[Ansteorra] My take on past and future of A&S

[Adalia]

My Lord Zorzi,

While I agree with you that documentation is a wonderful thing, I can also
see that many beginners in the A&S community can be overwhelmed by the
"sheep to shawl" mentality.  Let me give you an example, if I may.  A
friend of mine entered her very first A&S competition with a pair of
knitted socks.  She had never knit in the round before this project
(although she'd been knitting flat for a goodly number of years).  The
feedback that she received from the judges was that they had taken points
off her score because she had used store bought wool (albeit 100% wool) for
her project.  Now here's where I take issue.  In period, women could (and
often did) spin their own, however there were also merchants available from
which to purchase their yarns (especially later in period when the knitted
socks were stylish).  My friend is a knitter, not a spinner.  She
understands the process of spinning, but it's not something she does.  In
her very first A&S project ever should she really be expected to comply
with the "sheep to shawl" concept?  I think that's asking a bit
much...especially from a novice competition.

Yes, I totally agree that documentation is critical.  Making "shinies" is
great, but for competitions in this organization, it's not enough to make
some that looks period without comprehension of the differences between
period and periodesque.

Is sheep to shawl a great concept - absolutely.  That being said, I think
it's a concept that is best metered with caution and care.  We have to
decide if it's enough to demonstrate an understanding all the steps from
sheep to shawl or is it a requirement that each artisan be able demonstrate
each and every step?

Just my two cents worth.

On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 8:28 PM, Jeffrey Clark <jmclark85 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Duchess Willow,
>
> I think that documentation is a wonderful thing. I think that the stress
> should be on effort, research, and artistic development. We nurse a "sheep
> to shawl" mentality in A&S and we might do well to limit our scope in
> judging and discussing A&S items: if someone is working on a particular
> type of book binding, and they don't necessarily use period materials, but
> they are using a period technique... how relevant is the use of the modern
> material? In fact, that might be a good point of documentation -- how the
> use of modern items affects a period craft...
>
> I think the use of documentation encourages people to learn about how their
> craft was done in period and to put it into perspective, I think the focus
> on scope might be a better discussion.
>
> --AS Zorzi
>
> On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 4:44 PM, willowdewisp at juno.com <
> willowdewisp at juno.com> wrote:
>
> > A&S in Ansteorra back in the Ancient times<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
> > "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
> > Duchess Willow de Wisp.2012
> > The A& S was a lot different 15- years ago. All of us were together to
> > improve A&S in the Kingdom and to make learning enjoyable. We understood
> > that the SCA was entertainment. We also understood that we needed to
> > provide a system:
> > ·        That provided the teaching that allow the populace a way to get
> > the skills they needed to make the things needed for the SCA,
> > ·        Encourage research for the love of research
> > ·        Set up activities that increased the populaces understanding of
> > the cultures of the time period we are studying
> > ·         to provide recognition at all levels.
> >
> > The leadership in the kingdom viewed the Kingdom as a whole and events as
> > the end product. The most important thing A&S was to do was to make the
> SCA
> > better, more fun, more period and in general have Magic.  Competitions
> were
> > used to promote this goal and were not an end all in themselves.
> >
> > Since the War we have spent a lot of our effort in beating the
> Trimirians.
> > Everything we do is to promote a competition that has five champions and
> > our friendly enemies are not happy with. I would think that we should be
> > thinking about ways to make learning fun.
> >
> >  I have talked to many people who did not join the SCA and I discovered
> > that they got the impression that you have to everything “right” with
> > emphasis on expensive materials. This made the SCA to expensive and to
> nik
> > picking to be fun. If they wanted or could spend a lot of money they
> could
> > do the Ren faires and if they want to be nik picking they could do the
> > Civil War or Victorian groups where there are better learning venues.
> >
> > Many adults who are and have just finished college really do not want to
> > take classes and tired to death with writing. In the past 10 years we
> have
> > done little that seems not to stress those two things. I have seen groups
> > having competitions that call for non-period items and that is a
> start,but
> > I think we need to think about having our “Period” competitions with less
> > stress over documentation.  I would like to see competitions that allow
> for
> > the 3by5 documentation and a lot of “one to one” feedback with the
> artisan
> > and judge. We need A&S that spans the levels of our artisans and
> craftsmen.
> > We need to encourage without competition.
> >
> > I do not care what it takes to “win” at Gulf War. I was told at the last
> > Kingdom A&S that we are not allowed to talk to artisans one to one
> because
> > that would give the artisan too much help and he would not be allowed to
> > talk to the judge at Gulf War. I was explaining to the artisan how I
> judged
> > and how the judging form shaped what I was looking at. Do the problems
> with
> > people feeling upset about judges I have sworn an oath to always talk to
> > people I judge.
> > Tthat aside that way of looking at things is a great change from 15 years
> > ago when we chose our Champions and everyone then jumped in and helped
> them
> > learn how to write documentation.
> >
> > In the past we believed that process of A&S in the SCA followed this
> > pattern
> > 1.      first thing was that the person learned about a period art or
> > Science
> > 2.      then they would take that learning and make something
> > 3.      then they would improve on how they used the techniques and made
> >  that something well a
> > 4.      Then the person would write down the research so we could add
> that
> > research into the common knowledge.
> > 5.      After they had gathered the knowledge and could show the skill
> the
> > person would go and teach it to someone else.
> > It was by that process people would interact and learning would take
> place
> > and people would be happier and the SCA would grow. Because the stress
> was
> > on sharing knowledge not competition new people were looked on as an
> > opportunity to teach not a threat.
> >
> > I gathering ways we promoted learning in the past without classes,
> > competition or written documentation. If you have a fun way to learn
> please
> > post it to  me.
> > ____________________________________________________________
> > Woman is 53 But Looks 25
> > Mom reveals 1 simple wrinkle trick that has angered doctors...
> > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3131/50b29f96ba6ff1f9618abst01vuc
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-- 
HL Adalia VonderBerg

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