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Beadwork – Various Publications & Awards

When I got interested in beadwork several years ago, I found myself becoming immersed in the design end of this genre. I found it much more fulfilling to create my own ideas than to follow the lead of others. As such, I have created literally thousands of jewelry items that are each one-of-a-kind. Over the years, my work has been featured in various beading publications and I was the first featured artist on the nation’s leading bead supply website (Fire Mountain Gems). They have also featured many of my pieces in their catalogs and in full-page magazine advertisements.

I have won some awards in the beadwork genre, although with such limited time availability, I haven’t actually entered many pieces in any kind of competition. Just for fun, I entered 3 pieces in the Kentucky State Fair in 2005, and I received (A) First Place in the Fine Arts Division (this same piece was later featured on the Beadwork Magazine website), (B) Second Place in the Jewelry Division, and (C) First Place in the Polymer Clay Division. I was excited that each one of my pieces won a prize.

I have also received various awards in competitions held by the Fire Mountain Gems company, but since my work has been featured by them so much in so many situations, I no longer feel comfortable entering any of their contests. I fear that people might think I have an unfair edge, although I have never seen that in their judging. Still, I think it is best to just “sit it out”.

Some of my beading tips, a couple of my original design patterns, and several of my finished pieces have been featured in Bead & Button magazine. I was especially proud that the original Halloween amulet bag design that I created for my mother (for her Halloween birthday) was published, and that I was able to include a tribute paragraph to her. This same design has been published recently in a beadwork design book. The only thing that disappointed me was that they failed to include a photograph of the finished piece. I feel that it is always beneficial to include a picture of the finished piece with the graph, as the actual piece shows the dimensionality, color saturation, and also embellishments, such as fringe, that are not shown in a graph.

Listed below are some of the publications in which my work has been featured. This list is actually incomplete, as I never did keep an actual record of the items. If or when I come across more of them, I’ll add them.

(1) October 2012, “Bead & Button” Magazine

(2) 2010: “The Big Book of Beading Patterns” – Kalmbach Publishing

The photo below was taken by my mother, and is of the actual amulet bag that I beaded for her from my original design graph. You will notice that the back of the bag is different than in the graph I designed . . . that is because I customized the back of the piece I beaded for my mother, and I knew that other beaders who created this bag would want something universal in design for their bags.