Teach Soap

I swear I am never again putting my soaps into the county fair!!

Let me explain: I am in the Education Extension Clubs which is a State Wide club associated with the Agricultural Extension Offices. Our County has 4 clubs and we show our craft items at the county fair ( these are separate from the county wide submissions). Items are rated with the following (in order of best to worst) Best of Show (1 per category), Best Outstanding, Best, Red (approx equal to second place), and White (third place). There are many opportunities for getting a Best Outstanding.

I was the only one that submitted soaps. I put in 30 bars of soap, a sample of each batch, NOT ONE OF MY SOAPS was rated with a B/O. in fact the majority of the soaps were rated with a R or W. You guys have seen pictures of all the soaps on the brag page. You are not allowed to have any identifying remarks on the submission and I wanted the items judged on themselves not the packaging. Even my jar of mango butter sugar scrub was scored with a W and it was in a beautiful jar with a pretty ribbon.I also had other craft items in that division and they didnt score them well at all. I have NO clue what was going on in that division. All I can say is the majority of items in it were scored pretty low. What is worse is that they provided no feedback as to why they judged people so low. ( Most judges do)

I have decided to take a good friends advice from this summer, I will get my validation by selling the soaps and not from a bunch of biddies that cannot take the time to tell you what they did or didnt like.

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Dawn

I'm sorry to hear that. It could be because they are addicted to Lush or Bath & Body Shop's crap.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

maybe so, but in the end, it just wasnt worth all the stress and work required to get stuff ready to show. I am one of the youngest members (if not the youngest in the county) at 45. My style is a little more funky and modern and I think most of those ladies are still stuck on cheesy 80's version of victorian. I am just going to do my thing and do my best to pimp it.

On a good note: My Mom did take best of show on one of her photographs.

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Dawn

As a Professional Snob I rate your soaps A, for awesome. And clearly I'm more important that those picky old ladies. *hugs*

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

What a bummer! My guess is they are not familiar with homemade soap. Did you look to see what did take best in show or better than red or white? (And congrats to your mom.) Were they aware of you being the soapmaker and they just stayed within their own little group? This does not sound like the way to promote the county fair or support the local crafters. We all know you are best in show and I agree it is probably not worth the effort it took.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I'm sorry that happened, Dawn. Sounds very disappointing.

My only experience with county fairs is doing 4H as a child. I know that the judges for that have a certain criteria that they judge by. Sometimes there is an item that doesn't fit the criteria very well, and so it doesn't get ranked very high. I remember as a kid looking at the judging criteria, and then making adjustments based on them to whatever project I was planning to submit. Maybe soap just didn't fit in with what they were given to judge with, in which case, anyone who submitted soap would have run into the same issue.

I'd try not to take it personally, and recognize that there are people who PAY to get your soap. That's better than a ribbon anyway.

LMBO...Thank you so much Hestey!! I am just full of my own pity party lately and needed a pick me up.

@ Bubbles, After really thinking about it, I am sure that they 1. Didnt know how to score it so they just low balled it. 2. Were judging on packaging (there was none). 3. Applied their own personal tastes to the final product versus judging it on its own merits. 4. Items that really have to be used to be judged were completely dismissed. 5. Assumed a level of difficulty of each project and judged on that.

In a different division they rated one my worst looking submissions as outstanding...because they assumed that I had put much more effort into it than some of the others. (I almost threw that one away it was so ugly). On another item they suggested that I add a butterfly to it...It was a decorated Egg with Scroll work on it. NOT a dang butterfly in sight, but because I had 1/2 and inch of blank space on the back they thought I should have stuck something in it. One another one, they said my "owl" was upside-down...it was a skull bead on the bottom of the egg, it matched the Sculpy millifluer design on the egg. Again projecting their tastes onto someone else. The ones that got the highest ratings were not in this photo. But this gives you an idea of what I submited for the eggs.


This was my highest rated soap with a "B"

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Dawn

Aria, I have decided that cash is a better validation method than ribbons. One of the issues is that there isnt a separate division for soaps so they all go into "creative arts". And the criteria is murky at best in that division since it covers such a large scope of items.

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Dawn

April, you dont even want to get me started on the sewing division. That is the one place that if you are not applying modern techniques they will gig you big time as they did my mom. And the criteria for that section....wait for it...."constructed appropriately" What does that mean exactly? Because I know in that division they nit-pick every little detail. Those judges are professional seamstresses and want the finished products to look store bought...but be careful, because they will disqualify you if they think it is.

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Dawn

Sorry you had such a disappointing bunch of judges. I know what it's like to get ready for a fair, and that's no picnic. But at least you learned something!

I know that I never have (and probably never will) submit honey for judging. Their criteria are weird, to me. Clarity. Clarity in honey is achieved by filtering it to within an inch of its life--and that means heating it. Which degrades flavor. You know--flavor? The reason people ought to buy local honey?

So I'll let others do it, and, like you, assume that good sales means success!

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

eww..after its heated and filtered that much its nothing more than sugar water. I am with you. I want the cloudy stuff, with all that nice pollen and with a comb it it

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Dawn

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Aww, Dawn, sorry about their poor judging giving you a bad experience. People who know think your soaps are great! I love your "B" soap! *Awards Dawn 1st prize*

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

Well that IS disappointing for sure. You've put so much into your soaps and I can only hope mine come out like yours one day. I don't blame you if you never do submit them again, but think your strategy of seeing what the all mighty dollar brings you...it will be much more satisfying in the end.

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Lisa
“What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul” ~ Yiddish proverb