An Tir
Embellisher's Guild

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Guild Guidelines

Anyone is welcome to attend Guild Meetings. These are generally at every Crown Event. Membership currently consists of filling out a membership form.

You can download the following information in *.doc form here. This is a newly revised edition of the Guild Information.

Guild Ranks

There are six status rankings within the guild:

1. Member -- has indicated interest in the guild and filled out a membership form for the E&E files.
2. Junior Student -- has submitted for judging and had accepted (one) piece at a working knowledge.
3. Senior Student -- has submitted for judging and had accepted:
   1. One (1) piece at a competency rating, and
   2. One (1) piece at a working knowledge
4. Journeyman -- has submitted for judging and had accepted:
   1. Four (4) pieces of which at least two (2) must be of competency rating and the remaining two (2) can be at working knowledge, and
   2. Proof of teaching (at least three people must confirm the proof of teaching in the form of a letter or an Ithra class list).
5. Craftsman -- has submitted for judging and had accepted:
   1. eight (8) pieces of which at least four (4) of which must be of competency rating, and
   2. one of the following:
      1. teach one (1) person to Journeyman rating with the Embellishers Guild,
      2. achieve a Magistrate Ithra in one of the accepted forms accompanied by a scholarly paper, and
   3. one of the following:
      1. teach a second person to Journeyman rating,
      2. achieve a Magistrate Ithra in on of the accepted forms, or
      3. teach two (2) people to Senior Apprentice.
6. Artisan -- has submitted for judging and had accepted:
   1. has submitted twelve (12) pieces of which:
      1. at least four (4) must be of expert rating,
      2. at least four (4) must be of competency rating,
      3. the remaining four (4) may be of working knowledge however the guild would like to strongly suggest that for this level a minimum of competency be strived for. Any pieces of working knowledge should only fail in the requirement for "completed piece" not in the workmanship of the piece itself. A "work in progress" is not acceptable.
   2. one of the following:
      1. teach one (1) person to Craftsman rank within the guild,
      2. teach two (2) people to Journeyman rank within the guild, or
      3. achieve a Magistrate Ithra in two (2) accepted forms of E&E, each to be accompanied by a scholarly paper.
   3. one of the following:
      1. taught a second person to Craftsman,
      2. taught two (2) more people to Journeyman, or
      3. achieved a Magistrate Ithra in two (2) accepted forms of E&E.

Levels of Knowledge

1. Working Knowledge -- must achieve a minimum of the following:
   1. Demonstrates a basic understanding of the work. Most mistakes should be recognized by the challenger and the concepts understood for future correction;
   2. May be an unfinished work or a work in progress if the sample is sufficiently large to demonstrate ability.
2. Competency -- must achieve a minimum of the following:
   1. Demonstrated a thorough understanding of the work. Mistakes should be few and of minor impact, and the concepts understood;
   2. Must be a finished and useable work (i.e. on a garment or on a completed project).
   3. Must be accompanied by a minimum of oral documentation, written documentation is strongly encouraged.
3. Expert -- must achieve a minimum of the following:
   1. Demonstrates a complete knowledge of the work. If there ARE mistakes, the judges should be very hard pressed to find them;
   2. The work must be authentic in concept and execution;
   3. It must be a finished and useable work;
   4. The work demonstrates the various aspects of that particular form (i.e. doing a freehand piece with only two or three different stitches would not be acceptable)
   5. Be accompanied by extensive written documentation, mostly using primary sources. Where primary sources are not available, secondary sources and extrapolations may be considered.
   6. Anyone presenting expert level projects is strongly advised to discuss the entire project beforehand with the Guild Administrator.

Documentation

1. Oral
   • The challenger must be able to quote examples of when and where the form was found.
   • The challenger should be able to give examples of the type of materials that would have been originally used, including colors, fabrics, and methods of construction.
2. Written
   • The challenger must be able to show a minimum of two (2) different primary sources of each aspect of the form.
   • The challenger must be able to prove the authenticity of style, concept, execution, and materials of the form.
   • The challenger must be able to effectively argue and differences or changes made from the original methods of working (i.e. "I used a modern foil-wrapped thread instead of real gold thread due to the current availability of the latter").

Judging

• Rank challenges may be judged by any combination of the following as long as there are a minimum of three (3) judges: Members in the Embellisher Guild of the rank challenged or higher.
• Laurels who have an understanding of the Embellishing arts challenged.
• Any past guild head of the Embellishers Guild.
• Rank challenges shall be open to anyone who has completed the requirements of the attempted rank, or who wishes to observe. Judges may confer in private regarding acceptability of each candidate.
• Rank is not conferred until the guild head has received the appropriate paperwork. The challenger will be notified of the results from the guild head and given a copy of the juding adjudication for his/her files.

Teaching

Obtaining proof of teaching is the responsibility of the candidate. All teaching submissions must be accompanied by written verification and a copy of the handout or class plan.

Journeyman -- acceptable criteria for teaching includes a minimum of either a local A&S class, 1/3 Magistrate Ithra, a guild workshop with a minimum of 3 students or one-on one teaching with 3 students.

Craftsman/Master -- proof of teaching must include some samples of the students work to show effectiveness of the class. Students should demonstrate competency in their work.

Accepted Forms of Embellishment

Only one (1) piece per form may be submitted for each rank challenge with the exception of the OTHER category in which two (2) different forms may be challenged.

A form may be consecutively challenged for increasing ranks up to three (3) times providing that each time the form is challenged it increases in knowledge. A form may not be challenged at the same level of knowledge twice, improvement must be shown.

A list of the Forms currently accepted by the Guild is available here.

To Arrange Challenges

For more information on current and upcoming challenges please see our bulletin board. To arrange to challenge a level please contact the Guild Challenge Deputy if you wish to challenge at a Kingdom event. To challenge at a regional event contact the Guild Challenge Deputy or one of the Regional Challenge deputies listed on the members page.

Copyright 2010, individual copyright holders on illustrations and assorted texts.
Webpage design copyright 2009 Rikke D. Giles (Aelianora de Wyntringham in the SCA).