This past weekend, I went to an SCA event, St. Elegius Arts and Sciences Competition. It is an annual event, but the first time I went. The idea of the event is that entrants in the competition judge each other, making it more like a martial activity where fighters are judging the quality of the blows from their opponent.
I entered in two categories. The first was the Experienced Competitor category, for artisans who have entered several competitions before. As I've entered a kingdom level competition before and entered and won a local competition, my Laurel (formal teacher) and I decided this was the appropriate category. For this category, I entered the German embroidered bag that I've posted about here before, which is what won the local competition. There was also a competition based around "artisan's progress," where the entrant showed the progress that they have made in a particular area with 3-5 items. I entered four embroidered items, showing one of my first pieces, two intermediate pieces, and my most recent piece, all of which showed different types of embroidery and developing levels of skill.
Here are some pictures of the day!
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| Myself, my apprentice sister, and my Laurel's student. |
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| My display. |
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| My Laurel and her student/apprentices! |
I got some great feedback from my fellow competitors, as well as getting mentioned for having a great Artisan's Progress display. It's an interesting format for a competition, and definitely got me outside my comfort zone with talking to people I don't know about my work.
