Maybe I Will…
This past weekend was the Barony of Bergental‘s Baronial Championship, an event which I generally look forward to because it’s a lot like “Old Home” week. It’s mostly a laid back event and I get to see several of my friends and have a really nice day. This year I helped put together the dayboard or lunches and had both kids with me so it was a little busier than usual. Fortunately, the kids had friends to play with and they kept themselves busy while I helped in the kitchen which worked out nicely.
There was another reason I was a little more stressed out than usual at this particular event. I had decided, on a whim and at the last minute, to enter my Skjoldehamn hood into the Arts and Sciences Competition. This was the first time that I entered into any A&S competition in over 12 years. Why? Bad critiques. I don’t just mean someone saying, “This isn’t what we’re looking for,” but rather “It’s childish,” or “This sucks.” These are legitimate critiques that I was given. There was no constructive criticism or “This is good but you should work on this, too.” No. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just once either but rather three or four times over the course of five or six competitions. I won’t go into to more but they were experiences that decidedly put me off entering them again. Until this past weekend.
Baronial Championship Requriements
This past weekend was a fairly informal competition as far as A&S competitions go. It was more about the process, choices, and growth that happened during the course of the project. I’ve included the announcement details below:
Come, those who shine brightest beneath Bergental’s light! Your Barony asks you to bring your art, bring your research, bring your science, and shine. This year’s Luminary will be chosen among the stars of our populace, each bringing proof to our eyes of the skill of their hands and the journey the arts and sciences have brought to the individual. We shine most in the growth our path brings, and that is the focus of this year’s Luminary tour. It is our hope to choose from among our populace a new Luminary champion of the Arts and Sciences, who will showcase not only skill in their chosen field, but also how pursuing this project has helped the light within them blaze and grow!
Participants are asked to provide a written process, the more involved in the step by step decisions, the better. Each participant may provide photographs of the creation process, research, failures, and decision points along the journey, showing the way they have grown in the project. Also displayed is the project as it stands now, completed or not as it is at the time of the Champion’s event.
After talking with a few people I decided on Friday night, before the event, that I would do it. This was almost as good as being on home turf. There were high chances that I knew the judges and figure that it would be a good time to get real feedback. I had no paper written and it was 10 PM. I a little under two hours I cranked out my paper, with pictures, and citations. Not bad. I stuck it into my basket with the hood and forgot about it until the next day.
My bare-bones display…
The Day Of
When I got to the site I went to go put my hood on display right away. I did it before I could chicken out. I did not have a very elaborate display, to say the least. My research, growth, and steps I was able to condense into a simple two-page paper. I taped it to the table becuase of the wind. I even had to use rocks to hold down the hood! See….I can be period! Looking at the other displays I kind of figured I would wind up at the bottom of the pack but at least I would get good feedback. This is especially true since part of the judging would be done according to the new rubric set out by Master Phillip, the East Kingdom A&S Minister.
Fast forward about 8 hours and Baronial court is going on and I get called up for 3rd place. You could have bowled me over with a feather. The feedback, however, was really great. It told me what I did well and what I could improve on. Most of the items on the “to-fix” list were minor, like forgetting to write down why I cut the material the way I did or why I chose to machine stitch the base. These are easy enough to fix and, in fact, I already have in my write-up.
Overall this was a really great competition. There was plenty of feedback and the use of the new rubric was really awesome. I liked how it told you what the judges saw and also gives you an insight into what they may have missed. I actually gained confidence and maybe I’ll enter something else soon!