Arts and Mouse Crafts

Posted on Mon Aug 5th, 2024 @ 19:58 by Rebecca McMillen & Gabriella Baxter

Chapter: Besieged
Location: Rebecca's Classroom (Art)
Timeline: Tuesday, 26th of January, 1993
2021 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure

This wasn't the biggest mess she had to clean up. The competition left plenty of time for art, for mixing, for painting, for collage work, but little time to truly tidy up. That's what Rebecca set out to do today.

A little bit of elbow grease never hurt anyone as she went about. A bit of a mop up to get the dried paint off the floor, and then clear up the edges of the desks with a rag to just make sure things were tidy. Hardly any real effort, since all the paints she used here were acrylic. A little soap and water did wonders, nothing harsh or lingering.

"Not bad." she said to herself, looking over the classroom. Empty, but full of creativity. Students were here, creating, imagining, thinking. Here they could do so without concern or influence. Here they were more than safe, they were free.

Rebecca wasn't quite sure when she had picked up the sketchbook, she was somewhat in the zone. Sketching the empty classroom, the splotches of paint and color on the desks, the light through the windows. Would she paint it? Maybe on a mini-canvas. She enjoyed painting from that perspective, but no, this would just be a sketch for now.

Gabriella quietly entered the room, creative spaces always held some sort of reverie to her. She hadn't been half bad in art class, partially due to the practice she got decorating cakes in what was at the time her parent's bakery. There were some artworks on the walls, and definite signs of artful busywork around the room, but more importantly there was a mousy art teacher at a desk, sketching away in a small sketchbook.

"Good morning, Miss Miller?" She wasn't terribly good with names, but she knew exactly the kind of pastries that had her preference. "I hope I'm not intruding."

"Gimme one minute.............. there." Rebecca dragged out the tone of the word as she finished a particular line on the picture. Sometimes art took precedent. With that, she turned her attention upwards towards the visitor. "It's McMil, oh HEY!" she stood, immediately brightening with a smile. Tail swish. "Gabriel, was it? No no, it's... Oh I'm so sorry, I'm rubbish at names."

"Rebecca." she introduced herself fresh, to wipe away the gaff. "Welcome to my class, you're a little early but I appreciate that initiative." she joked with a smile. "What brings you to these parts?"

"I think we might have the same weakness." Gabriella smiled, "Gabriella Baxter." She returned the introductions. "I'm looking for a skilled artisan, and was pointed in your direction by mutual friends." It was a very roundabout way of saying what she actually wanted to say. "I'm sure you heard or noticed my windows got thrown in last December. They finally got around to replacing it." It had taken them a lot longer than had been strictly necessary. They blamed the holiday season, Gabby blamed the bigotry.

"I did notice that, I hope no one got hurt." Rebecca sympathized with the businesswoman. "I was so wrapped up running the auction, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to check in." she offered. "Well I've never worked on glass before but I'd love to give it a try at least. Sure, what do you need?" Rebecca inquired, standing up mid-speech to at least come out from around the desk.

"They did it when we were closed, so luckily nobody got hurt." Gabriella sighed a bit, she had wanted to say 'not physically'. Her father and mother were quite troubled, Gabriella herself had been furious for days. Not that anybody had noticed though. She had kept all of that neatly bottled up as she went back to baking cupcakes and sausage rolls. "I was thinking something with cupcakes and rainbows, make it a bit more fitting for the modern day."

Rebecca gave the matter some thought. Not in the 'do I agree to this' train, but more along the lines of 'how does she want it to look' field. With that, she got out a blank page and a pencil. "Okay, so I'm in." she offered back, accepting the deal now that ideas were starting to flow. "Okay so, basic frame for the window..." sketch sketch, "Okay so, I take it lettering here..." she blocked off an area near the top of the 'window' for demonstration, "So, you'd be looking for something to fill up, say, this space here?" another block to demonstrate. Then a pause, "Also, sorry if our first meeting was a bit, well okay, was a lot awkward. I just didn't know how up to the know folks were about the folks who live and work up here, and well my first instinct is to hide. If I could go back and tell Past Rebecca that it's alright.." she didn't finish that notion. If. If was a powerful word indeed.

Gabriella nodded along to what the art teacher was explaining about the placement of graphics and text. "I think that makes sense." She turned to face then other woman when she brought up their first meeting, "You weren't the weirdest first meeting I've had, I don't even think you crack the top ten." It was weird how some people treated service personnel, even though they handled the food and drinks they were looking to shove into their mouths.

"You know, I'm taking that as a compliment. Woman walks through your door with a tail and says she talks to mice, and that's just a dull Thursday. I'm keeping that." Rebecca smiled. "This I can work with." she motioned to the forming prototype layout. "Did you have any specific logo or design in mind, or did you want me to do a few test designs and let you pick? This is your window. I'll work with whatever you give me." she paused, "And I have no trouble doing a few test sketches and designs for you. Least I can do."

There was a moment of silence as Rebecca considered, "Oh, and I had that chat with them after our first meet up. Mice are easy to convince because their wild. They want safety, but they understand that while people scare away monsters, some people are the monsters. Rats, on the other hand, are belligerent. They want what they want, and they're not as afraid of people as mice are." a pause, "Plus their accent is heavy so sometimes it's hard to get what they're saying. I asked them to steer clear of the bakery for you. They said your bakery, and these are their words, big warm nice smell nice food, but they'd try to resist. Especially with winter on the slow way out."

"The only requirement is that it's called the Corner Bakery, and that we're open half seven till four. So long as that's clear, you have some creative freedom." Gabriella felt good for involving someone from Avalon in the restoration, knowing how her open and welcoming attitude towards them was the reason the window was broken in the first place. It felt good for that to have the complete opposite effect, the window art had been almost thirty years old (restored over the years, but still), now they were going to start from scratch, and it was going to reflect her personality. "Also, cupcakes."

"The cupcakes are my favorite part." Rebecca admitted. "Okay so, Corner Bakery, hours open loud and clear, rainbows and cupcakes." She recounted with a smile before beginning to sketch a few scripts. Just the words "Corner Bakery" but in various scripts. Some were flowy, others were conventional. Some were downright balloon'ish. All told, Rebecca offered a gambit of scripts from professional serif to whimsical sans serif.

"For the hours I'm thinking something like this." She motioned to a handscript that had the least amount of flair. "Easy to read and quick. Just eyes over and you've got what you need. For the actual name, though, I've got a steady hand for these, faces. If it were me, I'd figure something lightly fancy, like this one." she motioned to a type font that was somewhere in the middle. Friendly and inviting, without looking like a bank or a child's book. "Once I know what we're dealing with, I can get you some sketches done by end of week?"

Gabriella was impressed at how fast the arts teacher was able to conjure something up. And two of the fonts really spoke to her. An eloquent but playful font for the name, and soft and friendly but very readable font for the hours. "That one, and that one." She smiled. She had taken over the bakery from her parents and almost everything about it had felt like she was just playing shop in her parent's house. Slowly she had made changes in the available goods, and put in a couple of tables and chairs to allow for people to have a cuppa. Now with this renewed window art she'd fully realise her dream of owning her own bakery. Something so wholesome to grow from an act so vile it still pissed her off thinking about it.

Rebecca smiled, "I was hoping you'd choose that one for the bakery name. I love writing in that style." she admitted. "It's so adorable, but it's not illegible. It catches you, but not like in a demanding way, if that makes sense." She put a mark next to each of the chosen font faces. "I'll have some samples ready in a few days, and I'll bring them down to your place then, We can discuss looks and changes over muffins and tea." she knew it was blasphemy, but those muffins were too good to pass up.

There was a nod, "Muffins and Tea it is. Let me know what else I can offer in exchange for your work and expertise." Gabriella was all too familiar with the plight of the creatives. None of the corporate suits found their particular skills worthy of time or money, but they all wanted to benefit from them. The amount of cakes people had tried to get in exchange for 'hundreds of satisfied people who will surely come to your bakery after' was insane. "I want to properly compensate you, so give an estimate of time and hourly rate with your concepts."

Rebecca gave a nod, "I'll have a better idea of that once I know what's involved." a pause, "And, since you're my first actual commission, I want to make sure it's fair. Fair to you, fair to me." she wanted that known. "I appreciate your business acumen... I don't even know if that's the right word, but that bit of making sure that everyone gets honest pay for honest work. That, whatever word THAT is, I appreciate it. Not gonna pay me in cheese or free muffins. I mean, could you imagine if someone asked you for a free cake, and they'd pay you by telling everyone where they got the cake from? Nutters is what that is."

Rebecca had a good laugh at the notion of an exposure based economy. "I'd like a jelly donut please. That'll be two handshakes and three Tell Everyone." she calmed down after a moment. "I might need to ask around, but it'll be fair."

"Donuts, it's been a while since I tried my hand at those." Gabriella smiled though, "but I do like a good challenge, though." The very American treat wasn't very popular in New Cresthill, which was odd because they basically deep fried everything else they could get their hands on. "I'll leave ye to it then," her accent seeping though, "You kin where to find me." With a smile and a wink the baker stepped away and left the Art teacher on her own again, in the empty classroom.

It didn't hit Rebecca until about twenty seconds after the doors closed that she had just landed her first paid commission. Oh there'd be paperwork after this one. She fancied herself famous enough to worry about NDA's and such, but for now, she was just pleased as punch.

Twitchy tail.