#brightwindsbarony

"I can do a little legerdemain, at least..." She waggles her fingers and a spoon levitates from the table and dances over the coffee cup.

"Oooooo. Can you lift an entire mine cart if the dumbwaiter breaks down?" Enthralled!

"I haven't tried anything that big... so I'm not sure?"

A grin. "Maybe we can try it out sometime!" She sets the bag of stones on the table. "Will you show me how to make paint when you're ready? Or if you want to experiment on these to see if they do anything else neat, let me know. I brought them for you."

"Sure! You might like this - it involves grinding. You have good strong hands. Have you ever used a mortar and pestle?"

She shakes her head. "I know about mortar... for bricks?"

"Same word, different thing. Come on, I have one in my studio." Sparrow has claimed a room with good light for that purpose, though others are also welcome - Ashlee, in particular, has been encouraged to come in to draw and paint, given the girl's fondness for it.

And there Ashlee is now actually, she blushes as if caught

"Hey Ashlee! You want to see how to make paint?"

"MAKE paint? Yes, please"

"Well, first step is making the pigment into a powder. Though with a troll and a witchel to help, this might be an easy step. Ladies, please grab a paper mask from the cubby - the powder can be bad to breathe in, so that will protect you." Sparrow herself goes to retrieve the mortar and pestle sets.

And quickly the troll is taking a mask and handing one to Grete

Sparrow shows the girls. "So, you use the pestle and crush the pigment into a powder, like so..."

Ashlee listens attentively

"See the movement? Nice steady circles... now, you try."

"does it matter if it's clockwise or counterclockwise?"

"Nope. Unless you are preparing a bunk, maybe."

"Zara always seemed very fond of 'widdershins,' but that's sluagh for you."

"ooo okay" She makes a note of it "Yeah, sluagh can be contrary. But Harkson didn't like them so ..maybe that's a good thing"

"Agreed."

Grete is masked up and intent on her grinding!

"They key is winding up with a very fine and even powder... oh, looking nice there, Grete."

"oh, mine isn't as smooth as Grete's" the troll admits, and looks over to see how the wichtel does it.

Push, pull - angle, scrape!

Methodical, not missing any tiny chunks.

"See how she does a little pull to get the sides back down?"

"Oh! Yeah, that's smart"

And soon Ashlee is getting the hang of that

"Now, pigment is pigment. What kind of paint it winds up is based on the binder. You use different mixers for oil paint or watercolors or acrylic..."

"Oil... like mineral oil?"

"What sort do you use, Baroness?"

"Mineral oil is good for cleaning brushes, but doesn't dry in a way that is good for paint. What you want is linseed oil for that."

"Oil paint is probably the hardest to work with, because it's fussy - but it also lasts the longest. Acrylic is easy, but dries very fast. I like watercolor or tempura a lot for learning to paint. Since we want this to last, I think oil will be best."

Ashlee nods

Sparrow shows the linseed oil. "Now, smell that? That's the resin, which makes it sticky. Sometimes you have to thin the paint so it flows..." She talks about the process as she uses a funny little knife/spatula to mix the powder with the oil.

She sniffs it, and her nose twitches! Intrigued...

A sniff "huh"

"Now, let's see if it still glows now that it is mixed into paint..."

Grete crosses her fingers under the table, and whispers to the rocks- no, rock dust.. no, rock PAINT... "Please?"

And mixing happily, the troll doesn't notice how hard a certain friend is witching

wishing

But it works! It glows, a chimerical glow

Sparrow cups her wings to block the light around them, and makes a happy little coo. "It works!"

"It worked! It really worked! I mean, I thought it would, I HOPED it would, but... wow."

"Hey, it's it's ap retty glow too"

It seems when mixed with mortal paints, the glow turns out to be what ever hue goes with the mortal color. A notch different at most

Of course, the light being chimerical, is not something mortals can see by

"Oh, this could be so cool... like, imagine painting a moonlit night?"

"With star pictures, like Mister Hamm showed us?"

"Grete, you find the coolest stuff" Ashlee says