Challenging Events

An Ohio Beaders Challenge is not a contest or a swap. Rather, it is a call to members to engage in a jewelry making related undertaking that is a personal test of one's abilities or resources and is demanding but stimulating to those engaged in it. The purpose is to stretch your creative limits and encourage you to make something you may not make otherwise. Challenge photos from our most recent challenge will be posted soon in the Ohio Beaders Showcase. Photos from past challenges are already there.

The challenge, "What Was Old is New Again", ran from May 15 to July 15, 2011, and our pieces had to be made during that period with photos and descriptions of the completed pieces turned in by July 15th – no “dog ate my homework” stories accepted. ;-D For this challenge we could make jewelry, accessories or home décor but the focus of each piece had to be something at least 20 years old, although the supporting beads or wire could be new.

When my mother passed away, I found a 3¼” long, vintage "Evening In Paris" perfume bottle from the 1950s among her toiletries and immediately knew it had to be the focal element of a piece of cobalt and silver jewelry. Then when this challenge came up I knew just what I wanted to make.

The cobalt colored Swarovski crystals and silver lined cobalt glass seed beads are perfectly set off by the silvery palladium plated glass seed beads and the hand crafted Bali Silver clasp. There is actually some perfume left in the bottle, so I taxed my engineering skills to devise a method of attaching it in such a way that you can still remove the lid if you want to.

Right now the theme for our next challenge is being chosen, so stay tuned for more challenging events...