Admitted Jan 5, AS XXXVI (2002) by HRM Uther & HRM Portia
Think back to when you made your “run for the Poppy” and answer the following questions. Please feel free to elaborate.
What was the most difficult thing you encountered in your run?--
I think the hardest part and the most frustrating was finding books on any of the subjects at the local library. I ended up using bookfinder.com and buying many of the books I used for my research so I now have a library of books on many different subjects.
What was the most surprising thing about your run?--
How much I learned about myself. I found that I would not make a good potter or shoemaker...lol actually I found that I can be a very patient person when its needed :)
How did you handle doing the research? Did you use libraries? The Internet? Where did you find your primary resources?--
I used the internet to get a basic idea of where to go for better documentation the Florilegium website was particularly helpful in suggestions of books for further research which sent me to bookfinder.com to find the books.
What was the average length of your documentation?--
The written part of my documentation averaged about a page and half. I then added photocopies of the pages I used as my primary sources.
About how long did it take for you to do an entry, including the research and documentation?--
It depends on the project. My gold work project took me three months of every available minute I had. Other projects took less time like the hand dipped candles took two days one to make the candles the other for research and documentation. I think I averaged about a month to a month and half per project.
If you remember, what were the competitions and what were your entries? If you have webbed any of your entries, please provide the URL.--
hrmmm to be honest I am not sure which projects go with what year...I would have to find the folder with all my old documentation to tell for sure of the year I won. I do know that my Gold work Dragon was the last entry for the year. I plan on eventually webbing all my entries I do have some of them in my picture gallery at hobbit.gigo.com
Did you start out planning to do the run or did it just happen? If it was planned, how did you handle the psychological side?--
I was using the A&S competitions to give me a boost, so to say on learning things I wanted to learn about within our period of study. I would look at the list in the beginning of the year and plan what I would study based on what the competitions where for the year. I had never even heard of the Golden Poppy until the A&S ministers told me I had missed it by one point. I had to look it up to even find out what it was. It didn't change things I continued to do what I had been doing and the next year I won.
What advice would you give someone who wants to make the run?--
Plan it out. Have an idea of what you want to make and how you want to go about it. Start early on the projects, some will take far more time than you expected.
Would you do it again?--
On purpose most likely not, but I do still look at the calendar of competitions for the year.(I just haven't had time as most of my time right now goes to scribing)
Anything else you would like to add about the experience?--
It was a lot of fun and I not only learned a lot. I learned a lot about myself as well.
Thinking back to the following year, did you do anything special as Kingdom Artisan?--
I presented the Kingdom with a Known World Tree made of wire and hand painted leaves. Every branch and kingdom up to that point was on the tree. Each leaf was hand painted in the respective kingdom colors and hand lettered with the name of a group within each Kingdom of the SCA. It is currently residing in my house as Kingdom regalia was afraid it would get broken in the storage unit. I bring it to 12th nights when we are having a display. The seated royalty at the time each received a smaller version of the tree as well. Pictures of each tree can be seen at
The Known World Tree
Cynagua Tree
Mists Tree
Kingdom of the West Tree
Back to Golden Poppy Page
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webbed by Sabrina de la Bere AS XLI (2006)
