Whewy!! This has been a crazy week indeed!
On Tuesday evening I decided it was time to let my old, dead, USB card go. It stopped working last month, taking with it all of my sales data and all of my reference photos for Jasper. Silly me didn't have a back-up so I spent several weeks trying to rebuild the information, frantically getting in touch with people who had bought models from me recently to see if they'd got them or not and going through every cast I have left of all my sculptures, trying to work out which were outstanding.
Well, when I went to throw the card in the bin, Adam (my OH) said I should destroy it first, just in case ('cos you never know...!), I agreed and we started dismantling it. Now this card was different to the more normal USB Keys in that it had a miniature hard drive complete with little laser inside that had got damaged when I must have knocked it. So there I was, digging away with a minitaure screwdriver, trying to scratch the teeny little disc inside, when something went pop and the little laser arm whirred into a new position. "Hmm", I thought, "I wonder..." so, I tentatively plugged it into the computer, and.... there were my files!!!! So, I quickly grabbed the most important ones and copied them to the PC, inevitably after a few minutes the hard drive breathed it's last breathe and died, this time for good. BUT - I had my most iportant files back, yippeeee!!!
Whilst I was trying to decipher the old information with the new, I received an email from the
RESS Yahoo Group, announcing the results of the
RESS Bas Relief Contest. Well, this news has been long and eagerly awaited since I entered back in
April so I immediately clicked the link to see!.
I'm a great fan of
RESS, I'm increasingly realising just what an important, and wonderful organization it is! I've enjoyed participating in previous competitions by voting for my favourite models, but hadn't entered one until the Bas Relief Contest. For just $25 a year (or $40 if you are a business) you can enter all of the competitions and challenges at a discounted rate, earn RESS Bucks by contributing to the Bi-Annual newsletter (the last one was 190 pages long!!), have potential to earn RESS Scholarships, Grants and Awards and use their logo to show the world you're a part of something so special.
I entered the Brass/Bronze copy of
Fly Fishing and the
TIBBP Mare and Foal Medallion into this competition. At the time, the TIBBP medallion was in America being cast by
Resins By Randy for
TIBBP, so I could only submit photos of the model whilst it was in-progress (Randy was to finish it with the lettering). The Fly Fishing medallion that I chose to enter was a slightly CM'd copy with the circular base removed, and cast in two metals; brass and bronze.
I've listed the results below to try to make some sense of them myself, as I've found it difficult to work it out:
Fly Fishing:
TIBBP Mare and Foal Medallion:
- In-Progress - 1st Place - the prize for this being a $50 Cafepress Certificate (not Dick Blick as listed in the original show details, as I'm in the UK.
- People's Choice Awards - 1st Place in Advanced -the prize for this is an exclusive blank RESS Medallion - this award made me feel extremely proud, as this particular medallion was born from a highly emotional journey I have taken with The International Blessed Broodmare Project, and was influenced by some very special people and horses. The fact that my fellow hobbyists could see this too was quite a feeling!
- RESS Member Awards - 1st Place in Advanced - the prize for this being a $50 Cafepress Certificate (same reason as above)
I didn't have any placings in the finishwork classes (Advanced, Novice and the Sommer Prosser Juror Medallion Showcase, for which Sommer had provided a beautiful medallion of a fancy circus pony). With painting not being my forte I chose not to enter, but the level of quality that was in this section was something else!!
Liz Shaw's incredible
Feral Mare medallion (sculpted by SMB) won 1st place in the Advanced Finishwork section, and Linda Simmerling (I can't find a link for her sadly) won 1st place in the Novice Finishwork section with her very cute Pony medallion (Sculpted by by
Kristi Sawin). Liz Shaw also won the Lynn Fraley
Laf'nBear Studio LLC award for "Most Soul", she won a beautifully crafted
keepsake box with a crackle-glazed Fraley design tile adorning it.
Carol Huddleston won both 2nd place in the Advanced Finishwork category, and The Jenn Danza
Danza Studio award for "Media That Elevates", for this she won a custom made
vase with a lovely pony cameo, crafted by Jenn Danza.
Elaine Lindelef won 1st place in the Novice In-Progress Sculpture section, and 1st Place in the RESS Member Awards Novice section. For these wins she will receive $50 vouchers and an exclusive blank RESS medallion.
CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who entered the competition, I look forward to seeing the in-progress works completed, and to taking part in many more RESS Events!
Entry to this competition cost just $35, so as you can see from the above, the value-for-money for RESS events is very, very good!
So, back to the story - the third thing that happened on Tusday evening; After reading the results I was...rather excited, to say the least, so after seeing my name up in lights, realising just how incredible the prizes were and making a fair few involuntary whooping noises, I ran downstairs to tell Adam all about this. The wonderful part of this story is that, as I told Adam about the results and he saw just how much this all meant to me, I began to see a change in his expression - now Adam is supportive of my work and very patient with me when my hobby intrudes a little too far into everyday life, but I now know that he really knows just how important the hobby is to me, and how seriously us hobbyists take our artwork. This was the best prize of all.
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