The Sprite's Handiwork: ReTe 15.
A set of tiny metal masonry instruments (miniature chisels, hammers, stakes...) are magically wielded by the magic to carve a gem into a desired statue form. This work is very delicate, so creating a "miniature sculpture" would require a fairly high Finesse roll (EF 18 ). It is, however, fairly fast - an entire sculpture can be carved in a few minutes. (The reference to faeries is purely cosmetic, the spell is "rego craft magic" as per Covenants.)
(B 2+2 gemstone+1 touch, +1 concentration+1 complexity; EF 15 for "very hard" +3 for craft magic)
Oak of Clay: MuHe 10. A piece of dead wood is imbued with the viscosity and malleability of clay. While under the influence, the wood can be worked as if it was clay. When the duration ends the wood would regain its rigidity, but will retain its new shape if it can support it.
(B 4, +1 touch, +1 concentration; Aq requisite?! See "hiding the mystic key", TMRE p. 116)
The idea is to sculpt a gem (green turquoise) to the shape of a human skull, and stick it into a staff's top.
Yah, I think you'd need a Terram requisite to make wood like clay. No Aquam in clay making magically speaking, I don't think.
Rope of Bronze (MuReHe) requires a Req, while Supple Iron and Rigid Rope doesn't (aside from the casting reqs to effect Animal products etc).
Without the Req on Supple Iron it sounds more like a Perdo spell to me (destroying one property of an object: Its flexibility or its rigidity). Probally just Terram weirdness as being the "all Form".
The problem with destroying the wood's "rigidness" is that it's very arbitrary. I might as well use Creo to create a "softness". I don't like these kind of things unless it's very clear - such as destroying a thing's weight.
Maleability is quality of damp clay but the quality is possessed by other things as well. The spell is not turning the wood into any sort of earth or stone, it is only making the wood maleable.
You could give the wood the properties of stiff oatmeal or cooked mashed turnips. It has got nothing at all to do with Terram.
Welllll, I suppose you could, but this particualr spell here gives it the quality of damp clay. This is in fact a different quality than stiff oatmeal or cooked mashed turnips, though if you were a Herbam master or a Terram deficient you might want to go with one of the latter.
And since you're both in agreement, what IS the agreement about YR7's question about an Aq requisite?
I view the "clay" as simply a descriptive tool. The material isn't really changed to clay or anything clay-ish, it is simply endowed with malleability that is described by referring to a common mundane material with similar malleability - which just happens to be clay.
I feel far more confident with another Grand Master at my side. 