Trisha

[Kara Winters]

{:Breaking into the Clothes Business:}
Journal Log August 9th, 2008

It’s been a long time since I’ve been kept this busy. Between the wedding, and making preparations to move into the now official clan compound (it’s so strange thinking ourselves as a clan) there has been little time to rest. Of course that isn’t all that we’ve been doing. Helen, my little brother whom I’ve done many clothes projects with has asked me to go into business with him in making his designs public.

A lot of the designs we have so far are from over a year of making clothes for the family, but there are other designs we haven’t tried out yet. After all most clothes you wouldn’t wear every day, even if it would be nice. It would also be a chance to try out some jewelry, and other accessory designs. At first I wasn’t sure about taking up his offer, but Helen said it would be a good start for making our clan known.

Apparently he had been doing research into the workings of a clan, and even though technically we have half a school and the clan grounds, we are still new. I don’t know what people would think about a clan well known for clothes, but Helen pointed out that what we are well known for is diversity, and nothing is more diverse than to have arts (like clothes) among the fighters and magic users. I couldn’t very well disagree with him on that account, and it would be something productive to do.

Now how was Helen going to pull this off do you ask? Well he had learned from Mai who had been doing some research (I think she would specialize as an informant if she wasn’t so dangerous) that Were’s friend Wolf does photography and more importantly clothes.

With a combination like that, it would be an excellent way of showing what we are capable of doing. Though it’s going to be a lot of work, even though Helen does designs as well, I need to do the designs on the clothes designs. As odd as it sounds, I’m looking forward to the challenge.  

[Kara Winters]

{:The Difficulty of Moving:}
Journal Log October 10th, 2008

It is difficult to move, especially when you’re working on things, because it involves packing everything up in boxes or in magicked bags. Then once you get to your new home, you must unpack everything and until you do you cannot do anything else because you cannot find what you’re looking for until you unpack. If you’re working on anything it’ll set it back by at least two weeks or so. Granted it’s not like I have to move into a home of my own, not since I made a home in the Seconds World, but I find these days it is a bit lonely. Dart has made himself scarce sometimes it is difficult to remember that I do have a connection to him.

It probably hasn’t happened we haven’t had a chance to really sit down and get to know each other, but it doesn’t mean I’m unhappy. I have plenty to keep me busy, this new home I have I hope to turn into a crafts shop, since I tend to make things rather than paint. I have several designs in mind; I’d like to try though it would mean lessons. For example I’ve never carved wood or most other materials to being with. The home I’ll be living in is unique in that it is a double house, that it is connected to another house. That other house belongs to Helen, since I’m always helping with designs, normally I listen and draw and Helen sews. Sometimes I come in for a painting job; Helen seems to like those better than sewing in designs. I’ll also be helping in dying cloths, especially if there is a type Helen wants in a particular type of cloth but cannot find it.

Unfortunately for Helen, the one type of cloth he would love to work with but can’t get a lot of is spider’s silk. It is a very rare cloth that most do not use in Gaia, in fact he hadn’t been aware such a type of cloth existed until Elnara came along. After a bit of researching Helen found it and made a cloak for Elnara since then he would love to work with spiders silk because it is lighter than normal silk but carries properties better than normal silk and less likely to become ruined, or ripped. He would like to be able to use spidersilk for the kimono robes because it would make them far lighter but still have that texture that many are familiar with, though it flows more than normal silk, which just makes it better.

I don’t know who however is going to spend so much gold on spidersilk clothes; they are indeed not a common staple and less common than even normal silk. If Helen finds a provider or finds a way to provide himself it would though make a wonderful asset.
 

[Kara Winters]

{:Moving On:}
Journal Log February 5th, 2009

As I am writing this, it has been roughly four months since Dart and I have decided to go our separate ways. While our ‘marriage’ was one out of necessity as Dart needed to be bonded to someone, we had believed that we could love each other, as we had already respected and cared for each other. Unfortunately it was not meant to be, somehow Dart did not really need of me, and he had hardly been around. In fact we barely knew each other after our first agreement to be mates. For some reason, that chance to get to know each other never came up.

He was just never around to get to know.

I waited though, more for the fact I didn’t want Donovan’s fears to come true, he didn’t like marriages for convenience. I believe this must be an old clan thing, for marriages were, and to an extent still out of convenience even though children now have a choice in whom they marry. After a lot of soul searching though I realized, I was never going to get that chance to know Dart, and I wanted a marriage where I could love another. I wanted, what Mother has, what Yue and Yukito have, what Elnara has. When I began to seriously consider separating from Dart I do not know, maybe it was when I realized I didn’t need another person to live my life. After all, Feng in her usual way of being herself, decided to have a child without a mate.

She even went into nesting mode for Goddesses’ sake!

But when I really began to realize I was living my life without him was when everyone moved onto the clan grounds. I always had a place in my birthworld because I truly believed that was where I was going to live, but then… things happened. Dart was never there, Helen offered to share a building with me, he wanted a designer to keep close to him. He wanted to have a partner in his business, knowing how I liked to make things that one could hold and not just paint. I help paint with Serenity the walls of much of the ground buildings including Elnara and Lore’s home. It was then I realized… I was wasting away, and I had things to do.

So here I am three months later living only next door to Helen. My home has become my art gallery to show people what I can do, and of course I am Helen’s business partner. He, I think has been purposely keeping me busy to keep my mind off of Dart. It’s a good thing Helen can’t go into my birthworld, otherwise there might be blood. At the moment we are working in hopes of doing a collaborative with Wolf, who is a photographer and his wife is a clothes’ designer. It’s only hearsay so far, but we might get a chance to work with the two of them… provided we can convince Lin to team up with his brother Kin to be models.

That… might be a bit more difficult.