I got my judging sheets and I’m not mad or upset by them at all. I got middle of the road points and that’s what I expected. I think I’m harder on myself than the judges were. But I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t ask questions. Note-I’m asking to learn not to argue.
The comment I got the most was about how many SCA sources I used. And I did use a lot of SCA sources. Mostly because they were complete; added to this there were pictures from museums that even when I looked for the same image to use for documentation I could not find it either in Google or Google Scholar (and can every new A & S person please be told about Google Scholar? I didn’t find out about it for almost 20 years in the SCA). I looked in museum sites, scholar articles, student articles and books. But could not find the same information that was already on someone’s SCA site. I followed the links that were on those SCA websites and often the links no longer led anywhere or I wasn’t finding the same information that was worded in a real way as it was on the SCA person’s site. So the question I have is how do you use “real” sources or less SCA sources? And maybe what I mean is more how do you find the sites that count as “real”? Especially for a very niche outfit, such as my project. I read two different books about the Janissaries and their clothes and uniforms took up all of a page and half to three pages in each book. But not really what applied to just general infantry soldier. Also why are an SCA’s site frowned upon? Why reinvent the wheel?
The other question I have is more of how do “you” (whoever is reading this) write up your documentation? I know part of my problem and has always been a problem is that I can spend a month or two opening, reading and closing websites and books (I signed up and am paying for Scribed.com so I could read some books that I didn’t have other ways to get without buying them-some were not cheap or had info I needed). Then it’s time to do the write up and I have all of this information in my head and I know what applies to what I’m making and what doesn’t. I don’t always remember where what information came from and I’ve tried to pull the info I’m going to use and the citation to a word document but that has mixed results. So two months after all the researching and reading I have to basically start again to make sure I list all the places I got all the information from and then I get annoyed; as mentioned on another post this is normally for research for a feast-after research, tasting, testing, figuring out the budget and what would be acceptable substitutions for things outside of budget friendly ingredients. After all of that I’m not interested in opening and closing and reading everything again to make sure I have all the citations. So I’m hoping to learn a better way and I’m open to suggestions.
Long and short of this; other than wow, I need more handsewing practice and time management skills, I feel like my score would have better if my documentation had been better and of course, if I finished everything-the shoes would have upped my wow factor. I can work on getting better at the first two but I really think I need help with getting better at documentation.
Oh, one other question-how do you write documentation for various audiences? One comment I had was that the documentation was written about the persona not the garments. I wrote the documentation the way I did because the outfit choice was based on the persona and one of my judges commented early on that she wasn’t as knowledgeable about the area’s garb. I had hoped to explain about the uniform itself, the history of the group and why the choices I made were made since the persona inspired the outfit. Again, not defending or arguing the comment. I’ve been told before that documentation should be written so that a newbie would be able to follow along but at the same time (I entered a dish in K & Q) be written for the judges-who would be Laurels. How do you write for both in same paper? Add to this how do you know what can be assumed as general knowledge and what isn’t? I can give you the example of the mortar and pestle. To my thinking, everyone should know what a mortar and pestle is or if it is used in the sentence, I used a mortar and pestle to grind the spices by hand then I wouldn’t need to give a citation to prove its a period method. But I’ve been told that I do. So how do you know what to include and what not to include? How minute do you need to be in your documentation or how do you know when you can be broad minded in what you include?
Seriously, I want to get better at this part of A & S so please if you can help I would greatly appreciate it. 🙂
