Angsting on Largesse.

[arontius]

.....Last night Her Excellency Brighid made an impassioned plea for Largesse for both Barony and Kingdom. I am personally a little gunshy these days on that particular subject, especially when I started thinking about sticking my toe in that proverbial pond again.

.....Sometime around 2000, lasting for about four reigns or so, I would give a set of dragon circlets. Usually this consisted of four narrow circlets and four extra wide circlets, all in a dragon pattern (for Dragon's Laire of course). There was a plea for largesse from the Crown at the time and when I asked, Master Ralg also thought it would be a good idea.

.....So, as I said, for four reigns, a new set of circlets would be made and submitted. I don't think that they ever went to the Crown direct, usually they went to a largesse coordinator or other member of the Crown's personal staff. I never received a 'thank you' from the Crown. But I also never expected one either. I just thought of it as a contribution to help them out.

.....Fast forward a few years to a time when Mastress Gwenllyn started with her massive pottery largesse campaign. Her gifts of largesse were greatly appreciated and I noticed that she received a lot of praise and public thank-yous for her work. That was when I started suspecting something was amiss. But I still didn't say much until Gwen started pushing at others around her to start producing largesse for the Kingdom. I mentioned to her at that time that I DID my part at largesse production, but wasn't sure if the Crown even knew.

.....Well, you all know Mistress Gwen, she was off on a mission at that point and started asking people what was up. Were my gifts of largesse being recieved? Were they appreciated? And that is when we learned the answer. Apparently, when Crowns received the circlets, they were put with the rest of the largesse, but mainly they were made to disappear. This was due to the fact that when they were given as gifts, many people took them as a symbol that they were being given Court Baronies, even if they were just being given as generic gifts.

.....So, even though a few were given out, most generally disappeared. I was quite embarrassed. This is a good lesson on why bad things can happen when everyone is doing their best to be 'polite'. Sometimes the best policy really is to be honest. If someone had told me that these were not wanted, and the reason why, I would have been good with that. Or more importantly I wouldn't have wasted so much time, energy and expense.

.....And just thinking of the waste. Averaging to four narrow circlets (which sell at $32 each) and four extra wide (which sell at $46 each), that is $312 worth of merchandise for each reign for a total of $1,248. Each circlet takes approximately an hour to complete from start to finish for a total of 32 production hours.

.....I guess the take away lesson here is to take time to get honest information up front before starting any kind of largesse making mission. Talk to the right people. Making largesse to help out the kingdom is a good thing, so not expecting reward or thanks is a good thing. But make sure you are not getting recognition because the Crown is overwhelmed with largesse and not because they are figuring a discrete way to get rid of what you've given.

.....Largesse made by An Tir is pretty cool stuff. For July Coronation a couple of years ago, I received a nice pile of pretty cool stuff. Most of which was distributed amongst my autocrat team. And it was greatly appreciated. So the Crown definitely needs and desires a great deal of it.

.....Don't let this entry deter your largesse making mission. Just a musing on my part. I was thinking last night that I could make some of my etched bracelets for largesse. But you can bet I'm going to find out if they will actually be wanted BEFORE I turn them over to the Kingdom. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Comments

[gwen-the-potter.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember, Master Arontius, that when I talked to the largesse coordinator of that reign, that bracelets would have been highly appreciated.

And, no one said the cirlets were "made to dissappear", just they had to given out carefully. I'm sure they went all over the Known World.

One other thing, my dear dear Arontius, and to anyone else doing largess...put a card or label or every item! Otherwise they get stuck in a box, with no one knowing who they came from.

Your cirlets are beautiful, and I'm sure they are being used. And bracelets would be even better. Although, I'm sure a message to the largesse coordinator would be a good thing.

[gwen-the-potter.livejournal.com]

...and I did not see a desparate plea for largess from B&C on the email list. Did they post something, or do it at fighter practice?

[brighidross.livejournal.com]

Hi! It was more of a clarification of largesse, thank an impassioned plea. We were discussing what the sheep to object classes were to focus on... and one suggestion was to make largesse. I talked about the need for largesse and how it ends up in the hands of the populace. It is not kept by the Crown or by the B&B, but donated on and on often ending up in thank you's for autocrats. We talked about labelling the items so that the Crowns and recipients would know where the items came from. Mrq_laurellen talked about what makes for good largesse, and things to avoid. We also talked about people using their newly aquired skills to create a "master" project for June Faire prizes. We are not desperate (yet) for largesse, thanks to you and many others in the Barony...but it is a subject that both Cedric and I champion because it brings notice to the Barony and to the incredible artists that live here.

Hmmmm.....

[centaur11.livejournal.com]

Now you've got me wondering what the Crown "does" want? Does anyone really know for sure? Having played in 3 different Kingdoms, it's interesting what one Kingdom gives out during Court compared to others. I personally feel handmade items are always more appreciated than store bought things and things made period style, even more so... Guess what we need are some ideas and/or opportunities to bring people together to work on largesse.

Re: Hmmmm.....

[brighidross.livejournal.com]

Mrq_laurellen had some great ideas about largesse. Having been there she knows what works and what... not so much. Pouches, small bags, card woven trim, buttons, all small hand made items are super! Pincushions, felted needle cases, things like that are nice also. Obviously Mistress Gwen's cups are da bomb also.. but wood turned items are great,as are the boxes that some of our artisans make. Not good are anything food and drink related. I know that candles are often not good cuz they can melt in summer heat. I give the candles my Dad makes in the winter. Homemade soaps are problematic also. I know the painted boxes went over great also!Adelaide has expressed an interest in making more...so I have my eyes out for a good sale! I would love to get a group together and maybe make one fight practice a month a largesse night. Many handsmake light work, and if we can teach people new skills that is a huge plus!!!

Re: Hmmmm.....

[gwen-the-potter.livejournal.com]

And bracelets like what Arontius makes, the glass beads are fabulous, as are the woven buttons like what Aelinora does.

Balls of the hand-spun yarn is good too.

Heavy stuff is tough, especially if the Crown is tavelling far (I think Dagmear said she got a whole bunch of portable holes one year at Pennsic, and they were expensive to transport home).

Re: Hmmmm.....

[centaur11.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of smaller items that would be easy for the Crown to transport -- pincushions, felted needle cases and buttons would be great things to do at a fighter practice largesse workshop. Painting boxes at fighter practice got pretty messy from what I remember. If we covered the tables first, that would help. January is pretty full but maybe after Candlemas, we should pick one fighter practice a month just to do largesse. I like the wirewoven chains (necklaces and bracelets) but I don't know how much the wire costs. If we could get some of the wooden template things with the holes, teach people how to do the wireweaving, that's something people could work on just watching TV. I know I'd like to learn and probably Oli would too. Maybe someone could give a class upstairs?

Re: Hmmmm.....

[brighidross.livejournal.com]

The other thing that we had talked about is Thank You cards... with Calligraphy.. and small illuminations! Those are super!! and I dont think plain white cards are very expensive! I will chip in for some!

Re: Hmmmm.....

[redbowofdl.livejournal.com]

MadMalcom taught wire weaving at Last Chance 2006 and I took his class and made severals neck chains later. I loved doing it and learned alot after I made a few. If he isn't free to teach it, I can get people started. The Baron also knows how to do it. The wire is just a couple bucks from Joannes or Michaels. The silver tarnishes within a month but the gold plated copper retains its appearance.