Ideas For The Next Contest

weirdowl

Well, I missed out on the last contest so I'm anxious to participate in the next one.

Bonita's recent update on his Juniper forest gave me the idea of a forest planting contest. A price limit would be a good idea again. Minimum and maximum number of trees might be good.

I know it's kinda early, but the sooner we decide on one, the sooner we can start looking for material to work with.

Anyone have any ideas?

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weirdowl

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Treebeard

Some figures...

1260 members, 15 entrants = 1.2% participation level

If you are being generous, then you can say that of the 1260 members, only 600 have actually posted so you could say the percentage is 2.5% participation level.

There was more voters than entrants. 47 members placed 134 votes, if I read the figures correctly.

So, a whopping 3% of the total membership voted.

One would have to ask is there enough support for another contest? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for another one, but it seems that the vast majority of members aren't.

Comments? Is my maths correct?

Regards,

TB/Chris

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Thomas_J.

I would have entered the last contest but the price limit was too low in my opinion. One gallon junipers aren't going to give you much to stlye. hopefully the limit can be say up tp $100. This doesn't mean a person can't spend $15 if that's all he wants, but it gives others a chance to get some possibly good material to work on and have something that's not all cut up because there is actually something there to work with. Anyway these are my thoughts.

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Thomas J.

Mittar

I'm definitely for another contest and I will do my best to enter.

One thing to remember on member participation in past contests is that many of the members are new and inexperienced. This doesn't mean that they can't enter, just that they may not feel qualified.

If nothing else, it was fun to follow and watch.

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nickbachman

i'm all about another contest! i was torqued that i missed the last one, because it was my favorite thing to do-stock to bonsai. i didnt even know there was a contest until i saw al's post mosh pit. which leads me to think, maybe there wasn't enough advertisment for it. if i never knew it existed, maybe other members didnt as well. or maybe i'm just blind as a bat. i think it's split 50/50 between both. either way i want to enter a styling contest for sure.

weirdowl

I knew about the last contest and was very interested all along but often forgot about it for days and days at a time because it was so easy to overlook. I often overlook the classified section for the same reason.

Out of five posts on this thread there are 3-5 willing participants. That's 60%-100% participation.

I'd agree that a lot of the non-participants may have felt like they couldn't do very well. Maybe a few threads on general training tips for cheap stock might help. Anybody have any other ideas to encourage participation?

Personally, I can't afford $100 stock. I could maybe go a little over $20 but not a whole lot.

Anymore ideas?

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weirdowl

diamondlyme84

I would definetly like the forest planting contest idea. One other one would be a seikei (sp?) contest.

I actually liked the price limit, even though it may have been "too small."

If we were to do a forest or seikei contest, we would have to increase the budget because it would cost more for the extra trees, rocks, not to mention the bigger pot if you don't already have one.

If we were to do another contest, I might be able to contribute a more minor prize (not something as great as great as Al's shohin stand, but a shohin pot or something like that).

If you create a contest, I'll enter it.

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Bonsai-gecko

How about a poll on why everyone didn't participate in the last contest? It would be more informative than just speculating.

As for myself... I was VERY excited about the contest at first. And very excited with the awesome stand Al made, I planned to participate in the very beginning, but in the end I never got around to it. Part of it was my busy schedule and tight budget (beleive it or not, $20 was really hard to spare for me a few months ago). Another part was, in all honesty, Seeing the entrys by a few others really made me question my chances.
I planned on entering anyways, after all, it looked fun and winning isn't everything, but in the end my schedule was so busy it was hard for me to dedicate the time for a contest I was sure I wouldn't win.

By all means, lets continue the contests though. And agian... maybe a poll on why others like myself didn't enter would help us to respond to those reasons if need be.

(then again... maybe next time the more advanced artists should hold off and enter closer to the deadline so they don't discourage us newbies )

bonsaial1

Since I have appointed myself as the bonsaiTALK Contest Director, I would like to make some comments.
1. Making and giving away a stand is something I like to do, It makes me feel good, and helps a worthy winner get a piece of furniture that is sometimes put on the back burner when one starts looking to spend their bonsai dollars.
2. Participation would be good. I would like to see at least fifty entrys, and I think that is a reasonable goal. Not having enough time is not a very good reason to not enter a contest. I did my tree on a TV tray in front of the TV in a couple of hours. I'm sure that anyone could find that much time in a busy day. Don't charge your cell phone for one day and I'm sure all kinds of time will open up.
3. Money! limits were designed to help include everyone. The name of the game was to style the best tree for under 20.00 bucks. Good trees can be had for less money. This is not about trying to make a tree that will be a part of the ongoing collection. The contest tree can be disposable. This is about useing all the techniques we have learned on bonsaiTALK.



I did a whole thread in detail about how I went about styling the tree I submitted. How to wire it, what to look for in buying the stock, how to design the apex, shari and deadwood, fanning out the tertiary branches for the best look.

Man, What do you want?

There are also many excellent articles through the archives in bonsaiTALK. I have submitted at least 20, while I also did a thread from the local nursery on how to buy stock, what to look for when purchasing, and also a list of do's and dont's.

All of the tools on how to do artistic bonsai have graced the pages of bonsaiTALK. From keen talk about nebari from Rips and artistic mastery from Andy. I even set up a Master's critique area so that you could learn from one of the foremost bonsai artist's of our time, Walter Pall. He even took time out to judge the thing.


In closing, yea we could raise the stakes to 100.00 dollars, yea we could do forest plantings or saikai, we could hold a contest for the best mallsai, or the best virtual. In the end, one has to wish to compete. One has to be brave in spite of the odds. One has to put his/her cards on the table. There hasn't been one reply to the thread about paying your dues. This is where you pay them! This is the time you have to put in to gain the respect that everyone so desires. This is where you put your best foot forward and say this is what I can do. This is a club of thousands and we can't even get 50 people to enter a contest. Just like the real clubs. 5% do all the work. While 95% sit back and complain about time or school or whatever. GET INVOLVED, if you do nothing we will never know...

Bonsai-al

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