In the Light of the Trees and After by Lferion

Inspiration in Iron and Copper

Written for the Fan Flashwork challenge 'Hair' and the SWG Roaring Twenties challenge: Jazz Age bingo card, Square I3 - Art Deco.

Posted here on Fan Flashworks, and here on AO3

Many thanks to Zhie for encouragement and sanity-checking.

The iron-and-copper hanger-loops and the bead strands I made -- the loops and two of the strands for this challenge. The pins are by Rick Hardin, known as Thorvald Olafson in the SCA. Photography by me.

Copper strands, as fine as Nelyo's hair and as red, wound about the curls of the iron, holding the loops together so the extra length on the central loop did not make the hanging loops spread apart. Findekáno used the tweezers to tuck under the last fine end. Finished. Just needed a pass with the finishing cloth to shine things up a bit. He'd finished the pins the loops were to hang from several days ago, and the bead-strands were a project from a different learning session altogether, but they would look very nice arranged together in the learner's display.

He hoped Nelyo would not mind that he'd taken inspiration from untangling the snarl that had resulted from wearing Ambarussa's infant efforts at hair-ornaments. His fingers remembered the feel of Nelyo's hair, springy, soft and strong against his fingertips. The copper-red color such vibrant contrast against the silvery-black foil, tangled around the points of the inexpertly cut stars. Ambarussa had been so happy and proud to see Nelyo wearing them. Findekáno was even more touched that Nelyo had asked him to untangle them for him, once the twins had left. That their friendship had reached a place of such trust.

Inspiration could come from anywhere, and what better place than a moment of personal importance? He'd tried to put some of that feeling into the work, the happiness, the warmth, and it felt right to do so, even if it wasn't necessarily apparent in the loops themselves. He gave the copper a final rub with the polishing cloth. It glowed against the iron like he had hoped. They weren't perfect -- the loops were not quite identical, the curls on the ends of the wire were all a little different -- but he was still a learner, learning in many different ways.