[Sca-cooks] Requirements for a Laurel

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/8/2004 9:14:29 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
phelpsd at gate.net writes:

<<But there is a double standard.  I've had friends who do make a living at it
and because they do they will never be Laurels.  Catch 22.>>

Yeah, but that's not right either, any more than saying that you have to 
enter competitions to be considered.  It limits you from looking at people who may 
well deserve the award if you make arbitrary rules like that.
I'm not denying that one exists; I have heard it, as my husband is working on 
starting a tailor's shop and is also an apprentice.  Even his Mistress has 
said it shouldn't bar him - *as long as he does not succumb to the impulse to 
rush his work or take shortcuts in order to have more product to sell*.  
That's the reason why many merchants, especially those who DO make their 
living from merchanting, are not considered - because the exigencies of having 
enough stock on hand and being able to fill enough orders to make their living 
forces them to make choices that affect the quality of their work.  If you need 
to have 50 tunics to sell for an event, and you sold 45 of them last week, and 
have only a week to make 45 more, then you are most likely going to resort to 
a serger and do all the finishing work by machine, not by hand, and use 
modern trim.  And you may well decide to use a non-period fabric blend to keep 
prices down for peole who don't understand the cost of quality, or who want "easy 
care" stuff and don't understand that natural fibers can be easily cared for.  
No matter how beautifully and accurately designed those tunics are, I 
personally will never consider that sort of garb as being at a level that indicates 
Laurel work to me.  (That's my pet peeve; I'm an authenticist and I consider 
using the period methods whenever possible to be part of being exceedingly good 
at your art.)  If that is all people ever see of their work, because that's 
all they have time to make, then no, they shouldn't be considered.  Now, if they 
also do special commissions which are properly seamed and finished by hand, 
correct fabrics, hand decorated and so forth, that's different, and they should 
be considered.

Brangwayna