Last year I had 8 entries, this year I only had 4. On the plus side, although there were less entries, they were far more "complete" than some of the entries from the previous year. Many thanks to Duchess D and Lady Maeve who volunteered to be judges.
The entries were:
Zanobia Adimari - 10th century Norse costume
Eadie Porterose - 16th Century working class hollandish
Eadie Porterose - 1st century Roman
Bleddyn ap Guyver - 1st century Roman military costume
Zanobia's entry was the winner with a beautifully complete outift, well executed in construction and good documentation. Eadie's outfits were both quite complete, but her documentation and execution were not as well done. Bleddyn didn't have any documentation, but is still good to see some guys giving costuming a go.
The main thing that impressed me was that every entry had shoes! Check them out:
Zanobia's Felt Boots
Eadie's Hollandish shoes
Eadie's Roman Shoes
Bleddyn's Calligae
I am so impressed. Despite having a thing for period shoes, they really do make an outfit and I am amazed that people who are quite competent costumers don't try their hand at shoes. As I'm sure these entrants discovered, making shoes is not really that difficult.
I'm thinking about what to do for next year to encourage more people to enter. I was disappointed that a number of people who I thought were going to enter, didn't. I think they may have been confused about the competition as the reasons for not entering were "I couldn't document all of it". Documentation certainly got you bonus points, but it wasn't essential.
Though some options I'm playing with for next year are:
- Lower the percentage of own work (bonus points for if more than 80% is your own work) and maybe drop the "new since last year" or change to "not previously submitted for this competition".
- Consider "grades" of competition. Keep beginner level basic to encourage entrants. Have an intermediate/advanced level that requires min. 80% own work with documentation. That way those who are new to costuming or a particular style can still enter and get feedback and those who are more experienced will be challenged appropriately.
I'll have a chat to the group and see what I can do to get more entries next year.
8 comments:
Wish I had been able to make it. I did end up helping Kazzia get organised though, and I think she really needed it. Plus I got a night with J that was very nice :)
Shoes! Yay shoes!
I have to say that on the event ads that were emailed to the various lists, there wasn't any mention of the competition, and it would be a good place to have a plug for it to remind people.
Next year I'll enter. Or I'll be a bad Katje.
Still, I'm very glad that there were 4 entries, and the ones that were there were good. Hope the night was fun!
Excellent:) Love the variety of shoes.
Next year I'm trying my hand at some cork soled slippers as they are most appropriate for a Vrouwe of Willemyne's financial standing.
Shoes are great. I'd love to hear how you go with the cork soled shoes.
Currently I have a pair of calcei I need to finish the punchwork on and a pair of 16th C flemish shoes like Eadie's to do. Will be experimenting with rands and heel stiffeners on those.
It was a great event, and I can't tell you how clever you are for the competition idea. Or I'll have to go off and hunt down yet more gold stars.
I think we might want to drop the doco component back to about 10% rather than the current 17%, and maybe put it about that all you need to do to get a passing doco mark is have some photos of the things that inspired you and a brief description. That should help the freaked out.
Cork soles are cool because you can build them up out of thin layers and glue them together, then sitich leather over the whole thing. It's a bit soft and springy, too.
what an excellent idea for an A&S competition! I'd love to copy the idea over here, maybe for DA, with your permission.
Hi Marienna,
More than happy for the competition to be duplicated, improved upon etc.. elsewhere. I'll be posting the revised competition specs probably sometime on the weekend (when I finish writing an article for the local newsletter).
excellent! I look forward to seeing your update.
I find it difficult to get excited about A&S competitions, because often they are for "A Thing" I have philosophical difficulties with competing in that format. But this is an excellent topic, because there is an end-purpose of finding the whole picture at one time and place. It's something to thoroughly be encouraged. And shoes! :-)
Thanks for coming up with this!
Zanobia's shoes are muy impressive! They look fab, was super impressed with the photos on the colles website.
Shoes, in London, are like crack to the modern woman. Every one seems to have a nasty little habit.
Me, with my three pairs total in my backpacking wardrobe, just blinks... and develops a fetish for PERIOD shoes. Of course. I don't a rat's about modern pretty shoes - I want MEDIEVAL pretty shoes!
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