and articulating the puppet such that it had the ability to bend and move how one would naturally expect a tarantula to be able to skitter around. To begin this process, he started by creating joints between each of the leg segments. This was done by poking quite small holes on the edges of the pieces and tying them together with very durable, yet thin, threads. Degare was careful with this process to make sure that the knotting was clean looking, subtle and wouldn’t come apart, handling each of the limb segments with care so as not to break or crack the wood at all.
After both painting all of the parts and combining all the segments into eight full legs with periodic breaks, the day was spent and the Ferrier was much too tired to continue with the level of focus he wanted. Plus…it’s not like he was really in a rush.
13th Earth’s Rest, Ash 4616
On this day, it was raining, dark and cold. Rising from his bed, Degare assumed he’d be able to finish the little tarantula by the end of today given what was left to do. Slow in the mornings, he takes his time putting himself together again and then makes his way back down to where the spider and his tools were waiting.
Before he sat down to begin his work again, he made his way over to the windows with long, languid steps and spread the velvety curtains wide. The Ferrier loved weather like this; he had always found it cozy and relaxing.
Returning to his station, Degare gazes down at the pieces he’d left in neat organization the day before. The legs were complete, so the next step would be to connect the main pieces of the carapace together and then string all of the legs onto the carapace itself. The two main pieces of the body were also hollow to keep them light and easy to move, but the shell of wood was tad thicker than that of the legs for increased durability. The spider’s body pieces were also secured together by strands of thread attaching to internal joints he’d placed within the hollow pieces; he wanted the body to be able to move and appear flexible, like a real animal’s. The only two pieces that weren’t hollow were the spider’s pedipalps. Those attached through two small holes carved into the tarantula’s head secured with threads binding once again to internal joints within the head itself and attached to the back of the mock sensory organs. If one shook the now bound together body of the spider, the little pedipalps would rattle around a bit and the two body pieces would move to small degrees creating more realistic body motions for the puppet. Now that the carapace was complete, he took the time to carve in the small holes to it that would be used to attach the legs and then bound each one, completing the tarantula itself.
The final step, now, was to create the controller for it and string the translucent threads that would be used for manipulation through the joints. The controller he went for this time consisted of a longer bar that would run the length of the carapace and two more, this time shorter, that would cross it near the front and back of the longer bar. Running the threads he deemed necessary through the joints and binding them to the controller, the little spider was now fully functional.
____
'Thoughts'
"Common Tongue/Speech"
"Raillen Tongue/Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Common Tongue/Speech"
"Raillen Tongue/Speech"