Bead Dreams 2009

I was trying to wait until tomorrow to post this, but I'm afraid I'm just too excited. I received a nice fat envelope from Bead & Button Magazine today in the mail. A fat one, rather than a thin one. (It reminded me of those days in my youth of waiting for a college acceptance letter.) So, I started hyperventilating a little and, okay, I might have ripped open the envelope.

It turns out my hellish days (see here) rushing around at the 11th hour to make the contest deadline were fruitful after all. I have made the cut for the finals of the 2009 Bead Dreams competition. I suppose if I were a more mature, sensible person, I'd wait until the contest were actually over first to talk about this, but, well, I'm not. My real(istic) goal has been to make the finals of Bead Dreams (I entered last year but was not successful), and I am completely thrilled to have made it. I actually leaped up into the air and did my happy Snoopy dance after reading my letter (the Short One was highly entertained).

Here is a sneak peek of the piece - it is a large belt buckle, entitled Natural History. This is new work whose design I have been working on since the beginning of the year. I'll post a complete photo later (addendum: I posted it here) with full description during the Bead & Button Show. It should be on display there in June.

Thanks so much for listening. If I told the Muggles (aka, non-beaders) about this, I would just get blank looks back, at best!