Judges Results for Beading Challenge 1

Okay so here is what the judges had to say about our entries. Keep in mind that there is no prize and the reason we started this was in response to the massive amount of threads on Etsy about people copying other people's designs. We wanted to see what would happen if 12 people recieved the same exact beads and how similar or different the earrings would be. You can see the results in my previous post.

EmmaRoseJewelry
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."

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

YadaYadaYada
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!

Marelle

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


The House of Worn
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

As you can see there were several designs that were very similar and several that were completely different. No one saw what the other people were making including me (I made mine before all but the first design picture was sent to me. And I had already sketched out my design at that point. This just goes to show that at first glance something may indeed be very similar or even almost an exact copy. Before we jump to the conclusion that someone has stolen our design or copied us, maybe we should slow down and realize that it could just very well be a coincidence and the fact that the other person may just think like you do. I am not saying that copying does not happen because we all know that it does. I am just saying that you need to thoroughly investigate the issue before jumping to conclusions.

Stay tuned for Beading Challenge 2. We will start this on Friday, March 28th at 1pm Eastern Standard Time. This contest will be open to the international community as well and DesignedbyLucinda is providing the beads and shipping this time around.