ANST - new noncombatant topic

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

Sael og heil, Master Cadwallader!

Cadwallader said:
>In answer to Ulrica and Marthe (my Lady) problems in A&S competions or
>displays.  It seems that alot of artisans get lost in the suffle or
>treated in offending manner.  I will claim to have been among this group
>before and AFTER I was made a Laurel.  As a 3rd generation saddlemaker
>this means I grew up working with leather.  I have to win a competetion
>which is not a big deal but have been told it was not period by a expert
>seamtress or some other non-qualified judge or person.  

I may not be reading your explanation here as you meant it, but you seem to
be saying that you have lots of modern experience in leatherwork, and in
some competition somebody who may or may not have been qualified thought
your entry was done in a non-period way but despite this you won the
competition?  Or maybe didn't win the competition but should have?

OK, as a leatherworker with lots of modern experience in saddlemaking and
other modern leatherworking techniques, I have a whole bunch of technique
under my belt as well.  However, having done lots and lots of research into
what medieval leatherwork was like, I've been forced to conclude that it
was very different in many ways.

Our tooling techniques were used in period, however when you see a source
referring to "tooling" in a medieval contect, they mean hot tooling with
gold leaf, which is a very different discipline.  Medieval design-embossing
into leather was termed "stamping" or "figuring" and normally the tools
were made of hardwoods.  Occasionally I will make my own stamps in hardwood
or bone, and I would be quite impressed with other leather-working artisans
who did so as well.

However I have seen very few medieval examples of leather tooled as we do
in a modern context.  Normally the type of design is not figural but is
composed of simple non-embossed cuts using patterns of small concentric
circles and zig-zags and cross hatching etc. Other design techniques often
involve cutwork where sections of pattern are cut completely away leaving a
hole in the leather.

So right there someone who had not done lots of leather research might
conclude that because straight cuts or hot tooling techniques were all that
they had ever seen documented that figural carving did not exist at all,
which is of course not true. 

Another area to consider is the design.  Complex relief sculpture in
leather is jnot something that I have seen in examples of period
leatherwork.  I have seen simple figural design, but not elaborate stuff.
Not to say it is not out there somewhere, but unless a display had
documentation explaining an example in period, I would tend to suggest to
the artisan that they consider looking into researching some actual period
examples of leatherwork in the styles I have described above.

Here's another example... some years back, I saw a pair of pauldrons (I
think pauldrons, but at any rate some component of  arm harness) that a
very talented leatherworker had made.  The stamping was exquisitely done,
as was the dyeing of the leather to best set off the design.  It was
lovely.  But what the fellow was copying was a design in steel, and as I
recall had no documentation at all that leather armor was used in this
manner or figured in this way or dyed as he had done.  What do you tell
someone when you judge that?  I have to judge the effort as recreating
steel armor using a substitute material, leather, since the artisan doesn't
have the ability or equipment to do that kind of figural repousse work in
steel.  It was a good reproduction of the design in a material that was
much easier to work than the original, and would not serve in the same way
as the original had, leather of that thickness not being proof against the
same sort of sword cuts that the original armor would have been so it's not
a great material for simulating steel.  But then the original was parade
armor and probably wouldn't have taken cuts, so is the leather substitution
something that is a moot point?  It's a quandary from a judging standpoint.
 I can't judge it as leatherwork, since nowhere in the documentation do we
encounter any evidence of similar period use.  I can comment that the
leather technique is gorgeous in modern terms, and communicate to the
artisan what I have seen in terms of more typical leather work, is all.

>With my background
>and now peerage it seems that Laurels would ask for my help judging or
>advice but even Laurels that know me and my works don't come to me and
>ask.  

Master Cadwallader, why are you waiting for someone to ask you?  The rest
of us pretty much volunteer and just do it. Now, I will say that
individuals wanting specific feedback on Viking stuff or on research papers
might seek me out for one-on-one commentary, but pretty much I assume that
as a Laurel (and before I was a Laurel as an able-bodied artisan) that I
should offer my services.  If the event coordinator needs me as a judge,
they will welcome me with open arms. If not, they'll tell me to take a hike.

>Marthe displayed her craft at Laurels Prize and about the only
>Laurels who slowed down as they went by were brought by a friend purposely
>to look at her display.

Again, the judging Laurels at the last LPT were outnumbered  about six to
one or more.  Many feel that they can or should comment only in fields
which they know something about, however sketchy.  In the ideal world, each
Laurel would stop at every table and carefully evaluate every item.  I
worked nonstop at LPT from setup to just before the displays had to be
broken down.  I dragged a chair with me, sat my rear end down at each table
where I felt I could intelligently evaluate the work, and carefully
evaluated such items on display as I could give useful and reasonable
feedback on. Still, by the end of the day I had been able to comment for
maybe 2/3 of the artisans, and in many cases on only certain items of teir
display.  Often all I could say anything intelligent about was the
documentation, but not the items being documented.  I do not work anywhere
near as hard as I did at the last LPT at my day job, and they pay me in
cash.  

All I can suggest is that each Laurel in the kingdom try to make as many
arts and sciences competitiuons and exhibitions as possible and volunteer
to lend your services as a judge.  While I'm at it, Irises should do so as
well.  And for that matter, any artisan who feels themselves competent in a
given area should not be afraid to offer useful critique to others who are
working in that field.  If non-Laurel artisans would like to judge or offer
critiques and feel awkward doing so on their own, they should ask one of
the judging Laurels if they can work with them as they judge to gain
experience.  

As a a judge, if I am forced to judge an item in a field in which I know
nothing, I try to go out and snag somebody else who may know more about
that field than I do.  So if someone were to ask me to judge ceramics, I'd
have to go grab Aquillane or Sigid or Marthe or somebody who knew something
about it and have them tell me what to say.  Otherwise all I can put on the
paper is:  wow!  how did you get that dirt to stick together like that and
be all those pretty colors!


Wæs Þu Hæl (Waes Thu Hael)

::GUNNORA::

Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Ek eigi visa þik hversu oðlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Aðal
(Ek eigi thik hversu odhlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Adhal)

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