Dirty Dozen Donation Derby

The Dirty Dozen Donation Derby was created as a way to encourage the creation of Largess through friendly competition.

The way it works is that entrants create 12 items based on a theme... the theme is up to the entrant. I could be anything from 'stuff I made on Monday nights' to '13th Century Germanic Ladies Accessories'

the primary rule is:

items must be tagged and ready to be given out as largess immediately

there have been so many amazing ideas for the entries! Children's crayon rolls, 14th Century silver brooches, children's toys, jewelry, jams, silk painted fans, sets of beads, embroidered needle books, felted bowls... the list just goes on and on. Remember, as this is not an Arts and Sciences competition you do not need to document your items however if you have done a re-creation please include that information on the tag!

the derby is easy to run, requires cups to be included with each entry and a bowl of tokens (beads, beans, pebbles) to be provided. People come by, vote on their favorite item by dropping a token in that entry's cup. The winner is the entrant with the most tokens.

...and the prize??!!

the winner of the derby gets one item from each of the other competitors!!!

often it is run with prizes going to King/Queen, Prince/Princess, Baron/Baroness choices. I've seen/heard of them where the sponsor has either had entrants tokens created or have each competitor get to pick from someone else's entry as a thank you.

some people are intimidated by the idea of creating 12 of something. Do you have 11 other people who want to pitch in? Do a group entry!! Can't think of something to make... speak to Royal Peers and find out something they loved to have to give out as largess!!

the reason for the large number is that say you have 5 entrants... that's 60 pieces of largess. You give out 5 items to the winner, another 3 items for _so and so's choice_ you still have 52 items of quality largess!! By the time the sponsoring group (let's say a Barony) gives out the prizes and keeps half of what's left to give out from themselves they still have 26 pieces of beautiful largess created by Their Populace to pass on up to Principality or Kingdom!

for more information and pictures of previous entries from other Derbies please see the Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/520009888022124/

The Brief History of the Dirty Dozen Donation Derby

 -or how I got out of trouble with my Princess-

many years ago Aldgudana Gunnarsdottir's dear friend Daegmar was stepping up to reign as Queen of Ealdormere. She had created some gifts for her friend and approached Duchess Miranda to see if she would like to include these items in the Pennsic Largess Bag for that Kingdom. Miranda of course said yes and suggested that Aldgudana even make the haversack that would carry all the items. She agreed. Miranda then said "I've been wanting to try something for a while and instead of getting artisans to make 18 of each item have people take on an entire bag to create and fill!" Aldgudana was very excited and inspired by this idea (as well as being honored that Her Grace would trust such a thing to her) so she happily said yes and immediately started contacting her very talented friends to make largess for the bag.

it just so happened that at the time Aldgudana was Head Lady in Waiting to Her Highness, Princess Gwyneth of Tir Righ. The Princess, unknown to Aldgudana, had been trying to get largess created for the Principality, but everyone she spoke to was making things for the Ealdormere Pennsic bag!! Princess Gwyneth approached Aldgudana, explained the situation, and Aldgudana immediately said "I will fix this Your Highness!!"

after some brainstorming and bouncing ideas off of a few good people, the Dirty Dozen Donation Derby was created =)