Selecting Stones

Participants:

Gaelene.jpg Nenienne.jpg Teallan.jpg

Date: 08 Jan 2011
Location: Landing: Main Square
Synopsis: Taellan and Nenienne look at pretty rocks.
Rating: G
Logger: Nenienne

Landing is surrounded on three sides by water and stone, but there is ample room between her buildings for a wing of dragons to land easily. To the north, the land becomes sandy and leads out into the open seas, where dolphins play. To the west, the Black River flows from the Southern Mountains into the sea. The Eastern Barrier Range winds across the southern side of the complex. One of the closest peaks is the Two-Faced Mountain—the volcano that buried the place in lava and ash thousands of Turns ago.

The complex itself contains four parts: the famous AIVAS Complex, containing the Automated Intelligence Voice Activated System, classrooms and conference center; the Archives, which houses all the information gained from the computers and all the contributing Halls; the Dining Hall, where the residents of Landing eat; and the Barracks, the cluster of buildings where they sleep. At certain times of the day, the solar panels on the tops of the various buildings reflect down into the square, making the dragons' ability to land without visual cues nearly invaluable.


It's just after noon when L'han and Escaeth emerge from *between* carrying two passengers. They land rather quickly and L'han goes off to settle a dispute between two other riders (or perhaps their dragons, or maybe both) after giving Nenienne and Teallan a hand down. Neni looks quite the worse for wear, though she recovers her composure fairly quickly and thanks L'han and Escaeth.

Teallan glances around Landing once her feet are back upon the ground. "It's nice to be able to visit whenever I need to, rather than waiting and hoping to make it here at some point."

Gaelene notes the arrival and trots over, glancing at the passengers curiously. "Hello!" she says, brightly.

Nenienne nods to Teallan. "One of the advantages of being a Journeyman, certainly." She glances down at the chirp and says "Hello, Gael. Have you and Teallan met?"

"It's a lovely advantage," Teallan agrees, brightly. She blinks at Gaelene and gives a small shake of her head. "No, I don't believe we have. Gael, is it? Lovely to meet you."

Gaelene grins. "Good to meet you, too!" Like many children, she punctuates nearly everything with an exclamation point. Then, her expression becoming impish, she asks, "Here for another lesson, Neni? And perhaps showing off how awful Master Jarvys is for the Journeyman?"

Nenienne shakes her head. "I'm here to show Teallan some sample stones for a set of jewelry she wants made. Have you been in the AIVAS complex before, Tea?"

"I was posted here before I was Searched," Teallan explains, grinning briefly. "I'm rather familiar. Before that, I was researching a lot of the old music AIVAS had."

Gaelene oooohs. "You must have been searched right before my parents got posted, then!" She begins skipping toward the complex, as if showing the two journeymen the way.

Nenienne motions Teallan toward the complex politely. "We'll be going to the green classroom, provided the Miner posted here got my message and put out the stones," she says.

Teallan watches the younger girl skip off, grinning a little to herself. She nods to Nenienne and begins walking. "Green classroom? I remember where that is. I'm looking forward to seeing the stones."

Gaelene peels off as they enter the complex, saying, "Have fun!" before she heads off to a group of other children, presumably to play.

Nenienne heads into the complex and the green classroom, and finds, to her relief, that the Miner got the message. "All right," she begins by way of explanation, "These are strictly sample pieces. I'll ascertain what color and stone you like, then get the actual stones for the piece based on that. Ready to look at some shiny things?"

"Right, like a… harmony before the lyrics and all are laid out." Teallan follows Nenienne, glancing around the complex thoughtfully as they go. "I do love shiny things," she says, with a bit of a grin.

Nenienne says conversationally, "Me too; that's why I became a Jewelry Smith." She picks up the first stone, one with a smooth, rather than faceted, face. "This is lapis lazuli. It's a cabochon, which means smooth instead of faceted. It's also a stone rather than crystal, so it can take much more abuse. This one is a bit odd, and I'm surprised it's used as a sample — the gold specks have been removed. Most lapis has gold specks and white streaks."

Teallan leans in to look at the stone, tilting her head a bit as she studies it. "How were the gold specks removed? I didn't know you could do that."

Nenienne says, "Polished out. The specks are actual pieces of pyrite included in the stone, but it looks like this one they were able to remove the pieces without revealing any others."

"Ohhh," Teallan says, dipping head in a nod of understanding. "So it's not that they were… removed, just polished out and it was luck that no others were revealed?"

Nenienne says, "Precisely. In most cases, the gold specks are actually a way to identify the lapis." After a few seconds of thought, she adds, "I think I know why he used this stone as a sample, though; I asked him for dark colors, and this is rather dark for lapis."

"I see," Teallan says in that way of someone trying to understand, but who isn't fully sure. "It's… not very shiny, though," she says finally. "Is that because it's… a stone, like you said?"

Nenienne says, "No, it's more because it's a cabochon. The shininess comes from the light refracting off of the facets. I wanted to show you at least one cab, though, just to be fair." She puts down the lapis and picks up a seconde stone, this one a bluish purple. "This is blue pruple iolite. It's the cheapest of the faceted stones which I'll show you. To be honest, I prefer iolites anyway; that's what I made my own gather jewelry out of."

"Oh, so the… facets make it shiny, I see." Now better understanding comes. Teallan looks at the next piece for a moment, "It has a very nice color," she agrees. "Why is it cheaper?"

Nenienne says, "Supply and demand. Iolites are more common than zoisites, which are more common than sapphires. The latter, of course, being the stones used in the pins for Harpers of Master rank."

"Right," Teallan says. She knew that much, at least. Most Harpers do… or at least should. "So… easier to find, thus cheaper? I get it."

Nenienne nods. "Which leads us to the next stone." She puts down the iolite and picks up another blue-tinged-with-purple stone. "This is zoisite. Like iolite, it can appear either blue or purple, depending upon the light, and like the first piece of iolite I showed you, blus is dominant."

Teallan grins as she looks over this one. "It has… a lot of depth to it," she offers, glancing back towards the iolite. "I like that."

Nenienne nods, then puts the zoisite down and picks up a pure blue stone. "This one is the sapphire. They are very expensive, but they are a lovely deep blue in color."

"I kind of like the zoisite better," Teallan says, looking from one to the other. "It has… It's a bit clearer, I guess? I dunno. It's like looking at a dark blue window or something."

Nenienne nods. "Sapphires can be eye clean as well. This one just has inclusions, but not all do." Her next stone is pure purple, and she says, "This is amethyst. It's also fairly common and perhaps even cheaper than iolite, since it's another way of saying "purple quartz"."

"It's very pretty," Teallan says, looking at the amethyst, "but… especially with my promotion, I think I want to stick with blues. However, next time I need some jewelry… I think I want that. I love the color."

Nenienne nods. "There are two stones left, another iolite and another zoisite which lean toward purple — should I show you those, or do you think you'll want to stick with the bluer stones?"

Teallan glances over the stones they have seen. "I think I'd like to go with the zoisite. I really like the… you call it clarity, right? I like that."

Nenienne nods. "Clarity, yes. And the cut on it is nice as well." She carefully wraps the stones and puts them into the reinforced pouch which was left along with them. "So, now we get to figure out fun things like shape and settings. Would you like to do that here, or would you prefer to go back to the Weyr now that we're done looking at the stones?"

"Either one works for me," Teallan says with a small shrug. "I don't have to be back right away, so if it'd be easier for you to stay here, we can."

Nenienne says, "Likewise for me. I'll eventually need to go back to do the drawings, but I can't do those until we've narrowed things down a little." After a beat, she asks, "Do you have a preferred shape?"

Teallan chews at her lip a bit, before pointing towards the last gem, that they skipped. "I like that one. It's like a waterdrop."

Nenienne nods. "That would be a briolette, then. Would you like them suspended or set in place?"

"Briolette," Teallan says, repeating the word slowly. "I guess set in place for the bracelet, but perhaps suspended for the earrings and necklace?"

Nenienne considers this, then suggests, "Or perhaps a different shape for the bracelet, preferably one with a flat back. Maybe a pear-shape. Would you want one stone on the bracelet or multiples?"

"A pear shape would still be similar enough," Teallan muses aloud, before nodding. "That would work." She thinks over the latter suggestion, before shaking her head. "Maybe just… ah, you know the solid bracelets, with just one stone in the center? I like those."

Nenienne nods, obviously making mental notes as she goes along. "So, dangling earrings and necklace, solid bracelet with a pear cut setting. Would you prefer gold, silver, or some other metal for this?"

"Silver, certainly," Teallan says after only a moment's thought. "It'd work with more of my outfits than gold."

Nenienne's nod shows rare approval. "I've always thought silver looks better with blue," she notes. One more big question — do you want any accent stones, on the briolettes or the bracelet? Note that they'll be tricky on the briolettes, if you decide to go with them."

Teallan shakes her head slightly, mulling this over. "No, I think… I think leaving it all be, so the briolettes get to stay the focus, is good."

Nenienne says, "Very well. I'll start on the sketches when we get back; those should only take a few days. Once you've selected the designs, I'll ask for half down so I can buy the stones from the Minecrafters, and then it will be anywhere from one to three sevendays to make the actual pieces.""

There's a brief grin and Teallan rocks on the balls of her feet. "Sounds lovely. Just send word once you've got the designs ready and we'll go from there."

Nenienne nods. "Will do. I wonder where L'han has gotten himself off to."

Teallan chuckles softly, "I'm sure we'll find someone to give us a lift back."


This is a continuation of the log High Noon, High Sky.


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