On Dec 13, 2007, at 1:57, Alice Howell wrote:
Over the years I have entered everything I've made in the local county fair. I wanted to promote entering and to be sure the categories continued in the fairbook. I didn't worry about winning ribbons, etc. [...] A suggestion -- If you have ideas for desired classes at your local fair and want to change or increase the existing classes, contact your local fair SOON. Many fair books go to press in January.
I'd like to second Alice's suggestion -- *do* contact your fair organisers with ideas for improvement. Many fairs -- not only small local ones, but State level ones as well -- really don't know know much about lace and welcome suggestions "with open arms" (to use a Polish phrase), if someone's willing to make them. That's how, in our State, we were able to change the rules -- just for the lace -- to where we don't have to award a first but can award two seconds, if that's all they merit. And we changed the rule -- again, for lace only -- where there don't have to be two or more pieces in a category to get any ribbon. We had a lot of categories, but very few entries so, often, a category would have only a single entry. Sometimes, that single entry could be so good, it would deserve the Best od Show, but we were unable to award it. We changed that.
But, the best (IMO) change we managed to get them to agree to was establishing a new category: "non-competitive, for exhibit purposes only". It doesn't get judged, it doesn't get any ribbons but it *does* get more lace visible to the public. It also allows the judges to exhibit their pieces, if they so wish. And, of course, it's also nice for people who don't care much about getting ribbons or who are afraid that a formal judgment migh be hurtful (we try to be encouraging rather than critical in our comments, but different people have different sensibilities) but who still want to contribute to the general idea of popularising lacemaking as a craft.
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
