[MR] Re: Announcing a "From the Ground Up" Contest

[David Wendelken]

Greetings,

I've had some questions about the "From the Ground Up" contest that I am
sponsoring, to be held at the Kingdom A&S Festival.

Some folks have mentioned the "Sheep to Shawl" contests that have been held,
which sound really neat!
I would definitely like to know more about them and any similar contests.

1) Why are you sponsoring this contest?

I thought it was a neat contest and that someone might enjoy participating
in it.
It also seemed like a great way to meet the kind of folks whose company I
enjoy.

2) Won't this get in the way of other activities?  Some of those "Sheep to
Shawl" exhibits take up a living room-sized amount of space!

One of the joys of meeting new people is discovering all the assumptions
that one has that differ from other people's!

My space requirements assumption was more on the order of "Let's sit down at
this handy spot and you can show me what you've done."  Anyone interested to
join us could do so, provided there was enough room.  This is an informal
contest, not an "official" one.
I expect that many of the items entered in the "From the Ground Up" contest
would also be in the main A&S contests, so that would also minimize
additional space requirements.

I will studiously avoid causing the autocrat any difficulty, as they have
enough challenges in their life!

There is no autocrat or site listed for this event according to the online
Acorn.  So, until that info is known, I am planning for a "no special space
requirements" mode for the contest.  It would be rude to do otherwise.  If
enough people are interested, and the autocrat thinks it's a good idea, it
will get fancier.  Otherwise it won't.

3)  Could you provide a bit more detail about how you are going to count the
number of manufactured steps?

Sure!

That said, the purpose of the contest is still to have fun, learn stuff, and
make new friends while doing so.
Compared to the value received from that, the prizes are rather trivial.
After all, given the number of hours invested in projects like this, if one
is doing it "for the money", one would be better paid cooking french fries
at the nearest burger joint.

Here's an annotated example on making a pouch.  I'll do my best to expose my
thought processes in making the counts.
I don't expect everyone to agree with them.  I can only say that polite,
well-reasoned arguments are always welcome.

> "The first year, I had just completed my warp-weighted loom."

Made from store-bought lumber, cloth (made into bags),  sand (put into the
bags) and store-bought string.

This counts as 1 item.  In theory, sewing the cloth into bags might have
counted, but I wouldn't do so.
They were pretty trivial to do on the sewing machine.  Had the bags been
hand-sewn, I might have leaned towards counting them as a 1 item (total).
However, as the final object of this exercise is to "make a cloth object",
that would mean double-counting the distinctly unique production steps.  So,
the bags did not count.

The loom also used a sword-like object to pack in the threads.  (The proper
name of the thing has escaped my mind.)  It was carved out of a piece of
wood.
As other parts of the loom required carving also, and the loom is not
complete without it, I would not have counted it as an extra item.

If we had started with a tree and made the lumber ourselves, that would have
counted as an additional step.

> I needed some yarn, which I could spin myself on my
> purchased spindle -- but if I made a spindle ... so I did.  I
> used a found brass piece for the weight and carved a bone shaft.

Made from a found object and part of a bone from the butcher shop.
This counts as 1 item.  If we had killed the animal and extracted the bone,
the bone would
have counted as another item.  Just as happy we missed that part.

> Then I
> spun the yarn.

Transformed raw materials into yarn. 1 item.

> This is rather time consuming, and time was short, so I
> decided to make something small -- a pouch.  (It did look a little like
> overkill -- that little pouch hanging on that big loom.)  Once the fabric
> was finished,

Transformed yarn into cloth.  1 item.

> I cut it from the loom and started to sew it up when I
> realized -- I could make some needles!  Bone needles are not difficult to
> make and about 30 minutes later, I was on my way again (we keep a supply
of
> cleaned bone for experimental purposes so it might take you a little
> longer!)"

Transformed bone into needles.  1 item.  Transformed cloth into pouch.  1
item.

Total: 6 steps.

Here's another example:

> "The next year I decided to make a felted-in-one-piece Scythian cap.

1 item.

> I felted the hat base and while it was drying I felted several thin sheets
for
> decoration.

Transformed wool into felt.  1 item.

> I dyed the sheets with natural dyes (henna, walnut shells I
> gathered, and red onion skins from my long-suffering grocer).  I also dyed
> some hand spun yarn for couching around the designs.

Making the dyes, 1 item.   One could argue whether actually dying the item
was a step.
Is it any different from painting wood, in that the item "looks different"
but has not been "transformed"?
I would not count the dying, but I can anticipate how a well-reasoned
argument might change my mind on this one.
(I expect those who specialize in dying things will jump right in and
educate me.)

If some of the dyes required radically different production methods, I could
see counting them as more than one item.

> I needed to sew the
> cut out felt designs to the cap and so I made another needle (actually,
they
> were rather small and I ended up making several as the project
progressed).

Cutting out the pieces is included in making the cap itself, so it doesn't
count as an extra step.
Making the needle: 1 item.

> I tried my hand-spun yarn for sewing but it wasn't spun tight enough.

Hand-spun yarn: 1 item.  If spun on the constructed spindle in the prior
example, 1 item.
Then again, it wasn't included in the final item because it wasn't spun
tight enough (good enough for the task at hand).
That's a toughie!  I would count the spindle (it worked), but not the yarn
(it didn't).
Wouldn't want to "pad" the count with unnecessary steps, but don't want to
discourage experimentation on reasonable steps either.

> We
> were working on some sinew for making composite bows at the time, so I
> decided to try it for sewing.  It worked great, and all the steps involved
> in processing the sinew for use counted."

And that was ten years ago, and I don't remember all the steps in making the
sinew.
So, I can't give more detail other than to say that "making the sinew" would
definitely count as (at least) 1 item.

Here are some of the basic principles that I use to count are, as best I can
express them at the moment.

a) Did we transform a material into a new material?
b) Did I make a tool for the job?
c) Is it "just part of" the item or a separate, manufactured component?
d) How different is the means of manufacture from other components in the
piece?

Here's another example:

> I bought some boards and glue.

That's nice. Count = 0.

> I measured and marked the pieces on the boards.

Still 0.

> I cut out the  first piece with a saw

Still 0.

> and sanded it with store-bought sand-paper.

Still 0.

> Then I did the next pieces the same way.

Repetition doesn't count extra.

> I took a piece of the lumber
> and fastened it on a store-bought lathe,
> then turned it into dowels.

Ummm.   I *really* like woodturning, and it is a radically different mode of
work, but...  it's still 0.
But there is room for discussion, here.

> I assembled them into a tablet-weaving loom

1 item.

> and carved Norse interlace designs on it with store-bought tools.

Hmmm.  One could argue that one is transforming a household implement into
art.
Decorative carving is a very different mode of production.
One could argue either way.
This is much like the woodturning example a few steps above.
Alone, each was a bit iffy.  Considered together, I would go with it. 1
item.

> I bought some horn, softened it up
> and turned it into some flat, square panels.
> I sanded them and drilled holes in them to make tablet-weaving cards.

1 item.

Hope this helps to clarify my intent.

> ==============
> Contact Info
> ==============
>
> If you have questions about the contest, or just want to make friends, you
> can reach me in a variety of ways:
>
> Andras Salamandra
> c/o
> David Wendelken
> 818 Azalea Drive
> Fayetteville, NC 28301 USA
> 910 677-0495  (between 10am and 9pm, EST)
> davidwendelken at earthlink.net
>
>
>