You know you’re a bead star—now it’s time to let the world know! How? Enter Interweave Press’ inaugural Bead Star competition. Winners will be published in Bead Star magazine, the first-ever beading publication comprised entirely of prize-winning designs selected by beaders worldwide! Besides fame, winners will also receive fabulous prizes, donated by our generous sponsors. What are you waiting for—let your inner bead star sing!

Deadline to submit images: May 6, 2008

Rules and submission information

Prizes are valued at over $12,000 in all!

What’s Up Wednesday!

If you buy supplies from Fire Mountain Gems, then you should seriously think about entering their contest! I did for the last two years, and won a second and third place in two categories. Not quite as nice as being the grand prize winner, but hey! There are brand new categories this year, but the closing date is earlier: April 15, so get moving. And beading! Here’s a link to all the information available.

From the website:

Gold medal winning designs in each category will go on to compete for the Grand Prizes and may be showcased in the following:

* 2009-2010 Jewelry Maker’s Comprehensive Catalog
* On our website
* Full Page ads in top industry magazines
* Supplemental catalogs

Your designs will be seen by hundreds of thousands of beading enthusiasts, along with your name and contact information, if you desire.

Oh, and monetary prizes too, good towards FMG products. That’s good too!

What’s Up Wednesday!

Belle Armoire Jewelry is published by Stampington as a quarterly magazine. The deadline for submissions for the next issue is April 15, 2008. From the website: If you’d like to share your inspiration and detailed how-to instruction for creating beautiful jewelry with readers, we want to hear from you. Belle Armoire Jewelry covers a broad range of mediums, from art clay to polymer clay to found object to fiber to wire to beads and much, much more. Whether you are a creator of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, brooches, pendants, rings or other jewelry, we welcome you to submit your artwork for consideration of publication.

Please read submission guidelines before sending your submissions to: Stampington & Company · C/O: Belle Armoire · 22992 Mill Creek, Suite B · Laguna Hills, CA 92653

Deadline for entries: MARCH 1, 2008
(All materials must be received by then; a postmark will not suffice.)

Entry fee: $25 per entry

Categories:

* Bracelets
* Earrings
* Pendants/Necklaces
* Pins/Brooches
* Rings
* Miscellaneous Jewelry

Entries:
Must be slides of finished jewelry along with a copy of your submitted electronic entry (available online here). Each entry must be submitted separately. Entries will not be returned.

Submission information is available on the Jewelry Artist website.

What’s Up Wednesday!

It’s not that easy to do ugly. I mean to do really gut-twisting ugly.

It’s easy to make a necklace that isn’t that great, but how about to make one that breaks all the rules of good design and leaves your viewer feeling squeamish? I can’t show you a picture of my entry from last year here, because I used plastic vomit as the base. If you’d like to see it, it’s on their website as a semi-finalist from 2007. It’s called “Queasy”, and you’ll have to scroll down just a bit. You’ve been warned!

The Land of Odds has been sponsoring this contest for 6 years now, so there are plenty of…wonderful?…examples of ugly art to look at to inspire you. But please, enter this fun contest and see how hard it really is to do ugly! All the information you need is here. The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2008. Here’s last year’s winner to get you going:

Julia Vogl