[Ansteorra] Tips for people entering KA&S

willowdewisp at juno.com willowdewisp at juno.com
Sun Feb 8 22:05:00 PST 2009


I have just left Candlemas's A&S which I entered to get a feel for how it felt to compete in Ansteorra.  This is what I learned.
The main purpose of the KA&S judging  sheets are to pick KA&S Champions for Gulf War. Because of this they  are geared for our people to succeed when faced with judges from other Kingdoms they  often have points of views different than what we say and do normally in Ansteorra.  
The first thing you should do is get a copy of the form and look at the prompts given to the judges. You will see an important phrase. " as supported by the documentation". This means you could enter an real period piece  and if you did not have supporting documentation you would  get less  points for it. 
Using the form try to judge your piece. Remember your judges will be using your documentation to answer the questions. This is because  the prompts tells them to answer these questions as answered by artisan's documentation not their own knowledge. 
If you have a friend that is a Laurel get them to judge your piece. Make sure to tell them that you won't get upset at them. Assure them that you welcome anything that will improve your score. 
The second thing I would like you to you is think about your presentation. This is worth 10 points. I am very bad at presentation. I lost over 7 points just on how I displayed my piece. That is a lot of points. You can get help on this part. If you know of someone who has won one of these A&S contest or has been a Gulf War Champion ask them what they did. At least bring something to put your piece on and put your paper work in something pretty or  interesting. 
Remember if you are doing a performing piece you are the presentation so think about your clothes and if they go along with the piece and see if you can find somewhere that creates a good atmosphere for your piece. Performers are usually given horrible places to perform and that means we get low points on presentation and that means our points are not high enough to get use a champion spot. Please think about this problem and try to get a pleasant place to preform. If you can not find a good place try to  set a mood by setting the stage. 
Your doing a piece from Hamlet describe the stage. You are a performer to can make people see things in their minds eye with words. 
Looking at the judging forms there are a bout 10 points are covered by how your documentation answers the questions in the prompts. And 10 on how your display looks. I have seen some great pieces lose because their documentation didn't answer simple questions.
 For example I think I lost I least 2 points on the complexity because I didn't tell them how long it took to do the piece and didn't make it clear that I first made a separate base form and then built up from that. I think they would have thought my piece was a little more complex if they knew I pulp paper with a three day process, made my own glue spent 30 hours researching and 6 straight hours shaping and painting. And the whole process took two weeks with all the drying. 
Remember if the judges cannot answer the question using the information you provide then they are forced to give you less points. 
I hope this helps. 
Mistress Willow de Wisp OL
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