T for Tuesday

Miss Dunnit, her current squeeze, and her best friend spent a day at the Harry Potter World studio experience tour thingy last week. It was a gift of a day in every meaning. These three die hard nerdy fans were in their elements. They haven't really stopped talking about the facts that they learned despite thinking they knew nearly everything. Their enthusiasm was priceless. And for me, Miss Dunnit's wonder at the production and technical stuff was amazing. See, after a School and College career that seemed to be drawing her to politics and activism, she decided against University and stepped out into the wide world of retail. Well, three years of that have made her suitably cynical and wanting change, and so in September she begins a full time degree course in 'Prop Making and Special Effects'.

So now...she's drinking from a cauldron....it's mug sized and looks great with steam rising gently from it. Of course, you have to take my word for that, because of my iffy photography!

We're right behind her. But failing to hide our surprise.  See, other people, people with overview, hindsight and no emotional attachment say things like 'of course, she's so into the Cosplay and conventions, it's only natural.....' and  'crikey, she'll love that, the cutting and sticking is in her blood!'. Now this may be true, but I'm the Mother and I worry. What on earth is she going to learn to enrich her young life? How will learning to make sugar glass bottles enhance her life? Really, I haven't taught her as much about the sewing machine as I could....and so on. 
Well a little research and a read of a studio tour brochure almost has me convinced. There will be genuine and in depth research required. After all, if you're going to reproduce the tea service that Marie Antoinette ate her butties from, you need to know what it was made from, how to model it, paint it, blah blah. If you're going to make over 2000 wands for a movie, each reflecting the user's personality, you might need to know a bit about woodworking, gems, symbols, other languages. In the HP movies, even the glass bottles in the shops are individually made props. I know she may not move out of Uni and into prop making. I know she may never work on anything so famous or far affecting as the HP series. But...I'm relatively happy that given this course and the skills, she may well work. And be happy in her work. Result.
Joining Elizabeth this morning.