Huzzah for Boycraft – Flower Show Craft Success!

 

I noticed the Land Army badge symbol of the harvested wheat sheaf is picked up in the Land Girl declining against the wheat sheaf on the right. Unplanned!

A success for boycraft at my local village spring flower show!

My 28mm Bad Squiddo Miniatures WW2 Land Girls received Third Prize in the Miscellaneous (Adult) Crafts.

I was quietly pleased as it is  the first time I’ve entered, having noticed a lack of male competitors in many sections last year.  My Land Girls had good stiff competition in their Miscellaneous Crafts Class 96 against serious traditional crafts like stained glass  and felt art / making.

The Land Girls in preparation …

I wasn’t sure how a military subject would go down in the craft section of a flower show, so chose something appropriate to the  horticultural theme and the local area. I’m sure the local Land Girls came in for dances in our Village Hall, which opened like many after the First World War.

I wasn’t sure how my shiny gloss toy soldier painting style would go down, whether people would expect something more ‘Matt’ and earthy.

The judges wrote on the entry slip “So detailed and a wonderful sentiment. Thank you for entering” as I had personalised it as a tribute to Land Girls who served and trained in the area I live in. That’s good enough for me  – one of the judges got what I was trying to do.

To create a context for the women at work, I added some simple brown  felt strips over coffee stirrers to be the rows for spuds (potatoes) being planted.

It has been overcast and stormy, not the best weekend of constant light  for photography, but I wanted to photograph the figures in case they didn’t survive the hustle and bustle of exhibition outside of a display case.

My favourite of the figures, the Land Girl watching the sky for rain clouds or airplanes.

A previous blog post shows the Land Girls in preparation:

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/02/back-to-the-land-for-fembruary-2019

Annie Norman’s Bad Squiddo range of WW2 and fantasy females can be seen at
https://badsquiddogames.com/shop#!/Bad-Squiddo-Miniatures/c/20887901/offset=0&sort=addedTimeDesc

I’m already thinking about what to enter next year … maybe I will enter some quirky Prince August based 54mm home cast traditional toy soldiers?  Speaking of Prince August moulds and figures – Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Who knows my ‘Land Girls’ might flush out into the open a few more male crafters for next year? This would be great but also more competition.

Thanks to Marvin at Suburban  Militarism blog for his encouragement to enter this  mancraft into the flower show.

Blog posted by Mark, Man of TIN on  17 March 2019.