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"A leaf sounds like a good idea." Marissa agreed.

"When I was in junior high, our school had some interesting electives; woodworking, metal working, I want to say there was even an automotive class. Large power tools were intimidating to me so I decided to take extra science classes instead. But I remember having a friend take the metals class and their first project was one of those small gardening shovels." It was cute, and they were so proud of it, and since it was done around Mother's day it made for a perfect gift. "Do you have some examples of the leaves you've made already?"

"Ahh!" her eyes lit up as she picked up the maple leaf for closer inspection. The detail on it was absolutely astounding, even the veins looked real enough. "You know what this reminds me of?" She asked but didn't give him much time to respond.

"It makes me think of those hobbit cloaks from Lord of the Rings." Granted the elf cloaks had a green and silver clasp with a wholly different design but there was a delicate fantisy likeness to them that was hard to miss.

Marissa handed him back the leaf, "I think for the first one we should start with something simple." With her hands, she touched her middle fingers together as well as her thumbs to indicate the shape she had in mind, "maybe we can try to make one that looks like this, a spade or something." She wasn't really sure what type of tree something like that belonged to but it was basic enough for a first attempt.

Marissa accepted the apron then poked him in the side and laughed. "You sound more nervous than I am." She shook her head then lifted the top strap over her head and tied the two side ones behind her back.

She supposed that teaching hobbies or crafts was a bit different than helping someone learn how to fight. One was meant for fun, even if some of the equipment might be a bit dangerous to use, while the other was more serious as it was a skill that could save her life one day. "Don't worry, I trust you."

The next hour or so was spent picking out a piece of metal and with his help using the jig to cut the base shape. It was close enough to the shape she was hoping for, however one side definitely had a less dramatic curve than the other. But that was the beauty of leaves. They were an organic shape that wasn't always symmetrical especially if you change the angle that you're looking at them.

Cleaning up the edges with a metal file was the easiest part, just put the cut piece into the clamp to hold in place and rotate it as she was ready to work on a new edge. So far so good, no accidental mishaps or injuries. Except perhaps her pride on the minor mistakes but they were just flaws that only she would notice.

The last part, however, was the meticulous task of adding fine details she was used to with her rock carving. Marissa held the soldering iron carefully as she tried to add the raised veins to the thing metal leaf to give it some depth."So tell me, what are some of your 'oops moments'." Learning through error was how crafting usually goes and she wondered what mistakes Samir had made to get as good as he was.

"Yeah, you definitely are getting better." Marissa's gaze wandered over the numerous scars. If it wasn't that she had a boyfriend waiting for her back home, she may have absentmindedly reached out to touch them. Instead, she held both hands up and lowered both her right index finger and left ring finger. "At least you aren't missing any digits," she jested.

Thankfully it didn't appear that there were any recent injuries or ones that may have been serious enough to need stitches; at least at a glance, she didn't notice any lines flanked by a row of small dots that would have indicated there was a trip to the hospital.

"It's starting to get late. Should probably think about heading back within the next hour or so." Otherwise, he'd have to worry about her sudden signature bringing unwanted visitors around his home.

Marissa simply smiled. "Thank you," Surely it was because she was used to using similar tools with her stone carving that some of the steps felt more natural than others.

"If you have a spare keyring that would be great," she added. During the Starfall festival, she had been given a purple charm that she put on Wolframite's key once their new home renovation had finished; her own, however, was still without decoration.

"I think you give me too much credit. I just have suddenly found myself more free time than I knew what to do with and had to do something to keep my hands busy otherwise I'd have gone insane." Except that, for the better part of the last two years, she has gone stir crazy. More than anything she hated asking for help or relying on other people because it meant that she was incapable of doing something on her own. But hopefully, someday that would change and she would be worthy of a promotion.

"I'd be more than happy to do this again some time. And if you just want someone to be around while you work I don't mind bringing a book or my stone carving projects to work on." Then she remembered their conversation earlier. "Also, let me know if you're still available and want to figure out the whole car thing with me." If possible she'd like to restore a fixer-upper for Wolframite by the end of the year so he could practice driving and perhaps get a licensecome next summer..