Greetings from the 2016 Ice Dragon Pent Coordinators!

There are a lot of A&S competitions on the horizon, and it is not too early to start thinking about the mother of them all, the Ice Dragon Pentathlon! There is no Pent restriction for entries used in other competitions, so keep this in mind throughout the fall and winter as you create your masterworks (and enter them in competitions such as the Kingdom A&S Championship you can register for here).

Mistress Ysabeau Tiercelin and Mistress Juliana Delamere will be the Pent Coordinators for Ice Dragon 2016, and are bringing the Pent back to its roots. There will be much info forthcoming, but here are a few highlights:

1. The Ultimate Entry is back! Entries can be cross-entered in as many categories as you like (the two-category restriction is gone). So it will once again be possible to make one item that can be entered in 5 main categories and win the Pent.

2. Documentation is being simplified. Although you can make your documentation as detailed as you like, we are encouraging the use of EZ-Doc. You still need to cover the basics in your documentation, but you do not need to fear that your entry will rise or fall solely on documentation, as weighting is going to be far more dependent on the item itself.

3. The detailed judging and score sheets are going out the window. We will absolutely have rubrics available for the judges, but the scoring sheets are going to be far simpler and far less time-consuming. We are going back to simple first, second and third prizes for categories. If an entrant does not want to receive judge’s comments, they will have that option.

4. Laurels will be sponsoring categories as they did in the early days, and there will be prizes.

5. Entry levels will be Novice (for anyone who does not have a grant level arts award), Artisan (for holders of grant level awards), Laurel (for those members of the Order of the Laurel) and Group (for households, friends or any conglomerate of people combining entries with a single theme).

6. Group entries this year must have a theme. An example might be a group of six people with an equestrian theme with the following entries: horse barding in Heraldic Display, a period veterinary kit in Animal Arts, a saddle in Leather Working, traveling food for the hunt in Cooking, a scroll for an equestrian award in Scribal Arts, and a riding outfit in Clothing.

These changes are being made in response to many talks with artisans throughout the Kingdom. We want to eliminate the fear so many entrants have had (rightly or wrongly) of harsh judges’ comments, and we want entrants to be able to spend less time on documentation and more time on their art – so get ready to bring your best!