UK leatherworker's Show Competitions - Advice required

[UKRay]

As many of you know, I'm putting together a UK Leatherworker's show for late in 2010. The show will be held in Ludlow, Shropshire in the West Midlands - dates to follow as soon as I have a final confirmation from the venue (think September/October 2010).

I have arranged some incredibly inexpensive (£20 per night) accommodation on-site (you will need to book very early) but there are lots of good B&Bs and hotels in the area. The venue has plenty of car parking and is all on one level so those with impaired mobility will not have any problems getting to see everything. There is a bar and restaurant on site.

Right now I'm trying to sort out what will be happening on the day and could do with some suggestions from those who have more experience than me - which should be just about everyone as I have never run a leatherwork show before! LOL

I have some ideas for competitions:

• Braiding and lacing

• Carved leather

• Steam Punk

• Western Style

• Plain leatherwork (undecorated)

Is there anything else folk might like to see?

I plan to run 1 hour demonstrations, workshops and masterclasses throughout the day and have lined up some expert demonstrators to show you how:

• Sewing machine demo

• Carving masterclass

• Hand stitching masterclass

• Braiding and lacing workshop

Please feel free to throw in your ideas for additional events and be assured that every one of them will be very valuable.

Ray

[MagiKelly]

I am guessing you will have stands with suppliers selling kit and hides.

Certainly sounds interesting and if i can make it i would like to come.

[Johanna]

Ray,

This is an ambitious project. The guilds here in the US that sponsor shows usually make their money off the raffle table and cross their fingers that enough people get rooms at the venue so the cost of the conference rooms isn't sky high. Nominal charges apply to vendors (you will probably want as many as you can get there) but they can't pay for the show unless they can expect super sales, like Sheridan (which is sponsored by the LC & SJ, not a guild). I would ask vendors for their money up front to be sure they show up. To get participants, you may have enough contacts by word of mouth, but to get attendance you're going to have to advertise somehow and a lot. Depending on attendance, I've seen guilds host shows wind up with a little extra money, break even, or go broke, depending on the organizing and the publicizing of the event. To start a show from scratch, I would ask for sponsors. Do you have a local leather guild or organization to help support your efforts?

Competitions are tricky. Assuming you get a fair amount of entries, who will do the judging? I like your ideas for catagories but for a first show you may want to make the leatherworking areas very broad. Having been a judge at many guild shows, I have been forced to compare apples to oranges, and it's better to do that then to cheapen the whole event by handing out ribbons to undeserving pieces. You might want to prepare an objective list of goals that the entry should be judged on. The IFoLG has basic rules like "edges must be finished" etc. The guild shows competitions were originally designed to help the entrants improve. To this day we try to scribe (write down) what was done well, as well as suggestions for improvement. If you try to stay with an educational or fun theme you will be safer than "Best Wallet in the UK", KWIM?

LW will of course do whatever it can to get the word out, and you can call or email me any time if I can be of use. I wish I could travel to the UK to help and attend. I would love to visit your country and meet the UK leatherworkers and suppliers.

Johanna

[UKRay]

Thanks so much for the advice, Johanna. I am currently underwriting the show myself but intend that any profits should be donated to my favourite leather working forum... now which one might that be?

We are fortunate to have found a superb venue that won't cost the earth, in a town (Ludlow) that is heaving with history, great pubs and some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK. An entry fee of £10 in advance (which will be payable online) or £15 on the day will help to cover show expenses (how does this compare with charges for US shows?) but I will need at least 100 people to attend. I have had around fifty emails so far - even some from Germany, Sweden and other European and Scandinavian countries. Total number of available tickets will be around 200 as I would like people to have plenty of space to enjoy their day.

All the vendors I have invited - with one notable exception - have agreed to attend and the demonstrators for the four sessions will be world class.

Hopefully our chosen carving master-class demonstrator will be coming over from the US (he is a very, very well known name in the leather world and on this forum), our preferred hand stitching demonstrator is the author of a world famous book on leather craft and I have one of the UK's nicest sewing machine people coming to demo machines from a whole range of manufacturers. One of LW's own is earmarked for the lacing and braiding session.

One major vendor has promised a large number of second hand machines and old hand tools on sale that can be tried before purchase and another, the manufacturer of a world famous brand of saddlery tools, has offered a huge show discount. We have also been promised lots of support from our friends at Tandy UK. I have also had positive expressions of interest from three excellent leather merchants.

I agree about the competitions, Johanna, and I would appreciate a bit more guidance here if possible. Ideally, I'd like to hand the competitions over to someone else to organise as I'm already feeling the strain. A volunteer or two would be wonderful. Local (ish) volunteers would be even better!

As far as I am aware, we don't have any leather working guilds or similar organisations over here - however, I'd be very happy to be proven wrong and even happier if they wanted to get involved.

I feel the attractions are almost in place but at this point I'm keen to see more support from the Leatherworking community. I've had some very positive emails but I'd like to see a lot more interest to reassure me that I'm not about to waste my time and money.

Johanna, I'm working on a way to get you over here to judge the competitions!

I'm planning a first meeting for those who want to get involved sometime in November (to be held at the venue) but please don't rush all at once to PM me or send an email LOL!

Ray

[Corvus]

Wouldn't it make sense to ask the guest demonstrators to act as the judges?

[Casey Jordan]

Ray,

I applaud you for doing this. It is a lot of work. You will either be bald or grey by the end of the show! (just kidding)

I started the "Art of the Cowboy Makers" contest last year. It was a huge sucsess and will be bigger this year.

Our categories last year were Bits, Boots, Saddles & Spurs and we will be adding Braiding and Engraving this year.

Here's a few of my suggestions:

Have something else going on to get more people to come. Your idea of having classes and or demonstrations is very good.

Having vendors will help pay expences and this will help get craftsmen to come.

Do you want people other than craftsmen to come? What will draw them to your show?

Our show is in conjunction with a "Western Collectable and Antique Show" and auction. This gets people other than just the makers to come. We want the public to come to our contest because they are the ones who buy our contestants work. Also we get them involved because they all get one vote in each category for the "People's Choice" prize which is a Trophy Buckle in each category.

The way we do the judging: All the makers in each category are judging that category. So if you enter a saddle, you are also judging the saddle category. We have a limit of 25 per category so there can be 25 judges in the saddle category.

They have to place the top four places and they are given points. 1st - 4 points

2nd -3 points

3rd - 2 points

4th - 1 point

Then all the points are totaled to determine the winner. 1st place - Trophy Buckle, Ribbon & Cash

2nd place - Ribbon & Cash

3rd place - Ribbon & Cash

The makers like this method very well and it is fair and honest to all.

Get sponsors to help raise money for expenses and prize money.

Our entry fee is $100.00 per entry and $75.00 goes right to prize money.

If a category fills up the winner will get over $900.00 cash.

If you go to our website: www.artofthecowboymakers.com There are pictures of last years contest and information on this years.

If I think of something else that might help I will let you know. Hope this helps!

[UKRay]

Wouldn't it make sense to ask the guest demonstrators to act as the judges?

Hi Corvus, the demonstrators will be teaching all morning and afternoon and it doesn't seem very fair to ask them to spend their lunch break judging a competition - even if the entries are amazing! However, I'll certainly give it some more thought as they may want to be involved.

Hi Casey, nice to hear from you again. I looked at the website and I am amazed by what you have achieved with your Art of the Cowboy Makers contest. It looks like an extremely professional event. Right now I'm at the base line and grateful for your suggestions. I really like the idea of competitors being judged by their peers. We all have an opinion and it is good to have that opinion recognised and acted upon. I suspect that this is the route I'll be taking with the competition judging so many thanks for the suggestion.

I hadn't thought of cash prizes either but this is obviously the route to take. I'm happy to follow your lead and put 75% of the entry fee back in the pot as prize money. That ought to attract a few entries. It is hard to say what the entry fee ought to be as leathercraft isn't as well developed here in the UK - $100 sounds like a lot of money to me - anyone got any thoughts on this?

Am I right in thinking that US leather shows don't have an admission charge for the public? I haven't heard anyone mention this anywhere. Are they completely free to attend?

One of the ideas I had was to make tables available for people to sell their leatherwork. We may need to make a very small charge but it would be great to see what other folk are making. How do people feel about this? Will it work? Can I get Tom to bring some of his amazing bracers from Sweden? Will Tina bring along a wonderful carved bag to sell? Will we see leatherwork from anyone in Austria? How about Aulus and Gesa in Germany? There are plenty of makers in France, Italy and Poland? People from all those countries have been in contact and they all make incredible things. It could be one of the best bits of the show.

I'd like to hear a few more ideas if people can spare some time,

Thanks,

Ray

Ray

Edited October 17, 2009 by UKRay

[Suze]

Hi Ray

Sounds like you have a good start to a show....(how big is that bald spot by now???? >grin<)

about the judging -- can you just block an hour or so off of the demo times for the judges to all get together and judge all at once? Maybe early in the morning? Judging over coffee and doughnuts? (feeding judges is a Very Wonderfull Thing)

Is this more than a one day event? You could have the entries in place the first day - judge sometime during that day and then put ribbons on them the next morning.

If you have a "public day" you could charge a pound or two to get in the door. (for a first show I don't think a would charge more than that)

Of course that would mean that you would have to put a >gasp< time limit on WHEN the silly things show up. But, if you are giving -- cash -- away it might get them in the door in the morning....

Right now I am begging classes for an SCA Newcomer's Seminar. 36 spots - 25 teachers - 32 classes, plus a bunch of dance classes (the site has a third floor "real ballroom") -- I'm proud of me..... (My hair is getting a little thin getting the various "tracks" lined up and not all at the same time.)

good luck

[UKRay]

Hi Suze,

I'm not losing much hair yet, but the grey whiskers have multiplied since I started out... good luck with your event!

Talking about the problems, here on the forum, is really helping as everyone is adding such useful information. Do please contribute your ideas as I'd like to make this a real success and I can't do it on my own.

You are quite right, Suze - we don't need to charge admission to the show, and as this is the first year the individual competition entries will only be around £10.00 each. Obviously there will be competition expenses. (rosettes, cards etc etc). Ideally i'd like to see 100 entries because that would give us overall prize money of around £750 plus donated prizes. I would imagine there will be around £1000 to be won on the day if we get a good turn-out. I definitely need a tough competition manager to make sure all the entries are in by 10am or thereabouts.

I intend to charge the exhibitors around £25 for a booth and will need around ten sales to pay expenses. I'm happy to hear from anyone who wants a trade stand or who might be able to sponsor the event in any way. Obviously space is limited so this will be a finite resource. First come first served - I have five spaces left and a year to go...

The venue has some lovely rooms for the individual sessions and a fantastic high ceilinged hall for the competition exhibits and for the table traders. The public will come and go but the demonstrations won't be affected by them as the sessions will be held outside the main event space. I guess we will have to take bookings for the demonstrations. How is this done in the US?

I am planning for a one day event. This is the first of its kind here and I don't know what sort of response we will get but if all goes well the next one could be a whole weekend. (There is nothing like being optimistic! LOL).

Ray

Edited October 17, 2009 by UKRay

[Corvus]

I see your point about demonstrators as judges Ray, the public vote does seem a good idea.

[Casey Jordan]

Ray,

Sounds like your on the right track with a full head of steam.

We wanted a very professional look and a first class event. Thank you for noticing and saying so.

Our main objective is to promote the contemporary makers. A description card with their name and information is with all entries. They are more than welcome to put a stack of business cards there for the public to take one.

Win lose or draw we want our entrants to benifit in some way. We hade several items sell right off the table and some that were already sold took orders from their entry. One spur maker took three orders off his entry.

The entry fees can be what ever you decide. We went with $100.00 to try to get the prize money up to a good amount.

One way to get all the entries there early is to start the judging early. If you want them ther before 8:00am, start the judging at 8:00am.

Since it will be a one day event you need to have all of them there early so they will be there the whole show.

Having the entrants judge worked out well and all the entrants like this method. Might consider having a "People's Choice" that is voted on by everyone who attends. The public really enjoyed getting involved and having some input.

If you don't need to charge admission that's great. Some people will stay away if it is going to cost much to attend.

I wish you all the luck with your show, I would love to be there.

A quick check with plane and hotel was $1250.00+ and that's not including beer!

[gunter]

is there going to be a show in 2012? if so, where in the UK?

cheers,

Gunter