Mahault van der Eych
The weather promised a great deal as we
loaded up the van and headed out for Rising Waters. We hit the road about 7, with a brief stop to
play "Freak The Mundanes" at the Golden Arches. Arriving at about 9:30, we discovered the
first of many disheartening facts about the competition. Everything seemed so small! The parking lot, the hall, even the room was
tiny and cramped! Not to be party
poopers we set up our crafts. Iolanda
entered her now (in)famous bobbin lace, with a really delicate little pattern
of hearts and the drinking horn she made for Berend (including a hand woven
strap). Normand was showing his
chainmail (the coaster) that highlighted his skill and enjoyment very
nicely. Ivana entered in the Bardic
competition with two recitations. Berend
set up the Osberg bed (on which Teah had a nap to demonstrate how it was
used). He also showed the Seax and Sicle
he made. I included some Viking soap and
the jerkin and trunk hose that Berend wore to Coronation.
Once we set up our stuff, we wandered
around the merchants for a bit and went for a walk around town. We sat outside for lunch to watch some of the
fighting, the weather was so nice! We
also spent quite a while admiring the work of several other craftspeople in the
competition. Berend and I had several
really good conversations with other entrants about their items and learned
quite a bit.
During the judging, Iolanda was informed
her horn was "perfect" by none other than Domnail Galbraith! I recieved some terrific feedback about my
work which I really appreciated. Normand
and his new best friend, Theign Cynred
were seen muttering in dark corners about chainmail and were spotted later that
day looking at Normand's "collection". Hmmmm....
Now I'm no expert by any stretch of the
imagination but I must say I was very disappointed in the competition and the
event as a whole. To begin with, the
location was a difficult place to feel comfortable in, as it was the basement
of a church and covered with religious paraphenalia. We were told right away that we were not
permitted to set up chairs and spent the entire day standing around feeling
lost. The event flyer informed us there
would be Children's events which turned out to be very misleading; the children
were expected to entertain themselves in the Nursery.
The A&S Competition was also not what
we expected. There was no structure to
the judging; it seemed that the judges were just grabbed out of the crowd to
give a critique about the items.
Iolanda's bobbin lace judge actually knew less about it than her! Part of the problem seemed to be the lack of
a schedule for judging. No-one knew if
an item had been judged or if anyone was going to judge it. We ended up spending the better part of the
day standing around in the room waiting for someone to happen by. I also felt that the A&S side of the
event was being relegated to a corner and largely ignored. The feeling I was left with was that hosting
the A&S was a big inconvenience for the event autocrats.
I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to
be nasty or hurtfull about the event. I
just feel very strongly about A&S and feel that if the event is not
carefully planned, the impact will be felt by all involved. We have so many talented artisans and
craftspeople in Ealdormere and it seems quite a shame to not promote this side
of the SCA as well as we can. I spoke to
several others at this event and the feelings I had were shared by them; if the
event looks like this next year, we're not going to bother.
On the bright side, it was quite a lot of
fun going on a road trip with Eirik, Iolanda, Normand and Ivana. The silliness and singing really made up for
what was a discouraging introduction to Kingdom A&S. And the cheesecake incident was pretty funny!
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