Fashion Colorworks 2010. Winners !!!

The first international Fashion Colorworks 2010 Beading Contest is over! We would like to say THANK YOU to all entrants, jurors, and sponsors who helped us make the contest successful. 83 participants from 20 countries submitted 132 entries! Today we celebrate our bead holiday together, with our winners, all participants, jurors, sponsors, and bead lovers. In general, we reached our goal and feel happy! We are looking forward to seeing all of them in 2011 and hope that the next year contest would attract more artists!

FASHION COLORWORKS 2010 BEADING CONTEST. WINNERS

FIRST PLACE WINNER
Olga Vinnere Pettersson, Uppsala, Sweden
vinnere.pettersson@gmail.com
mamma-foxan.blogspot.com

Legends Of Lothlorien Necklace

SECOND PLACE WINNER
Evgeniya Semina, Orenburg, Russia
semmenity@mail.ru

Waltz Of Flowers Tiara

THIRD PLACE WINNER
Larisa Berenshtein, Ramat Gan, Israel
med55-55@mail.ru
beautiful-beads.livejournal.com

Midday Set

PEOPLE'S CHOICE
Alexandra Sydorenko, Cherry Hill, NJ, USA
alexander_sydorenko@hotmail.com

After The Rain Set

BEST USE OF COLOR
Tatiana Naumchik, Astana, Kazakhstan
kleo62@mail.ru

Spring Tenderness Necklace

BEST USE OF MATERIALS
Viktoriya Katamashvili, Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia
vikka.nn@rambler.ru
master-raduga.nnov.ru/katamashvili

Hope, Footsteps On The Sand Set

FASHION COLORWORKS 2010 BEADING CONTEST. WINNERS

2009 Bead Dreams Blue Ribbons

Sara Hardin from Phoenix, Arizona, has posted a video on 2009 Bead Dreams Blue Ribbons.



Congratulations to all winners!

Process pics. Midnight Flowers

Once a friend of mine who is hooked on making dichroic glass gave me a few cabochon-like articles. The idea of my future creation came to me immediately when I took those beautiful pieces of glass sparkling with different colors. Far more precious than a handful of loose diamonds, I decided that it should have been something night, mysterious and enigmatic...


I added to dichroic glass cabochons seed beads, bugle beads, accent beads, Swarovski crystals, Czech crystals, faceted black onyx rounds, and almost black dyed freshwater pearls.


The most painful work was to bead around cabochons because their shape differed from the shape of regular cabochons with sharp edges. I applied on the necklace my lovely Russian leaves and three-dimensional flowers of different colors with crystals and pearls in the middle. I filled the space between flowers with coral-like branches, and the necklace seemed to be finished. My friends told me, "Great work!", but I felt not satisfied, and put my creature aside for a while.


Only in about a month I realized what else needed to be done! I added the third layers to the middle bottom flowers and covered a little bit cabochons with the coral branches, it was the last touch!


Midnight Flowers was submitted to the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads 2008 Beading Contest held by FMG (Seed Beads Category) and won Judge's Favorite Award. Here is the full slide show of creating my necklace:

Midnight Flowers

Process pics. Mermaid's Garden

"Maybe it was a dream about summer? The bright, golden sun and rich clear-blue sky embraced me with their tender warmth," those were my muses on the creation of my lovely seed-bead necklace Mermaid’s Garden.


Probably for the first time I have tried to combine a blue color scheme with copper-lined seed beads. I felt that choosen materials will allow me to achieve at once the cool touch of the ocean with the warmth of a summer sun!


I have woven a base using netting stitch, and created a lot of leaves of two colors, my favorite components.


The finishing touches were created with freshwater pearls and aquamarine gemstone chips – perfect for a maritime theme.


Mermaid's Garden is 2008 First Place winner of the "Your Designs Rock!" Jewelry Design Contest held by Rings & Things magazine (Glass Category). Here is the full slide show of creating my necklace:

Mermaid's Garden

Celebrating Beads, the journey of... Pictures

At last! A week ago I had a chance to go to the Bead Museum in Washington, DC and to see all winner items of the Celebrating Beads, the journey of... contest. I tried to make some pictures but it was pretty hard using my old camera.


All items were in cases, and the light in the room wasn't bright, so I had to use flash on my camera, that's why the pictures are of such quality... Anyway, my husband and I enjoyed watching all amazing works live! I'd like to congratulate the winners, the finalists and the participants of the Celebrating Beads contest, I know many of them, and to wish them all best of luck!


Slide show: Celebrating Beads Winner Items

Celebrating Beads, the journey of... Bead Gala

Celebrating Beads, the journey of... First Annual International Juried Jewelry Design Competition is over, bead artists from over 14 countries and 33 states participated in the contest. The culmination of the competition was The Passion for Beads Gala held at the Naval Heritage Memorial Center in Washington, DC on Saturday, September 20th, 2008. There I met one of my readers - The Lone Beader, and I was happy! We talked a lot and we are like old friends now!


The Lone Beader, an extraordinary bead embroidery artist from Boston, MA, and me

It was really exciting event, where the contest winners were announced, and the World Premier of Diana Friedberg's final documentary in her award winning series World on a String, Part V: A Passion for Beads took place. This documentary features bead makers and jewelry designers from around the world and was the perfect touch for that evening Celebrating Beads and the designers who make and use them.


Rafael Matias, California, USA, a guest artist from the documentary

I met many wonderful people at the Gala: four of contest jurors, editors from two national beading magazines, and a lot of contest participants. It was my first such an event, and I can say that the entire experience was necessary, fun, and interesting.


Slide show: The Passion for Beads Gala

First Place in 2008 Celebrating Beads, the jorney of... contest!

WooooooooHoooooooo!

Last night at the Bead Gala in the US Navy Memorial and Naval Heritage Center in Washington, DC my necklace Mid Summer Night's Dream was announced as the First Place winner of the 2008 Celebrating Beads, the jorney of... International Juried Jewelry Design Competition (seed bead category)! I'm happy! :)

Fire Mountain Gems and Beads 2008 Beading Contest

FMG 2008 Beading Contest winners were announced a couple of weeks ago. Not gold, not silver, not bronze, I got just Judge's Favorite Award for two necklaces (Midnight Flowers and Shahrazad), and Golden Rose Necklace made FMG final.

Here are the links to these items:

Midnight Flowers Necklace
Shahrazad Necklace
Golden Rose Necklace

2008 Bead Dreams. Pictures

People say that the Bead & Button Show is the most popular bead show in the whole world. And they are right! Students and exhibiters from more than 30 countries came this year to the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was a full week of beading, jewelry making, shopping, and talking about beads.

The main event of course was the Bead Dreams exhibit. Works of all finalists were on display in the show’s lobby area. The winners in six categories received award ribbons and the outstanding piece among category winners received a Beast in Show trophy

There were two additional displays this year. One was the Japanese exhibit which presented the top award-winning pieces from the beadwork and jewelry contest held in the Hakone Open-Air Museum. The other one was the Out of the Box exhibit of glass beads.

Bead Dreams 2008 pictures

Oh I say!

The saga of the missing gemstones continues - day 7 and counting :( The above pendant was made with my rather large already collection ;) Wire shaped into this leaf shape and wire-wrapped gems oxidised and hand-polished.
Guess what I have won something - I don't win much if anything but I had a comment left by the lovely Cindy of Jewellery Tales telling me I was a winner and woohoo HERE I am! Winning Art bead Scenes prize is fantastic - I'm so excited!! Many of you may remember seeing Trelissick on my blog a few weeks ago - although now she is in a new home!

The above necklace is Baltic Amber - this is the most fantastic Amber I have ever had the privilege to hold or even work with - the organic nature is perfect to me - and I kept this design simple - who need to complicate such beauties?? The beads are incredible and I finished her off with a pretty sterling silver leaf clasp.

Have a good evening