"I'm here to teach a painting lesson," her soft, gentle voice barely carries forward as she looks up at the guard standing in front of the market's entrance. There is a hushed conversation as they eye her and her mastiff companion, Hem, who carries her supplies behind him in a small cart. Noticing the bird that they send off, they motion for her to step aside and wait for word back about her request. Being the lady that she is, Gem steps aside and rests herself against Hem. Though she is young, she is ready to take on a teacher-like role. After the bird returns, one of the guards leads Gem down into the market and through the alleyways. Off to one side of the market are some small caverns fashioned into rooms where lessons could be taught. Inside, Gem feels warm and flustered. Her first lesson to teach! Feeling the excitement being bubble up, the small girl rushes inside with a small gasp of awe. A perfect size and it was warm from a crackling fire in an hearth off toward the far wall. Thank goodness because she was getting chilly out there! "Hem, help me set out everything up front here," she waves a paw to where a low standing wooden table takes up most of the space. There Gem places out several different berries including currants, gooseberries, strawberries, and raspberries. Most of these wouldn't be found in the north this time of year, but since berry paints were her favorite, she always had a stash saved. "Make sure the kettle over there has water heating in it," Gem motions to Hem to get the kettle going as she takes her time to ensure all of the needed materials were placed out for whoever her students would be. Gem Klein

The day had arrived! Bas had sent for an artist to help teach Ignita how to make paints!
She's giddy with excitement.

She starts to skitter from her den, but no... No, she's a Steward now. She doesn't need to slink along the walls, and get out of everyone's way first. She can... stroll. Take a longer stride, hold her head up even. She was no longer a slave.

She still didn't want to be late though. She can work on her stride another time. She moves quickly through the Col, and enters the Market. It's busy of course but she's become a pro of slinking through the gaps of crowds. She made it to the other entrance of the Market and asked the guards where the teacher had gone. They pointed her that way and she smiled at how they treated her. Just like one of them! She was one of them!

She entered the warm room with her head up and a happy smile.
"Hello? Are you the one teaching the painting lesson? I'm Ignita, it's probably just going to be me today. I'm so excited you're here!" She exclaimed in greeting.


"Speech"

It wouldn't take long for her student to arrive. Though Gem would have hoped for multiple students, she had already been informed that only one would be joining her. Which, as she thought about it, might be for the best! She could give the student her utmost attention on the topic and be able to answer any and all questions. Her ears perk up when Ignita walks in. Gem stands at the front of the room as she greets the girl in return with a small and gentle wag of her tail. "Hello! Yes, I'm here to teach about how to craft paints from different materials found in the wild," her smile meets her lips as she moves to motion a paw toward the laid out ingredients before her. "No worries about that! I only need one anyway," Gem jokes, her eyes twinkling against the flicker of the fire in the hearth. "For this lesson, I brought out some different berries. Berries can be some of the easiest material to work with because if you want something very vibrant and thick, you don't have to do much," Gem speaks as she moves a piece of parchment toward her. Rolling a few of the raspberries into a bowl beside her and motioning for Hem to dribble some water into it, Gem begins to mash the berries up into a paste. "If you don't have water, saliva works too, but if your mouth is dry, it might not work so well," there's a soft laugh among her words as she works the berries. Lifting her paw to show Ignita the red paste, she moves it over to the parchment and swipes her paw against it. "See how bright the red is? The only issue with this easy and quick method is that the fiber and seeds of the berries are mixed in as well so you'll get a texture you might not like," Gem points with a toe to motion at the seeds rising above the streak. "Give it a go and then I'll show you the long method so you'll have berry paint to store for use later," she motions to a piece of parchment on the table near Ignita, inviting the girl to try. Gem Klein

Ignita's tail wags as they introduce themselves and she's led to the table, she thinks she'll really like Gem. Oh! Berries! She hadn't even thought to use berries for painting!

She watched Gem mash the berries and smiled at her companion adding the water to the paint. She didn't think the paint would be very vibrant at first from all the juices but she was glad she was wrong when Gem swatched the paint on the paper!

"Ohh, I see that!" She replied as her teacher pointed out the fiber and seeds. She thought surely there were also ways to use the texture in the paint for some interesting effects!

Ignita dips a paw in the paint at Gem's behest and makes a similar streak. Her tail wags in delight, and she uses a toe to make a crude portrait of Gem's companion in the red chunky paint, then giggles. Ignita's own golden possum companion bounds through the classroom door and climbs up to Ignita's shoulders, with big dark eyes and a pink nose Idalia looks at the painting too.

Ignita steps back and watches Gem for the next part of the lesson.

"Speech"

Gem is super pleased that the lesson is going well! Ignita appears to be picking up the idea of the paints quickly. Now came the harder part.

“This next part will take time,” she begins, wiping her paw off on some cloth before stepping to move over to the other items needed. “So you will want to make sure that you have a pot, cauldron, metal or stone container of some sort heating water over a fire,” Gem points a dainty paw to the fire that her companion now tends to. Steam can be seen curling up into the air from the pot that hangs over it.

“Then you will also want to have, of course your berries,” she giggles as she points to the mound of berries. “You will also want something that can strain the berries. Your market will probably have material thin enough to use or if you need to be resourceful, large leaves can sometimes be used or there is cloth at human ruins that is sometimes in good enough condition to use,” Gem motions now to the large clay container where a thin piece of cloth lay draped over it.

“I had Hem do the easy part so we don’t have to wait. The first part is boiling the berries,” she motions for her canine companion to bring the boiling mixture of deep magenta over to them. “It is like tea - which side note, tea can be used for ink as well. The longer you steep it, the deeper and darker the color. If you want a lighter color, don’t boil it as long. I wanted a deeper color to really show you the true pigment,” Gem smiles before directing Hem to pour the contents over the thin cloth and bowl. The splash and loud hissing sends her head leaning backward but only just enough to avoid being burnt.

“As you see, you’ll want to pour it over the cloth slow enough that it doesn’t get sucked into the bowl with it. Then,” she motions Hem to step back so she can have Ignita do the last part. “”We strain all the not liquid bits out to make a true paint! So if you want to give it a try, you’ll gather up all the dry edges of the cloth, bunch them up and then give it as hard as a squeeze as you can!” Gem lifts her paws to motion the movements Ignita would need to use.

Ignita is delighted to finally see what the pot over the fire is about. She pays extra attention to Gem's words and nods along. The girl is probably talking about the human's muslin or a cheesecloth! She had read a few books that referred to it a few times. And lo! There it lay over the bowl.

She listened and watched intently as Gem described making the berries into tea and even using the tea as an ink! Her tail wags and is delighted by the deep color that is poured out of the pot into the cloth.

"Ohh!" Ignita exclaimed delightedly and eagerly pulled up the dry corners, being careful to make a solid bag out of the cloth and not let any of the thick contents spill out. She squeezed the liquid out of the berry bits, pulling it up and squeezing some more.
"So it's like making a juice!" She exclaimed and pulled the squeezed contents out, admiring the rich magenta color staining the cloth.
"I love it." She looked down into the rich warm pigment in the bowl and dipped a claw in to drag it across the page. Oooo! It was like a fine deep ink!

"Speech"