Please keep on "doing it wrong" (I know, you were going to anyway). I agree, there's just too much stuff out there to concentrate one just one aspect of a culture (or in my case, even just one culture). Fortunately in Drachenwald we have Laurels with broader expertise as well as the highly focused ones. I know of one Laurel elevated for his total persona presentation in all aspects; another who, although officially elevated for his knowledge of dancing, is known as the Laurel of STUFF. My own Master has two doctorates in different aspects of Norse studies, but was elevated for carving (all materials, all periods). I chose to apprentice to my Master for an understanding of how the Society works at the peerage level and chose to ask him because our personalities "matched". It is quite possible/likely that I will not be elevated, and that doesn't bother me because then I'd have to attend peerage meetings when I could be doing more "stuff". I use "the Laurels" as a resource when there is a recognised expert in something I need details of because many Kingdoms usefully list them by expertise, but I still need references WHOEVER tells me things; and I still do my own research as well. Competitions: I enter if I've got something new and documented at the right time,or if I know who the judges are in advance and want to get written feedback (I made the "Youth's Leather Jerkin" from "Patterns of Fashion" by Janet Arnold, and had it judged by one of the curators of the Museum of London who had handled the original). If people are just going to judge on "Ooh, Shiny!" then they can see things on me or in my camp. Laurel-level is such an obscure concept, that means something different to each individual, that elevation is often a matter of luck rather than expertise - your work happens to have agreed, in different facets, with the opinions of many individuals who all have slightly different ideas as to what is meant by "Laurel" and, more importantly, that has to happen just as they are voting on your name (Oh, and then the Royalty have to agree). To MY view, whatever your professed area of expertise is, the only way to create work that meets MY standard is to so surround your brain with every aspect of the culture you are working within that three hundred years from now, scholars should have difficulty in telling your work from an original. (I've come sort of close, once.) In the meantime we do what we do because WE like it. How depressing to base all ones leisure around trying to get a "badge" that may never happen. Keep on having fun YOUR way and remember that not even Laurels are immune to the smackity fan.
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I agree, there's just too much stuff out there to concentrate one just one aspect of a culture (or in my case, even just one culture). Fortunately in Drachenwald we have Laurels with broader expertise as well as the highly focused ones. I know of one Laurel elevated for his total persona presentation in all aspects; another who, although officially elevated for his knowledge of dancing, is known as the Laurel of STUFF. My own Master has two doctorates in different aspects of Norse studies, but was elevated for carving (all materials, all periods).
I chose to apprentice to my Master for an understanding of how the Society works at the peerage level and chose to ask him because our personalities "matched".
It is quite possible/likely that I will not be elevated, and that doesn't bother me because then I'd have to attend peerage meetings when I could be doing more "stuff".
I use "the Laurels" as a resource when there is a recognised expert in something I need details of because many Kingdoms usefully list them by expertise, but I still need references WHOEVER tells me things; and I still do my own research as well.
Competitions: I enter if I've got something new and documented at the right time,or if I know who the judges are in advance and want to get written feedback (I made the "Youth's Leather Jerkin" from "Patterns of Fashion" by Janet Arnold, and had it judged by one of the curators of the Museum of London who had handled the original). If people are just going to judge on "Ooh, Shiny!" then they can see things on me or in my camp.
Laurel-level is such an obscure concept, that means something different to each individual, that elevation is often a matter of luck rather than expertise - your work happens to have agreed, in different facets, with the opinions of many individuals who all have slightly different ideas as to what is meant by "Laurel" and, more importantly, that has to happen just as they are voting on your name (Oh, and then the Royalty have to agree).
To MY view, whatever your professed area of expertise is, the only way to create work that meets MY standard is to so surround your brain with every aspect of the culture you are working within that three hundred years from now, scholars should have difficulty in telling your work from an original. (I've come sort of close, once.) In the meantime we do what we do because WE like it.
How depressing to base all ones leisure around trying to get a "badge" that may never happen.
Keep on having fun YOUR way and remember that not even Laurels are immune to the smackity fan.