No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on June 20, 2008

But first, another milestone in Caroline’s life which I like to record here because then I have an idea of when it happened. A little while back Caroline lost her first tooth. She kept expressing concern that she needed to go to the dentist and have it put back in. When I went in for surgery on Monday, Caroline wanted them to put her tooth back. So we made an appointment for her to see the family dentist.

She did very well. Her teeth are all fine. She had a tooth cleaning and a check-up which she needed before she goes to kindergarten. The dentist reassured her that losing a tooth at her age was perfectly normal and hers looked textbook to him. That seem to help since we have had no discussion about putting the tooth back since.

OK back on the topic on hand which I am putting under a cut because it got longer than I thought it was going to be.

I am grateful for judges who have gotten what I am trying to do.

Recently in the ICG-D group there has been a lot of discussion about Workmanship judging and where it fits in most Masquerades or more how it might fit so it didn’t seem as a second-class award or a conciliation prize for not getting one of the major awards.

Workmanship has been a bit of a touchy subject for me over the years. I have discovered over the years that workmanship judges have no problem seeing the work that went into the costumes if it is something normal like beadwork or fabric painting. They have done it and they know the work that goes into it. What I do with puppets is out of their realm of knowledge so they haven’t any idea how hard what I do is.

I can remember one case where I had made a snake for a costume and made it very well. It was a working puppet and added to the rest of the costumes. I had put a bike chain in the body to get the puppet to move correctly. I could see in the workmanship judge’s eye that she didn’t understand what she was holding in her hands and that she didn’t particularly care for snakes even the fake kind. I explained it the best I could in terms of what I did to make the snake but I knew when I left the judge that the snake was not going to win anything.

Other times I have presented to the workmanship judges various things I have done to make the costumes accurate to what we are trying to portray. Again because it is not in their realm of understanding, I get the “oh that’s nice” and a pat on the head and then dismissed for the silk organza that was hand sewed.

What have I won for? The Labyrinth costumes got a mention for my sculpting work. Depp Charge was recognized for how insane I was for making so many costumes in such a short period of time. Snapes on a Plane I didn’t even enter because I was discouraged from entering workmanship by that point but I told a couple of people that I did all the costumes with $1.00 fabric which was recognized. We got one for Beauty and the Beast(s) for foam work for the Beasts heads and make-up. I had reference for those costumes.

I have educated a number of workmanship judges over the years about puppetry and the other skill sets I have that they might not have encountered before. And I know that they look at my sorts of costumes and things like fursuits with a different eye now.

At DragonCon there are more than one costume contests over the weekend. The Daddy of them all is the general Masquerade on Sunday night. All comers have a shot at some nice prizes. Recently there has been the dip that happens after a certain period of time when a lot of people drop out because they are tired of losing to the same gang who always seem to come in with THE COSTUME to beat. But last year I saw some new up and comers that are going to challenge the top dog real soon if they stick to it.

There is also now the Workmanship contest which is more of a fashion show of the costumes rather than performance. There the costumers know that they are being judged on their work rather than their presentation. And some wonderful costumes come out of the woodwork. Hall costumes are judged as well of which there are a lot of at DragonCon. Then various tracks have their own contests for costumes as well. There is pretty much something for everyone there.

I have heard numerous complaints from workmanship judges that they feel like their awards are being treated like consolation prizes rather than as real awards that count for something. I think part of that is educating the contestants and the audience as to what workmanship means without sounding like you are lecturing the group. That you don’t have to enter the whole costume but you could enter those shoes you built from scratch or that really cool prop or that neat electrical system that lights up your costume that is much neater closer up than it does on stage for various reasons.

Workmanship scares beginning costumers. I have had to convince people over the years to go for workmanship because what they did was really good. There has to be a way to not make it scary for them. Sorry no great suggestions here but maybe something that goes with the Masquerade rules that explains what workmanship is might help.

I think until there is understanding by the judges of things that might be new to them and understanding by the contestants to what workmanship is, things aren’t going to change much.

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