Bead Star is Out of This World!

"The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage."

~Mark Russell


{me and Tiny Dancer, a.k.a. my inspiration}

 Back in January 2010, my daughter, Tiny Dancer had the third grade solar system project come home. There was a sheet suggesting that stryofoam balls can be painted to the exact likenesses of their heavenly counterparts. But my children have learned that when the project comes home with a suggested material, they cannot use that for their project. They need to do more.

When my son came home with his solar system project three years earlier, he groaned and pouted but ultimately came up with using polymer clay to make swirling replicas of the planet. His entire Universe is housed in a shoe box and is one that we will keep forever {or until we need some extra cash and can auction it off on eBay to the highest bidder ;-}.

Tiny Dancer remembered the fun of the polymer clay solar system project and thought that she would get to use that same material to make hers. Nope. You guessed it. Not only could she not use styrofoam balls but she could not use polymer clay either. {I know. I am the meanest mom on the block.} I sent her away to think about it and about 20 minutes later she came bounding back in the room announcing, "I know what we are going to do for my solar system project... we are going to make jewelry!"

That's my girl! ;-)

So we each sat down to sketch out our designs, keeping in mind all the impressive things that we had learned about each of the 8 planets and the sun in our time researching. From the colors to the size to the number of moons and the rings, there were so many fascinating things about the planets to explore. Then we brought those sketches together and chose the best parts of each to come up with some final designs. We went shopping at Michaels. {It is quite incredible that so many of the beads we found closely resembled the planets}. Then we set about to make an entire solar system into necklaces that we displayed on black busts in a circle surrounding the sun.

If you want to see the entire solar system project, you can go to this post to see the pictures of all nine necklaces we made for the display.



As we were arranging the circles in the most pleasing pattern and opening jump ring after jump ring for the Saturn themed necklace, I knew that this necklace was special. So I asked Tiny Dancer if we could enter it into the Bead Star contest. She said yes.



{Isn't this cover piece AWESOME? Made by my friend Erin Strother
and totally worthy of the grad prize win!
And by the way...so many great friends are in this issue
...with so many exceptional designs
...and so many new friends yet to be made!}



I challenged myself to enter all nine categories this year {more for the personal triumph than anything else}. I was inspired by my dear friend Denise Yezbak Moore and her quest to enter all nine categories. That made me want to see if I could do that myself. I was fortunate to have three of my entries selected among the top 20 in those categories (pearls, stones, under $25). But the one that I am most proud of is the one that took 1st Place in the Under $25 category:

Icy Rings

If you voted this year in the contest {whether you voted for me or not}, I thank you. The fact that this entry was one of 1,000 to catch the editor's eye and garnered the most votes out of over 80,000 cast is quite an honor to me. But just showing up to play is the best thing about entering contests like this.

I believe that this piece may have won because it looks so much more stunning than the under $25 price tag. It is a statement piece, one that gets noticed when you wear it. I think the key to entering something in that category is to make something look richer than it is. And no, we are not selling this one, nor any of the solar system. They are too precious.

On Tuesday the magazine finally arrived. We have been sitting on this for about 6 months. So hard to keep that secret. I think that Tiny Dancer may have forgotten all about it! So I waited to open this with her. Her smile lights up a room and the wattage on this one was particularly bright. She is so proud of this accomplishment. Although for legal reasons they couldn't list her as the creator (since she is under 18), the inspiration for this piece was all hers and I have to give big props to Melanie Stafford and the whole Interweave crew for acknowledging Tiny Dancer {a.k.a. Olivia} in the small write up. I cannot take full credit for this necklace. I simply was the conduit to make it happen.

Needless to say, Olivia aced the solar system project.



{We did modify this slightly... we removed one little brown swirly bead that was inside one of the rings representing Saturn because we didn't think that people would understand that in the contest.
Sorry for the cockeyed scanning. Best I could do.}

And she's pretty stoked to share the Bead Star winnings with me.

How about you?

Any plans to stretch your creative wings and enter the Bead Star contest for 2011?

Or what other ways can you challenge yourself to try new things in 2011?

Are you considering new materials, new techniques, new directions?

Do tell!

Enjoy the day!