Upcoming Birthday Bash Contests.

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mredburn

mredburn

IAP Activities Manager
Staff member
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Jul 5, 2009
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Fort Myers FL
The 15th annual Birthday Bash is coming. For those of you new to IAP, the Bash is a month long celebration with all types of contests for making pens and other contests with puzzles, trivia, shop photos, and other pen related stuff.
This year we plan on having the following contests. The actual rules will be posted In January for public input and clarifications or changes. The Bash officially starts off Feb. 1st.

The proposed contests are.

Slimline, this will be run by Cody Walker, Cwalker935

Pretty Wood Pen, ran by BrianG

Kitless, ran by SteveJ

The Freestyle Pen contest Taken.

Advanced Casting Contest -taken

Pen Box /Pen stand contest -taken

The Youth Contests. Stonepecker

New this year,

Pretty Resin pen. taken

Segmented Pen contest

The contests as listed are open for discussion. You can throw out your thoughts and recommendations.

I have combined the Pen stand and Box contest this year, we havent had much participation after the first year they were held. Im thinking you will be able to enter one of each.

The segmented pen contest will be for hand segmenting only, it will not allow 3d printed forms filled in with resin. You would be allowed to combine casting and segmenting on the same pen. 3d printing, cnc and laser work would not be allowed in this contest.

The pretty resin pen contest:
I see this as a contest where you can purchase or cast a resin yourself and make a pen. Maybe just resin, no stickers or cards or other combos. Maybe we should only allow cast by member blanks to be used.

Please post your thoughts and recommendations. We will consider them even if we dont use them. You may bring up valid points we had not considered.
Let us know what you think!:highfive:
 
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Absolutely we should only allow resin cast blanks by the person entering. That would not be fair to use others blanks and that goes for all contests.

Will you bring back the front page contest??

Will you bring back the ugly pen contest??
 
No we will not be bringing back the "Front Page" page contest. Being selected for the front page is its own reward. The Ugly pen contest may or may not be back at some time. We continue to have difficulty keeping peoples feelings from getting hurt. We may run it again in the future or possible the "Difficult to write with Pen Contest" We are trying to keep the number of contests down to a certain level. The reasoning was we were getting to diverse in our offerings and we were seeing a reduction in the participation of the contests. Its difficult to justify continuing a contest where only 3 - 6 people enter. We also have to have volunteers to run all the contests as well.
 
I think the resin pen contest should allow for purchased blanks. I would like for folks to be able to submit pens made out if resin even if they didn't cast them themselves, otherwise it becomes a blank making contest. To me that is not very different than purchasing a wood blank for the Pretty Wood Pen Contest. However, I think there should also be a contest to show casting skills, or is that what the advanced casting contest is?
 
I have mixed thoughts on the Resin Pen contest. We used to have 3 separate casting contests but participation dropped so low we eliminated two of them. If we allow "purchased" blanks as well as self cast, that were limited to colors and excluded things like clear cast labels, embedded objects or 3d printed patterns etc. it would open the contest up to more people than those that cast. We can limit it to blanks cast by the pen maker, but that may deter some entries. Is the contest focus about skilled casters or more towards something that anyone can enter.
 
My opinion:

Pretty Resin = Pretty wood to me. If we don't care about the source of the wood then we shouldn't care about the source of the resin in a pretty resin contest. Use the prettiest resin you can make or buy.

How to further qualify gets tricky. If you say 100% resin then you only get clear blanks (dyes, pigments and such aren't resin). You could say 100% resin including coloring agents and limit the coloring agents to dyes, pigments and micas.

You would probably want to prohibit any assembly in the blank fabrication (e.g. a segmented resin blank).

May want to make disclosure of blank source a requirement. Voters can decide on the merits of self made versus commercial pretty resins if they think that is important.

Ed
 
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Ed McDonnell said:
My opinion:

Pretty Resin = Pretty wood to me. If we don't care about the source of the wood then we shouldn't care about the source of the resin in a pretty resin contest. Use the prettiest resin you can make or buy.

How to further qualify gets tricky. If you say 100% resin then you only get clear blanks (dyes, pigments and such aren't resin). You could say 100% resin including coloring agents and limit the coloring agents to dyes, pigments and micas.

You would probably want to prohibit any assembly in the blank fabrication (e.g. a segmented resin blank).

May want to make disclosure of blank source a requirement. Voters can decide on the merits of self made versus commercial pretty resins if they think that is important.

Ed
Click to expand...


Could do the same with wood source . Of course many forget to identify their woods , and probably forget who the supplier was also .
 
It may not be necessary to disclose the manufacturer, just that they bought it rather than made it themselves. if thats the way the contest is run.

Oh and Thank You Tony for jumping in again this year. I will probably move your post over to a thread on Donations when I get it posted.
 
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Well I will come back in about the resin VS pretty wood. Here is the difference one is nature made and other is man made. No way to control the look of a wood blank but resin blanks are all controlled by man. It is a man made product. Makes no difference where you buy the wood from and that has no factor in voting. It will factor into a resin blank. The ideas of these contests are to go up against your peers to test your skills not someone else's. Let them enter their own blank if they want in. To throw even further confusion in what about tru-stone blanks. Where do they play. Not a fan of the pretty resin contest.

Participation has been down and it should be the other way around. Just look at the number of new members joining every day and every year. Out surpasses any time in the history of this site I bet. But it is a different breed of members. In an out members like I call them. But that is a topic for another day. Will say this there are many more avenues to join and get info and talk pens than when this forum started. People's interest levels are probably not the same. The front runners and sort of leaders and spokespeople that use to be here are dwindling. Keeping people interested and wanting to keep coming back falls on the individual.
 
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Lot's of opinions on what you should do. I say whomever runs the contest, makes the rules. If you don't like rules, don't enter, or run your own contest. I'm planning on making a few pens and don't care how I do. I turn for fun.
 
EBorraga said:
Lot's of opinions on what you should do. I say whomever runs the contest, makes the rules. If you don't like rules, don't enter, or run your own contest. I'm planning on making a few pens and don't care how I do. I turn for fun.
Click to expand...

That is not what this thread is about and the spirit of the IAP Why not talk things out before they get started . We have the time now not a couple weeks before the contests. Go ahead Ernie let me have it with your words of wisdom.
 
jttheclockman said:
EBorraga said:
Lot's of opinions on what you should do. I say whomever runs the contest, makes the rules. If you don't like rules, don't enter, or run your own contest. I'm planning on making a few pens and don't care how I do. I turn for fun.
Click to expand...

That is not what this thread is about and the spirit of the IAP Why not talk things out before they get started . We have the time now not a couple weeks before the contests. Go ahead Ernie let me have it with your words of wisdom.
Click to expand...


John,
With your abundant amount of input and expertise about running these contests, you should volunteer to run one. What do you say?
 
Scollins said:
jttheclockman said:
EBorraga said:
Lot's of opinions on what you should do. I say whomever runs the contest, makes the rules. If you don't like rules, don't enter, or run your own contest. I'm planning on making a few pens and don't care how I do. I turn for fun.
Click to expand...

That is not what this thread is about and the spirit of the IAP Why not talk things out before they get started . We have the time now not a couple weeks before the contests. Go ahead Ernie let me have it with your words of wisdom.
Click to expand...


John,
With your abundant amount of input and expertise about running these contests, you should volunteer to run one. What do you say?
Click to expand...

2 reasons first I enter a few of these contests and 2 I would be accused by certain people here fixing a contest because a friend I knew entered. Believe me when I say this. I will say this and have said this many times here so do not get the wrong idea. I will not run them but if there is a way I can help in another capacity I am willing to do this. I have offered my services here before. Will always do whenever I can.

Does this satisfy you and your group?? By the way do you have any input on the topic at hand about any of the contests?? Would love to see more people speak up and ask questions about the Bash or give some insight. That is what Mike is looking for. He is looking to add 2 new catagories or contests that have not been done before so it should be open for discussion and not shut down by one person because they say so. We use to be able to discuss things here more open.
 
Opinion's are encouraged, everyone's,you may end up providing the swaying factor in how we structure a contest. Dont take it personally if you have a different opinion than the others.This is not personal.
 
I would think we could structure the contest to accept all submissions, purchased and self cast. Have the folks identify which it is and publish with the photos if self cast or purchased. Award a grand prize for most overall votes and that pen is excluded from another prize for most votes on a purchased blank and another prize for most votes on a self cast blank.


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app
 
Kitless Contest Should Include Kitless Ballpoints

With regard to the Kitless Contest ....

In my opinion this contest should include ... explicitly ... all three types of pens we commonly seen presented on IAP ... Fountain Pens, Rollerballs, AND Ballpoints.

I mention Ballpoints in particular because in past contests they may have been overlooked, or, at least not explicitly mentioned as acceptable entries. . I remember one occasion when I felt I had to ask if it was OK to submit a Kitless Ballpoint design.
 
I personally don't cast any blanks. But there are several great casters here that do sell their creations. By saying who has done the casting, or where each blank has been purchased, we are giving credit where it is do.

I would like to see two 2 casting contests. One for pens (of any type) and another for other items made from resins. ie: bottle stoppers, seam rippers, handles for ice cream scoops, etc.

Like woods, no two castings are exactly alike.
Just my opinion.
 
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I will be running the advanced casting contest. CNC, Laser, and 3 D printing will not be allowed.1 entry per person. If you decide to enter a different item, as long as the photos have not been posted, you may change your submission. Along with pens, bottle stoppers and anything that you have cast will be allowed. I suspect pens will be the favorites, but to make the contest more exciting, it is open to all castings.
 
Segmented Pen Contest

I will be handling the

Segmented Pen Contest.

A rough draft of the rules and guidelines is done and is being reviewed.
They will be posted for comments and suggestions for consideration.

Save all your leftovers from every past contest project!!!
(Now there is a purpose for them) :smile:​
 
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