Written By Cufre
July 18, 2021, 10:13 a.m.(11/10/1015 AR)
Every now and then a customer brings me a clot of necklaces that have worked themselves into a tangle. Picking them apart takes time, something pointy, and a willingness to walk away for a while.
Written By Cufre
July 11, 2021, 3:15 p.m.(10/25/1015 AR)
Crowns.
For weeks and weeks now, my mind keeps drifting back to them. It. Them. You know, I've made and repaired jewelry for years now, and I've never once worked on or made even one. The one, yes, but these others?
I know this isn't making sense. It doesn't make sense to me. I'm coming out, I hope, of the worst headache of my life, so show me some grace there.
For weeks and weeks now, my mind keeps drifting back to them. It. Them. You know, I've made and repaired jewelry for years now, and I've never once worked on or made even one. The one, yes, but these others?
I know this isn't making sense. It doesn't make sense to me. I'm coming out, I hope, of the worst headache of my life, so show me some grace there.
Written By Cufre
June 27, 2021, 10:53 p.m.(9/25/1015 AR)
I've been unusually lazy this summer. Poor Lax has had the run of the shop more and more while I've been just off doing whatever it is I've felt like doing. It's been nice. And very unlike me.
I didn't even run the kiln like I usually do. This summer, I just decided it was too hot for it. Well, with the exception of the rose pins, but that was just something you make an exception for, isn't it?
I feel it coming to an end. I'm not claiming some sort of fancy future-seeing. No, if I could do that, I hope I'd have a bit more coppers in my pocket. No, I'm just feeling the end of this summer more than others. There's a lot of work to be done come autumn. Working the glass in the kiln, getting new bits of jewelry on the shelves. All the covering up in the colder weather means the jewelry has to work that much harder to be noticed, you know.
And then there's the Beginnings work. I'm not often the first Harlequin called on for it, but with so many of the last winter's babes about ready to be welcomed, the start of autumn always has a bit of extra busy to it.
This summer has been good to me, but getting back to the blessings of my usual will, I hope, give the memory of it more meaning. What's the pendant without the chain, right?
I didn't even run the kiln like I usually do. This summer, I just decided it was too hot for it. Well, with the exception of the rose pins, but that was just something you make an exception for, isn't it?
I feel it coming to an end. I'm not claiming some sort of fancy future-seeing. No, if I could do that, I hope I'd have a bit more coppers in my pocket. No, I'm just feeling the end of this summer more than others. There's a lot of work to be done come autumn. Working the glass in the kiln, getting new bits of jewelry on the shelves. All the covering up in the colder weather means the jewelry has to work that much harder to be noticed, you know.
And then there's the Beginnings work. I'm not often the first Harlequin called on for it, but with so many of the last winter's babes about ready to be welcomed, the start of autumn always has a bit of extra busy to it.
This summer has been good to me, but getting back to the blessings of my usual will, I hope, give the memory of it more meaning. What's the pendant without the chain, right?
Written By Cufre
June 16, 2021, 1:46 p.m.(9/3/1015 AR)
I'd been wanting to visit the Pravosi part of the city. Ever since a dream I'd had last week. Dreams? Was it more than one? It's hard to remember; those days run together. I wasn't sleeping much.
Lax mentioned there'd be a public music performance in the Ward of Pravus' Hydro Hall, so I went to it.
The music was not like any I'd heard before, and though that isn't saying much, it's with reason. The Glass Butterfly Nina Autumndale presented and played a new instrument that was so big they had to build the music hall around it! There was time given to talk and drink and get a closer look at the instrument, which makes music from water. That I learned from the Glass Butterfly herself before we were joined in a conversation about musicians and art and, I guess, always searching.
The concert didn't scratch my need to be in that section of the city, but it wasn't wasted time.
Lax mentioned there'd be a public music performance in the Ward of Pravus' Hydro Hall, so I went to it.
The music was not like any I'd heard before, and though that isn't saying much, it's with reason. The Glass Butterfly Nina Autumndale presented and played a new instrument that was so big they had to build the music hall around it! There was time given to talk and drink and get a closer look at the instrument, which makes music from water. That I learned from the Glass Butterfly herself before we were joined in a conversation about musicians and art and, I guess, always searching.
The concert didn't scratch my need to be in that section of the city, but it wasn't wasted time.
Written By Cufre
June 9, 2021, 3:59 p.m.(8/17/1015 AR)
Relationship Note on Felicia
Growing up without much of anything but a family that always sticks together, it's easy to forget that that bit's worth way more than what's scarce. We're all so different, all off doing our separate things, but when I need someone I can trust, I know where to go. Always.
So if me doing my things ever thrust me into the Queen's embrace (again?), Felicia has the right to let my black journal bore her to tears. Though, let's face it, she's going before I do.
So if me doing my things ever thrust me into the Queen's embrace (again?), Felicia has the right to let my black journal bore her to tears. Though, let's face it, she's going before I do.
Written By Cufre
June 5, 2021, 11:27 a.m.(8/9/1015 AR)
I've been putting a lot of time into filling the shelves of the shop lately. Keeping my hands busy seems to keep my mind busy enough. And the few times I've taken a bit of a pause, there was always someone there to turn my mind to things outside of myself.
I've come to see how summer is a beginning in the shop. It's too hot to run the forge unless I am intentionally trying to punish myself with thoughts of how unbearably hot it is (and, truth told, that has its uses) so I am put to working with stones more. Finding new ways to put them together. It's trickier with them than it is with glass. There's far more cost and no room for going back.
I've come to see how summer is a beginning in the shop. It's too hot to run the forge unless I am intentionally trying to punish myself with thoughts of how unbearably hot it is (and, truth told, that has its uses) so I am put to working with stones more. Finding new ways to put them together. It's trickier with them than it is with glass. There's far more cost and no room for going back.
Written By Cufre
May 30, 2021, 8:18 p.m.(7/25/1015 AR)
It turns out that there's a remedy for feeling sorry for yourself. More than one. But work's the one I'll mention here.
Written By Cufre
May 23, 2021, 5:38 p.m.(7/11/1015 AR)
Ever since the thing with Felicia, I've been feeling bad. Guilty. Jealous. New things to me. It's less than it was, and I know it will go, but for now it's just difficult. I sit at my worktable, and I just can't. I haven't fired the kiln in over a week. I haven't made jewelry in that long, either. I'm trying to push myself to, but I just can't see anything new in front of me, and I don't want to revisit old designs. I've had awful conversations with visitors to the shop. Accusations. I closed it for a few days, but money is food, so I reopened. The emptiness of most of the cases is just one more thing for me to feel bad about.
Written By Cufre
May 16, 2021, 9:12 a.m.(6/24/1015 AR)
It's funny. The bit of the shop where I spend most of my days is called 'Heart of Glass.' How on the nose is that?
Does drink strengthen glass? Let's find out.
Does drink strengthen glass? Let's find out.
Written By Cufre
May 10, 2021, 11:55 p.m.(6/14/1015 AR)
Months later, the debt is finally paid.
Now I can get back to working for the family.
Now I can get back to working for the family.
Written By Cufre
April 25, 2021, 9:32 p.m.(5/11/1015 AR)
I'm happy with the pieces I made for Lady Medeia Eswynd's Deeplight Coral Showcase. Rather than feeling done, as I often do at the end of a commission, I feel inspired to make more. We'll see.
Here are the words I shared at the Showcase. They aren't as deeply detailed as the ones written by Caprice Artiglio and Samira Culler, but they'll have to do as mine:
I'd never been on a sea voyage, so I didn't know what to expect. It was the winter, and cold. So cold. And the swaying. How can anyone get used to that?
But then we arrived at the island.
It was still so very cold, but we weren't left that way for long. The warmth of the Islanders as they shared their drink, the coral's story, their treasure - the coral, of course - and their trade more than pushed back the sting of a cold unlike any other I'd felt.
When I made these pieces of jewelry, I set out to capture the warmth of the Oksehode Isles in settings that could be worn over time, from one generation to the next.
Cufre Harrow, 1015 AR
Here are the words I shared at the Showcase. They aren't as deeply detailed as the ones written by Caprice Artiglio and Samira Culler, but they'll have to do as mine:
I'd never been on a sea voyage, so I didn't know what to expect. It was the winter, and cold. So cold. And the swaying. How can anyone get used to that?
But then we arrived at the island.
It was still so very cold, but we weren't left that way for long. The warmth of the Islanders as they shared their drink, the coral's story, their treasure - the coral, of course - and their trade more than pushed back the sting of a cold unlike any other I'd felt.
When I made these pieces of jewelry, I set out to capture the warmth of the Oksehode Isles in settings that could be worn over time, from one generation to the next.
Cufre Harrow, 1015 AR
Written By Cufre
April 18, 2021, 6:59 p.m.(4/25/1015 AR)
There is a lot of distance between having and not-having. That's it, scholar. I have to get back to work.
Written By Cufre
April 11, 2021, 7:16 p.m.(4/11/1015 AR)
It has been a slow week in the shop, which is bad for debt, which, untended, always seems to grow with time - why can't it just remain steady? - but is good for creating.
I have been spending more time trying to work with the Deeplight coral I cannot believe I was lucky enough to be given. It's so different from other stones I've used in my jewelry. It sparkles, and where it doesn't, it holds color deep within without the bright return that other stones have. Instead, its light is like a lighter version of itself. I bet that makes no sense. Well, I guess it just has to be seen.
So that's the work I'm about these days. Making something of mine that's worth seeing with these beautiful stones.
I have been spending more time trying to work with the Deeplight coral I cannot believe I was lucky enough to be given. It's so different from other stones I've used in my jewelry. It sparkles, and where it doesn't, it holds color deep within without the bright return that other stones have. Instead, its light is like a lighter version of itself. I bet that makes no sense. Well, I guess it just has to be seen.
So that's the work I'm about these days. Making something of mine that's worth seeing with these beautiful stones.
Written By Cufre
April 4, 2021, 5:25 p.m.(3/25/1015 AR)
It's been a week of many offers. Many unexpected offers. So far, I've taken them all.
Well, except the one I couldn't. I can't very well trade a single string bracelet with two different people.
The debt remains unchanged for now.
Well, except the one I couldn't. I can't very well trade a single string bracelet with two different people.
The debt remains unchanged for now.
Written By Cufre
March 28, 2021, 8:26 p.m.(3/11/1015 AR)
Debt, or feeling I'm in debt. It's unfinished business and, Mother knows, I just can't...
Fortunately, this is the copper-for-copper sort, and not one of those that can have different values on either side of the exchange. Or, even worse, the sort that can never be repaid.
I am just shy of a third of the way to settling it.
Fortunately, this is the copper-for-copper sort, and not one of those that can have different values on either side of the exchange. Or, even worse, the sort that can never be repaid.
I am just shy of a third of the way to settling it.
Written By Cufre
March 21, 2021, 9:22 p.m.(2/25/1015 AR)
I've been given a bit of the Deeplight Coral I've heard so much about! The glimmer on them can't be imagined until they are seen. For all I was told about it, I still couldn't believe my eyes when I finally got to see it.
I know, all this excitement and I still feel late to it. I heard so much about the piece featured at the Eswynd Coral Ball that I'm sorry I never had a chance to glimpse it. But maybe that's for the best. Maybe it leaves me more open to see what the coral can do, when worked. You know, like not being stuck in what I've seen others create of it and around it?
I've never been in this spot before, with jewelry. Is this what exploration feels like? Possibility?
I know, all this excitement and I still feel late to it. I heard so much about the piece featured at the Eswynd Coral Ball that I'm sorry I never had a chance to glimpse it. But maybe that's for the best. Maybe it leaves me more open to see what the coral can do, when worked. You know, like not being stuck in what I've seen others create of it and around it?
I've never been in this spot before, with jewelry. Is this what exploration feels like? Possibility?
Written By Cufre
March 14, 2021, 7:43 p.m.(2/11/1015 AR)
The piece I designed based on Lord Mirk Halfshav's stories is nearly done. I don't even want to think about the cost of the metals and stones that are going into it. I owe thanks to the Guild, to Guildmaster Apollo in particular, for help on that side of things.
May this thing do both the Scholars and the Crafters proud.
May this thing do both the Scholars and the Crafters proud.
Written By Cufre
March 7, 2021, 10:54 a.m.(1/25/1015 AR)
So, I went to the Gray Ball.
I wore one of Felicia's old gowns, but believe me, it was not without its cost. I made a right fool of myself. So this is important to note: always, always take the time to hem skirts that are made for someone taller than you.
I hate hemming.
But this once, I see it as entirely worth it.
I wore one of Felicia's old gowns, but believe me, it was not without its cost. I made a right fool of myself. So this is important to note: always, always take the time to hem skirts that are made for someone taller than you.
I hate hemming.
But this once, I see it as entirely worth it.
Written By Cufre
Feb. 28, 2021, 2:33 p.m.(1/11/1015 AR)
Never have I felt so touched by Jayus as these last few days. Which is saying a lot, when you think about my trade. Maybe it was the weather turning to colder days, when work slows and ideas can play.
I don't know, and I don't have to know. I'm thankful for it.
I don't know, and I don't have to know. I'm thankful for it.
Written By Cufre
Jan. 17, 2021, 8:58 p.m.(10/9/1014 AR)
So, this is new: a bit of jewelry work that comes with a lot of research. The Scholars-Crafters thing has taken me much further from my usual interests, which is strangely nice. Going into things blank, I mean. The ideas that have come from this project are less of a tangle this way.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.