Bead Dreams 2010 Competition

After more than two weeks of waiting, which seemed like forever to me, yesterday evening I finally got a notification from Bead & Button about my first try in entering the Bead Dreams competition. I am disappointed, because my entries were not accepted... *double sigh*...
Congratulations to everyone who did make it to the finals! I can't wait to see all the pieces and I am sure each and everyone is a stunner! :)

I submitted two entries: The first is "Jerusalem" - a beadwoven necklace, made with seed beads and Swarovski crystals, and the other one is "Growing from Within" - a wire-wrapped necklace with Swarovski crystals.

 Jerusalem, Beadwoven Necklace

Growing from Within, Wire- wrapped Necklace

I didn't have too many high hopes as for the wire wrapped necklace (I have started working in wire wrapping only recently, but I thought I should give it a try), but I did hope that my beadwoven necklace would enter the finals.

I had the whole night to think about this experience. I realize that although I spent long weeks in designing and working on these two pieces (especially on 'Jerusalem') just to find out that they didn't make it to the finals - I don't regret trying to enter. I have learned a few important things about how to approach and plan a work for this kind of challenge and I have tested again my ability to work under time pressure (the wire wrapped necklace idea was born less than a week before the deadline). But good as this experience may be, it doesn't take out the sadness about not being accepted.

I remembered that Louise Hill, who is a creative, honorable, award winning bead artist and also a friend wrote about this rejection on her blog about a year ago. I read it again and it helped putting things in proportions... I remember Louise's words that she once wrote to me (reffering art in general) - don't let the rejection define who you are and what you do. Well, I am trying hard not to let this rejection influence me, my motivation and my creativity (I am almost done designing the last variation of a new beaded cabochon I have been working on in the past few days, so I am not letting this stop me now). I am not going to let this rejection change the way I feel about beadwork. I will keep creating what I love, whether in beadweaving or in other medium, and I will always try to do the best I can to be able to call my works "mine".

And I even think I would still like to try again next year. But in the meantime, as I said, I have a few projects in the works to finish (to be followed by tutorials). It's always been easier for me to "digest" unpleasant information or to think about problems while I'm beadweaving... and the Bead Dreams rejection is not an exceptional... ;)

Oh, and I want to say a big Thank You to each and everyone of you who took the time to answer the poll about tutorials here on my blog! About 70% of you said they'd prefer to have illustrations and that is exactly what you are going to get... a lot of them! ;) Thanks again!