Drabble #190: Graceful

[redwolf]

...we had a nice response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 189, with entries by apachefirecat and redwolf and comments by apachefirecat and redwolf

For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:

Graceful

Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.

Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit of 500 words. Though remember that shorter pieces are most definitely welcome!

Your entry should take the following format, posted as a comment on this entry:

Word count: # of words
$your_beautiful_drabble

I'll be running weekly challenges in the space around jalenstrix's monthly challenges.

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Remember: Feedback is LOVE. So do reply to your fellow labyficcers' drabbles if so inclined. (Though be careful of concrit unless specifically okayed by the author beforehand. Authors generally write for love.)

Comments

Impart

[redwolf]

Jareth’s experiment with pinstriping had a knock on effect that Sarah eventually came to realise was by design rather than accident.

The small goblin and their helmet bearing a custom paint job had been tasked with jobs that sent them all across Goblin City and they were more than happy to show off their headwear. While some people were happy with looking, others were directed to Jareth for further information. He may have gained more meetings from the endeavor, but at least they were related to something he was passionate about.

Sarah didn’t expect there to be a sudden upswing in the technique across the city and suspected it wuld be adapted by each artisan.

Seeing the delicate parallel lines and curlicues had made Sarah wonder if she could work it into her ceramics, but slip did not behave in the same manner. While her initial thoughts of direct decoration were out, her doodling with one of Jareth’s brushes and a bottle of ink did lead to some interesting designs.

She placed several pages of doodles on the workbench in the ceramics studio and stood back to examine them.

“Nice work.” Bishop appeared at her side, his broad smile showing his delight. “They have a very art nouveau vibe.”

“Thank you, but I have no idea what to do with them.” Sarah huffed in frustration.

Bishop reached across the workbench and started reordering the designs. “These ones,” he clustered several squarish designs together. “Should work nicely for tile repeats. They can be easily mirrored for a floor pattern. These ones,” he moved a couple of flowing rectangular designs. “Have a good shape and with a little tweaking would make a good border design.”

“What about these ones?” Sarah pointed out a group with loose swirls that she felt were lacking in comparison.

Bishop tapped an elegant finger against his lips and hummed in thought. “If not feature tiles, then perhaps decorative elements on your vases.”

His enthusiasm started to lift Sarah’s mood. “Really? I couldn’t see any of that.”

Grabbing a pencil, Bishop quickly made several very rough replicas of one of Sarah’s designs and then shuffled them around so her original doodle was now one quarter of a mirrored repeating pattern.

“You’re right, that does work.” She looked at how Bishop had laid out the repeat and could now see where she would need to move a line or adjust an element to make the design flow in a more organic manner.

“You have a tidy array of related designs here that would make a good collection. Once you add in multiple colour ways, this is an impressive addition to our design library.”

Sarah ducked her head at the praise, a little embarrassed that her doodling while trying to figure out how to incorporate a design technique had inadvertently spawned a new series of ceramics designs. With a shake of her head, she suddenly realised that this was how Jareth was sharing knowledge, one excited goblin at a time.