[Sca-cooks] alternatives to A&S competitions

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

And you never know who you might reach...

When I was pretty new to this, someone arranged for me to get to one of 
these exhibitions. It was more or less the first thing I'd been to.

The first person I stopped to talk to was weaving. I've woven for years, 
so we got into a discussion of selvedges and tension...  She was also 
spinning linen, which fascinated me, and I have studied it with her since.

The second was card weaving. I'd heard of this, but had never really 
seen it, and had never quite understood it from the description. We got 
into a long conversation , found we had several interests in common - 
Brekke.

At another point, I was talking with the few people there I knew, when 
this Fred Flintstone type wandered in from outside, where he'd been 
cooking ...   I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't recognize him the 
next time I saw him (I'd met a lot of people that day) but Adamantius 
knew me...

If things had just been out on a table, even with excellent 
documentation, I would not have learned nearly as much, and I would not 
have met three people who have influenced me. (Well... OK, I would have 
met all three within the next few months - I did - but I would not have 
had the same mental connection with their work. I met them in contexts 
where I did not actually see what they were doing.)

Next week, I'll be on the other side of the table. See what that feels 
like.

AEllin

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

>
> Both as artisans and (more often) as rather active spectators, 
> engaging in various forms of networking (getting contact info for the 
> person who does that lovely fingerlooping, say, they've always wanted 
> to try but could never figure out). They're encouraged to leave little 
> tokens of appreciation (which range from little personal tokens, like 
> badges or favors, to things like semi-precious stones, glass beads, 
> small bottles of things like saffron or long pepper, and in one case, 
> a leaf that broke off my laurel wreath, for which my lady wife, the 
> silversmith responsible for it, had some words for me) and to ask 
> questions that are not only for their own satisfaction and 
> enlightenment, but also to perhaps spur the artisan/presenter along a 
> logical path they may not otherwise be interested in following, or 
> have thought of following. In the case of cooks, just as an example, 
> we sometimes find that this is when they make The Great Leap from Hot, 
> On-Time and Peri-Oid, to hot, on-time and period.
>
> I've been told by some artisans that this little bit of extra personal 
> attention in a somewhat less potentially threatening setting than some 
> competitions afford (yeah, yeah, I know, all those horror stories are 
> urban legends, right) has been very helpful in spurring them on to 
> achievements they thought they'd never reach otherwise. Another 
> reality is that, no matter how conscientious and A&S-oriented our 
> crowns may be (and I've seen some who talked a good line but were in 
> reality not very good about fostering the A&S in their kingdoms), 
> they're not going to get to everyone whose work merits encouragement 
> and attention. But we do have this _relatively_ untapped resource in 
> our Laurels, who are perfectly capable of making a presenter feel 
> special and appreciated, even if it doesn't come with a scroll and a 
> dangly from the Crown.
>
>