Judging??

[loberg]

I entered my first fair (for woodturning). I recieved no placings at all even though in one class I was the only entrant. The show was American style of judging. There is no curtiquing(sp) at all and I was wondering what are the judging standards? Do we have certified judges (like flower associations) and if so how are they trained? Is most judging done on the "art" factor or is construction taken into account?

Anyone??

Thanks.

 

[Odie]

I entered my first fair (for woodturning). I recieved no placings at all even though in one class I was the only entrant. The show was American style of judging. There is no curtiquing(sp) at all and I was wondering what are the judging standards? Do we have certified judges (like flower associations) and if so how are they trained? Is most judging done on the "art" factor or is construction taken into account?

Anyone??

Thanks.

A county fair?

From what I've seen, you will be lucky if the judges know what a lathe is!

I usually stroll by and check out the artwork at my local county fair every year......but, it's been since the 1980's when I last participated. The judging is done by local art appreciators, average people from your community......usually not anyone who knows anything about what they are judging in depth, but strictly on a basis of what they like. (not a bad thing at all!)

That's what I've seen here, but it would be hard for me to assume all county fairs are the same.

ooc

 

[MichaelMouse]

... I was wondering what are the judging standards? Do we have certified judges (like flower associations) and if so how are they trained? Is most judging done on the "art" factor or is construction taken into account?

It's never a jury of your peers with applications to shows and prizes at shows. Those who've "got art" are normally two-dimensional types, and I'm not necessarily referring to their medium. If there's any hint the item might ever be useful, even as a projectile in a domestic dispute, it's "craft" to them. Suitability and construction? They buy their canvas and frame, so who cares?

The local art association managed, after some effort, to recognize the third dimension and get some jewelers, potters and yes, even a "junque" sculptor to jury. Things went better for the turners after that. If the prize includes money, I'm delighted. If it's ribbons and certificates, who really cares. Most shows won't let you display awards from another venue, and keeping them wrinkle-free for a year means storing them as if you cared.

 

[hockenbery]

first I'm not aware of any "certification for Judge"

Judges are selected based upon some perceived standing in the art or woodturning community.

Critiques if they are given may take several forms.
sometimes the judge does a talk on the show any takes questions from artist about pieces that were rejected.
often judges will write an over all statement about their process and the work submitted.

Some of the Judges at the Florida state fair write comments about each piece.
That can take an enormous about of time.

I had the privilege of Judging the Florida State fair in 2008. It was a big task.

My process for this show was for each category
1. first I rejected any pieces with visible tearout or sanding lines
2. evaluated form
3. evaluated the finish
finally it was my overall feel for the pieces

I could give a 1st, 2nd, and as many honorable mentions as I wished.
In some categories I did not find any pieces worthy of a first or second.
In other categories I had a hard time choosing among three pieces for first and second.
I wrote a comment and sometimes a suggestion on all the pieces. It took a long long time.

we once had a Club show where our invited Judge was the owner of an art supply store an excellent painter. She award a jurors choice to a piece that looked like a spittoon with egregious tearout because she was overwhelmed by its captive ring.

keep going for shows. Look carefully at the technical and artistic level of the first place pieces and compare it to yours.

Happy turning,
Al

 

[loberg]

Hockenbery

As a judge in a county fair with the class of amateur you would throw out a piece with sand marks instead of giving a ribbon as an encouragement to the turner?

Most of my judging experience involved having a clerk helping with the remarks so some feed back can be given to the participants.

Maybe it is time for the AAW to LOOK into a judging course and certification. As a cattle judge (not very good) I went to seminars to be certified and able to be asked to judge at a show.

Is there a paper from the AAW on how to judge and give pointers on judging?

 

[waltben]

Hockenbery

As a judge in a county fair with the class of amateur you would throw out a piece with sand marks instead of giving a ribbon as an encouragement to the turner?

Most of my judging experience involved having a clerk helping with the remarks so some feed back can be given to the participants.

Maybe it is time for the AAW to LOOK into a judging course and certification. As a cattle judge (not very good) I went to seminars to be certified and able to be asked to judge at a show.

Is there a paper from the AAW on how to judge and give pointers on judging?

Now here's an opportunity for AAW to influence what goes on at these things, especially the ones where someone claims to be an expert, but doesn't know a thing. I really like it!! Any chance for this idea to get traction????

 

[john lucas]

Judges at fairs can be anything from someone who is a friend of the fair supervisor who may have made painting once in their life, to the local University Art professor. There's really know way to know.
Our photography club got tired of photos of babies and butterflies winning the local fair so we all entered something. There was some beautiful work. Guess what won, another photo of a cut e baby.
We as turners tend to look at our work differently than judges for art and craft show do. Many of them have been professional arists for many years and many have degrees art which means they have studied form and design a great deal. They look at turns from an overall design standpoint so your pieces need to be well designed with good form in order to compete with other forms of art.
I've judged both. Judging fairs is basically just trying to weed out the mediocre work and pick something that you really like out of a very mixed bag of work. Judging ART and Craft shows is a different ball game with very serious people who understand that you are affecting the lively hood of some artist. You try your best to pick the top work that will sell and make everyone some money. It's challenging because virtually all of the work is exceptional and your really splitting hairs to pick the ones who make the cut.

 

[waltben]

But what about a 'certified' judge for woodturning thing. There's certs for tons of other categories and just having one should give a person the credentials to actually do something to level the ground in many of these venues.

 

[Mark Wollschlager]

That might be something for the POP committee to take on as a project.

Mark.

 

[loberg]

I might suggest that a good start would be to design and print judging forms that fairs and art shows can use. They use forms in rabbit judging and you can tell what needs to be improved. They can be simple with a number system to indicate how the maker did in several catagories.

In most cases, the filled in forms are given to the exhibitor when they pick up their pieces. Also, an additional comment line can be utilized to express the judges ideas. As I said in the beginning, most shows should supply a clerk to take down the comments and judging scores so it should not be too time consuming. This would give a good clear direction for the exhibitor.

Any thoughts??

 

[Joe Greiner]

I might suggest that a good start would be to design and print judging forms that fairs and art shows can use. They use forms in rabbit judging and you can tell what needs to be improved. They can be simple with a number system to indicate how the maker did in several catagories.

In most cases, the filled in forms are given to the exhibitor when they pick up their pieces. Also, an additional comment line can be utilized to express the judges ideas. As I said in the beginning, most shows should supply a clerk to take down the comments and judging scores so it should not be too time consuming. This would give a good clear direction for the exhibitor.

Any thoughts??

I'm halfway sure there's been some discussion about this on the forum. I don't have time to wade through it all right now, but a quick forum search for [judging criteria] just got 8 hits.

In last Fall's election season, I "interviewed" some candidates for trial judge, and recommended Harry Frankfurt's little book, "On B******t." BTW, none of them had ever served on a jury, even in law school.

 

[hockenbery]

Hockenbery

As a judge in a county fair with the class of amateur you would throw out a piece with sand marks instead of giving a ribbon as an encouragement to the turner?

The state fair categories are not by skill level but by object class. see the attched
My opinion is regardless of skill level a person can take the time the sand the surface. What I did do was write a note saying what was good about the piece and what they needed to work on.

Would you give a ribbon to a dirty, ungroomed cow?

All pieces were left on display. I don't think it fair to anyone to reward poor work, unless everyone gets a ribbon.

I did give honorable mentions to pieces that had draglines from wipe on finishes if the form was deserving.

You might be interest in the attached.
It shows the categories for the Florida State fair. George Dinsmore deserve a lot of credit for making this a real nice event.

a form could be useful

Al

 

[loberg]

Would you give a ribbon to a dirty, ungroomed cow?
Yes, but I would not put the individual up in showmanship. The cow is enhanced by the grooming but the confirmation is what is judged.

I'm not saying anything about how the pieces were judged but that there was no indication of what was wrong. I would expect nothing less than excellence in a State Fair but the X factor should be recognized in local shows. As put by another wood group:

The “X†factor. Is this piece made by a beginner, hobbyist, or seasoned pro? Does the exhibition have lots of people showing for the first time? It is most important as a judge to remember that woodworking pieces contain a lot of heart and soul. People showing their work are (generally speaking) putting long hours of work and emotional investment into their submission, and however good, none are perfect.

Hope this helps with my thinking.

 

[waltben]

I believe a checklist(s) would be a great start. It's not just for county fairs and the like, they would also help at art and craft shows that judge by categories. As my wife and I have two different mediums in our booths (ladies hats are either 'wearable art' or 'fiber', and my work is always 'wood'), we never expect to win anything - we're just too confusing. I have seen people trying to judge the wood category who didn't make anything - they were just volunteers helping the event staff. We've had painters trying to judge wearable art and very, very seldom seen anyone familiar with three dimensional work judging anything. If there is one somewhere on the website already that would work, or if one could be made with an AAW logo on it, I'd be happy to send it out to all those event management folks we've worked with.

 

[Howard Beaver]

Having judged at the county level, for photography, I can tell you this is a daunting task if you take it seriously. This seems to be an excellent opportunity to advance the Association, and wood turning in general. I concur that the AAW should develop some form of formal judging guidance for turned entries.
The next step would be some form of formal 'certification' for judges. This sounds like a very worthy project, a win-win situation.

I doubt if I have the developed qualities to define "judging" for wood turning, but I am more than willing to help out on this.

Howard

 

[Curt Fuller]

I've always felt that the object of fairs and other shows and competitions is just to show your work. The jurors or judges will always choose their favorite for whatever reasons. But everyone else that views the work will make their own individual judgement. I f you like me at all you usually look at the ribbons and awards and wonder why those pieces won or why another didn't. I guess the ribbons and awards are a little icing on the cake, but the real reward is all those eyeballs passing over your work.

 

[John Ellis]

Judging???

At the annual State Fair in New Mexico, we've had woodworking and woodturning as catagories for quite a few years. Each draws from 50 - 100 entries, and all are judged by experiended woodworkers and woodturners. We use a judges evaluation form, which has areas included for judge comments, the range of scores for each area: design, difficulty, workmanship, and finish. The top scoring pieces in each of 11 categories of works, in each level from youth, novice, intermediate, advanced, and professional are awarded ribbons.

The forms are returned to the exhibitors at the end of the fair. As judges, we make it a point to provide both positive and constructive feedback to all entries.

The judging is done the day before the Fair opens to the public, so all attendees can see what pieces received awards.

Please email me if you and your club/chapter would like a copy of these forms.

John