And this is a perfect example of how documentation can make or break a costume in judging. If you have this in your docs, then the judges know that you are deliberately doing this as a period practice and not as lazy/sloppy construction. I have judged a number of competitions ( including workmanship at World Con and Historic at CostumeCon) and one example of the need for documenation stands out in my mind. I was judging a fairly informal competition at an SF con when this guy showed up for judging wrapped in what was clearly a sheet off a hotel bed, looking kinda scruffy and, and not doing much. Two of the judges were like 'Um, yeah- whatever' and had pretty much dismissed the guy completely. He had no documentation of any kind. The thrid judge was a comic book geek and went nuts over how great the costume was. It turns out that this costume was a darn near perfect reproduction of a character in an obscure graphic novel who believed he was Jesus. The third judge managed to convince the rest of us that it was a great costume and later showed me the graphic novel and he was right, the costume was spot on. They guy got an award (novice level, if I remember correctly) but he almost got no recognition at all beca! use most of the judges weren't comic book geeks and had NO CLUE what he was trying to do. All he would have had to do was show us one of the graphic novels or even just a xeroxed copy and we would have gotten it. Much as it pains me to admit, even the most knowledgeable judge doesn't know everything. If you want us to know something, you have to tell us!!!! Telling us is called 'Documentation'. Karen Seamstrix ---------- Original Message ---------- From: "Glenda Robinson" <glendasli...@exemail.com.au> To: "'Historical Costume'" <h-cost...@indra.com> Subject: Re: [h-cost] CC27 historical judge talks about workmanship andhistorical interpretation Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 19:09:54 +1000
You wrote: --The worst thing we judges saw, in Workmanship, was unfinished raw edges with loose threads fraying out of them. I think about half of what we saw had this problem, and it didn't gain anybody points. (That said, my own seam finish isn't always that great unless I think a workmanship judge, or one of my students, will ever see it.) Of course, there are periods where a raw edge is more authentic than finished edges. My 7th century Anglo-Saxon outfit is made that way deliberately. The cloth is a really hardy diamond twill, the seams are just laid over each other and stitched with the fabric's wool (which would have been left over from the fabrication), both inside and outside. A lot of 12-13th century garments were made without finished edges too. Glenda. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume ____________________________________________________________ Start Email Marketing - fast, affordable, and measurable. Click here. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTEFePp7F6gYoCzD6iI9bvSqD3q34604CJ1XPYGzwxmhQIgAdS97e4/ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
