Thurston County Fair Open Class Home Arts Department
YOUTH DEFINITION & RULES
The Open Class Home Arts Department defines "youth" as anyone 18 years of age and younger.
Each youth exhibitor must have their own, unique Exhibitor Number whether or not they are assisted by an adult. Youth Exhibitor numbers should be followed by a "-Y."
For example: A1357-Y might be an exhibitor number for a youth whose last name begins with "A".
Exhibits entered in other fair divisions may not be entered in Open Class Home Arts.
4-H participants are encouraged to enter exhibits into Open Class Home Arts, but may not enter the same exhibit in Open Class that they enter for 4-H.
Youth can enter projects in any Open Class Home Arts Division and Class within the restrictions mentioned above. Bring your needle work! Quilt projects! Sewing projects (especially costumes)! And fiber arts like weaving, braiding, felting, and fiber sculptures.
🎉Exciting NEW opportunities for Youth in 2024!!! 👀
👉Open Class Home Arts Department is introducing a new class under Beverages Division (L) for non-alcoholic soda beverages! Non-alcoholic soda beverages must be made from exhibitor-made syrups - no commercial syrups or soda-beverage-making machines are allowed.
👉A Youth-Only class in the new Kitchen Arts Division (X) includes opportunities for youth to enter homemade doughs, slime, crystals, wave bottles, and other fun kitchen-art projects. Recipes for such projects can be found online.
👉The new Kitchen Arts Division (Division X) includes many types of projects interesting to prospective youth exhibitors:
- Decorated Cakes, Cupcakes, Cookies, and structures such as gingerbread houses or barns. This category was moved to this Division from "Baking." Build and decorate a gingerbread barn or beehive!!
- Dry Mixes-in-a-Jar such as cookie and cake mixes, cocoa mix, and soup mixes. Recipes for these dry mixes can be found online.
- Fancy Appetizers, Garnishes, and Snacks challenges exhibitors to present foods in fancy ways, use science to create fruit and vegetable garnishes, and show creative special-occasion snacks. Try searching online for "vegetable garnishes," "charcuterie trays," "dried fruit platters," "snacks for kids," and other keywords to find images and recipes. See if you can find a local business or class that helps youth learn how to make these projects!
- Soaps, Bath, and Body Products: making soaps, bath bombs, and lip gloss are just a few examples of projects that can be entered into this category.
- Kitchen Concoctions include play doughs, slime, crystals, lava bottles, wave bottles, sensory bottles, snow globes, and similar projects. Again, recipes and ideas for such projects are abundantly available online.
👉In the Baking Division (Division J), Class 5 (Cookies) now includes a lot for youth-only entries; this replaces the lot formerly known as "Partner" cookie baking.
We ask youth who are partnering with adult assistants for any entry to include the name of their assistant on their recipe cards or entry form.
For Kitchen Arts:
Each class in this division includes a special lot limited to Youth-Only.
In Class 3 (Fancy Appetizers and Garnishes), no eggs, dairy, fresh meats, or any other ingredients requiring refrigeration are allowed. But don’t let this stifle your creativity: substitutes such as cardboard, paper mâché, or clay that have the appearance of the intended ingredient are allowed.
Exhibits made from kits that supply ingredients and precise instructions for the finished product are not allowed in this Division and will be disqualified.
Recipe cards must be included for all Class 2 – Dry Mixes; Class 4 – Soaps etc.; and Class 5 – Kitchen Concoctions entries. Recipe cards must include:
- Exhibitor number (NOT name) in upper right corner of the recipe.
- Remember to list YOUTH and age as appropriate.
- Identify name of adult assistant when preparing your concoction(s)
- Name of recipe
- Source of recipe
- List of ingredients
- Procedures, temperatures, etc.