You may recall from last month that I was selected (by random drawing) to participate in a design challenge that lampwork artist Maria Grimes held this past month. Here's a photo of the bead mix that each participant was given. Under the rules of the challenge, participants were to use all of the beads in the mix, although they could add anything else they liked to their works of art (not necessarily jewelry). I ended up having a great deal of fun with this challenge and have to thank Maria for holding it. The contest portion of the challenge has opened (judging is by the designers themselves), so I can't disclose which piece is mine until next week. (Somehow, I suspect y'all will be able to figure out which one it is, though.) In the meantime, if you are interested in seeing the results of the challenge and the interesting, broad range of responses (designers created a lot of non-jewelry items, which I always like), please go here.
Last night I decided I had done as much as a I could with my contest pieces and started the submission process (which consists of an on-line form for this particular contest). Not having tried this before, I wasn't sure what to expect and ended up writing descriptions, techniques, measurements, etc., etc. on-line as I processed the form. I finished everything, which took over an hour, and pressed the "continue" button and, instead of continuing, the whole form re-set. Apparently, I took so long writing the answers to the questions in the application that my connection timed-out. I could have cried - I lost the entire application. By this point, it was 1am. I ended up taking the precaution of typing everything in a Microsoft Word document and then started over, but, oy, what a pain in the neck. I didn't finish until after 2am. The finalists will be announced at the end of the month. I really doubt I will make the cut with any of my pieces, though. One thing I learned in this whole process is that the gap between what I envision in my head and what I'm actually able to make with my hands is still pretty large. Sigh. Anyway, once the finalists are announced, regardless of what happens, I'll show you what I've been tearing my hair over.
Meanwhile, we're all enjoying being able to use water in the house again! The washing machine is currently running - oh, what a joyful noise. There's only one laundromat even reasonably close to our house, and it charges $4.00 for the use of one medium-sized, front-loading washer. The Short One loved putting all of those quarters in the machine for each load, but, me, I thought it was a little pricey.
Have a great day. Thanks for stopping by!
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