Monday, March 24, 2008

Beading Challenge Results!

Okay this is what everyone has been waiting for. A big thanks again to SantiamDesigns for providing the beads for this challenge and shipping them to all of us for free. I have heard from more than one person who did this challenge that is was a bit difficult to decide what to do with these beads. They are as small as they look ha ha! A lot of the designers had never or very rarely used beads this small. We were able to use our own findings as long as the beads that were sent were the main part of the design. I did my design on paper the day I got the picture of the beads because I didn't want to see what anyone else had done. I wanted to go into it without everyone else's ideas in my head. I am going to list them in the order that I received the pictures and I will be putting a link to each persons shop with their name. I had a lot of fun with this and I think everyone else did to.

StonesandStarlings








EarthlyCreations







Studiohart









melaniehazen








DesignedbyLucinda








byrobinlynne






virtuallori








SilverRiverJewelry








blackcoral








sleepingcatbeads










beadymonkey






TeaguesBeads








Okay so I really tried to get these to line up side by side so people wouldn't have to scroll down the page too far but I am not that good at hotmail so this is as good as it gets. I find this whole thing fascinating as there are some that are very similar and some that are very different. And nobody had any idea what any one else was doing so there was no way they could have copied or not copied any designs. I would love to have comments on this contest and maybe people will realize that for the most part if you see a design that is similar or even almost exactly the same as yours, chances are good that they didn't copy they just think like you do.

And as Cindy said " the challenge is a great way to make us designers maybe have to think outside of the box and stretch ourselves..."

I also got lots of comments that this was just a fun thing to do and I think sometimes we get so caught up in selling (which isn't a bad thing, let's face it, we would all love to make a decent living at this) that we forget why we started doing this in the first place. At least for me, get a huge amount of satisfaction and joy out of a piece but sometimes in between the picture taking, the constant promoting, listing and just regular life I can sometimes lose that sense of satisfaction. And while this is a type of promotion it was a lot of fun to do and there was that anticipation of the beads arriving and now the fun of seeing what everyone has come up with.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, I think that all entries are different enough that no one could say someone copied. Everyone's entry shows an originality that is amazing considering they all used the same beads.

I am proud and happy that I was able to take part in this challenge. Thank you!

Phyllis/EarthlyCreations

Anonymous said...

Oh wow! I think each one of us managed to make the beads *our own*.

Interesting results!!!

Alicia said...

awesome results I hope I can get in on the next challenge

Anonymous said...

I love all the designs - they are all unique! Silverriver - is there any way you could change the first pic on my entry to the "big" picture of the same view instead of the teeny one? Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

This was a blast, and I love seeing all the different designs folks came up with.

Thanks for including me! BeadyMonkey!

virtuallori said...

Wow -- some similar, but ultimately all were different. Thanks so much for letting me "play."

Anonymous said...

Nice work! They look great and it's really fun to see what everyone designed!

Rachael Shankman said...

Very cool results! Fun to see what everyone did!

Artisticle said...

very cool designs!

Tizzalicious said...

This is so cool :D I really like everyones entries!

Anonymous said...

They are different, but I can see where if they'd just appeared in someone's shop that someone else could say, "Did they riff that off mine, they're kind of similar or that one part is almost identical." It's a good lesson!

Love the variety and the surprise of several people using copper. Beautiful and unexpected (to me)!

I also love that within this variety that there are clear stylistic differences. I can point to every pair and think, "This is what my friend Kat would wear. Those are my sister's style. My niece would love that pair."

Robin Lynne said...

How neat! This was super fun and very cool to the results.

YadaYadaYada said...

As a judge for this contest, I vote as follows:

First Place: StudioHart wins for most unique and eye catching.

Second Place: SilverRiverJewelry for most creative and technical.

Third Place: blackcoral for best mix of materials.

Fourth Place: StonesandStarlings and sleepingcatbeads tie for most use of the beads.

Good job everyone! I had a tough time judging!

Anonymous said...

A fantastic challenge and great results. I have really enjoyed reading about this!

Pippa / pipsjewellery

marelle said...

Best Use of Beads: Sleeping Cat Beads
Most Original Design: Beady Monkey
The two designs that are the most similar: Designed by Lucinda and Teague's Beads
Thank you for this opportunity to participate as a "judge". I was most interested in seeing the distinct individuality even when similarity existed.
Marilyn

Anonymous said...

Due to the fine quality of the designs, this was much harder than I thought it would be to judge.

best use of beads
BeadyMonkey and StonesandStartlings

most original design
melaniehazen because she transformed the beads into an integrated design where you're not as aware of the individual beads as you are of the whole piece

most similar
Earthly Creations
Designed by Lucinda
TeaguesBeads

oh my said...

thanks for having me as a judge. Her are the catagories you asked for:

best use of beads:
melaniehazen

most original design:blackcoral

two designs that are the most similar:
DesignedbyLucinda
TeaguesBeads

Unknown said...

these are so pretty!
none of them look similar at all.

andrea said...

I had a blast making the earrings and was so excited to see what everyone came up with. I love them all and really appreciate each person's stylistic differences. Oh, and my earrings sold the day after I listed them! Thanks for letting me join in the fun! Stones&Starling