BERRY ME IN BEADS ENTRIES

UPDATE: 6/16/10

There were 41 kits sold for this challenge. The bad news is only 10 entrants have sent in their jpgs for judging (due date was yesterday). Darn!!! I would have loved to see more projects!

The good news is, for those who have entered, the odds of winning a prize is darned good!

****I have asked my judges to send me their votes for the prizes by June 30. I will announce the winners on about July 2.****

Below are the entries for the Berry Me in Beads challenge. Each entry is numbered as I received them. Entries will be added as I get them, until the final due date of June 15.  The descriptions are by the beaders.

Click on the images for a larger view.

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ENTRY #1

Cuff

By Heather Bernard, Florida

This is my first attempt at bead embroidery over a brass cuff (I had to unbend the cuff a bit to get the entire cuff in two pictures). When I saw the kit, I saw bright, summery, fun things, with all the adorable lady bugs, bees, and snails. But as I kept beading, ripping out, and beading again, I found myself going more for the jewel tones. Somehow, the special beads and charms just didn't fit! It's not what I had planned, but sometimes, the beads just refuse to follow my vision. Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and I will do something cute and bright and fun with the beads I didn't use.

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ENTRY #2

"Mr. T"

By Kathy Kincaid-Middleton, B.C. Canada

Winner of Norm and Barney's Special Prize

This is "Mr. T" making away with the blackberries he stole from the neighbors! I collect chickens and roosters and decided I needed one that I had made to go with the ones I have bought! Was fun trying to see how many of the beads I could make work with Mr. T. This was my first beading contest and enjoyed it very much, thanks for the fun:)

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ENTRY #3

Bracelet
By Pearl Maish, New Mexico

 I remember back in the 60's and 70's when my kids were growing up, my girlfriend and i would take all the kids{9 of mine and 2 of hers} and go berry  picking, when we had 3 or 4 buckets, we would go home and make pies an lots of blackberry jelly.  the good old days.   Thanks again, I loved the project. 

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ENTRY #4

Bloomin' Berries
 By Cheryl Bernhardt, Wisconsin
Second Place

I FINALLY got a chance to sit down and finish my project.  I  have changed directions (and wasted a lot of thread...lol) four times during this challenge.  I think I just had too many distractions. LMAO!!!

Anyhow, I titled my piece "Bloomin' Berries" and I hope you (Norm &Barney) like it :)

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ENTRY #5

Dewberry Delight
By Janice Lynn, Texas
First Place

I enjoyed the Berry Me in Beads challenge very much. It is the first time that I have attempted something like this, and it was indeed a challenge! The first thing that came to mind were the lovely flowers of the dewberry brambles blooming near our house; their berries would tie in with the challenge theme beautifully. I headed out to get pictures of the flowers. While snapping shots of the dewberry flowers, a yellow zebra swallowtail butterfly caught my attention and I decided to include him in the piece. Having made several berries, flowers and the butterfly, the challenge became how to put them together in a manner that complemented each other. My butterfly is large and took center stage, but I really enjoyed making and placing flowers and your berries around the piece. As spring gave way to summer, my spring dewberries and butterfly grew into the center of the necklace, and summer flowers wreathe the peyote straps that fasten it together.

I experimented with several stitches and techniques, and the finished necklace uses your berry pattern, flat peyote, hexagonal netting, four drop peyote, russian leaves, swags, picots, and many different fringe techniques. I had great fun in adding leaves, snails, ladybugs and bee from the kit into the design, and the little gnome charm will help me find the loop closure when taking the necklace off!  The crystals, grape cluster beads and all the purple iris beads were great additions to the necklace.Thank you inspiring me to step out of the box and into the berry patch. It was a delightful trip and very educational for me.

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ENTRY #6

Norm's Berried Treasure 

By Sharon Wagner, Michigan

This was a great challenge!  I have to admit the creativity block ghoul was hanging around for a bit!  I was working on a couple of other challenges, so I let this challenge simmer in the back of my brain.  While I was working on the other projects I toyed with ways to use your berries, bracelet charms, vine covered necklace, brambles..??  I just was stuck.  In the meantime, my husband wanted to find a used bike to buy.  So one Saturday we wandered around looking for garage sales.  We didn’t have much luck, until I spotted an estate sale.  Wonder of wonders, my husband had never been to an estate sale so off we went.  That one led to several others, one used bike and some cool costume jewelry at bargain basement prices.  I now had a larger stash of old jewelry with plans to play with it eventually, I usually work primarily with seed beads.  “Eventually” came one night as I was lying in bed pondering your challenge.  I thought about all the fun I’ve had reading “The Cracked Bead”!  I’ve told your identity theft story many times over, however my delivery is no where near as funny as yours!  I thought about your sarcasm, love of puns, irony and your observations of the obvious things that unsophisticated people miss.  Then it struck me like a bolt of lightening!  My jewelry stash was “treasure” that was “buried” in other people’s houses, but now I had it!  Voila!!  The inspiration for my piece became “Berried Treasure” and finally in tribute to the latest shenanigans of Norm and Barney….”Norm’s Berried Treasure”!!  I hope you like it!

Thanks for this fun challenge and inspiration stretching exercise.  Oh, by the way, some times my inspiration comes from the very people around me, what they say, what they do and who they are!

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ENTRY #7

Berry, Flower Trellis Lariat
By Marty Measel, Florida

I finally had to use my imagination instead of  always looking 

at a pattern.   

I had several ideas,  but finally settled on the lariat.

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Entry #8

Coronado Honey
By Crystal Thain, Washington

I call this Coronado Honey because of the background bead colors and the bee.
 I got the hang of making berries, they're fun. I learned the hard way to finish the  start of the peyote before trimming strings. I plan when you do the next contest  to set aside 10-15 minutes each day to  work on my project rather than going - Aargh - I have to get it done now.

Anyway, I enjoyed it very much

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Entry #9

A Gnome's Favorite Place
By Gite Klughardt, Germany

Third Place

It was a pleasure playing aroung with your kit. I never saw before such a cute little gnome or either snails ;-))

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Entry #10

Berry Corsage

By Marilou Porth, Texas

I loved making the featured element.  I had berries everywhere--thank goodness they don't leave a stain if you sit on them!  

Berry Corsage is 2" x 3". I made about 100 addictive berries as I contemplated the design.  As berries are organic I decided to use them in a more or less natural setting...a corsage.  They are featured as the centers of  flowers made of Brick and Peyote stitches and provide splashes of color amongst the various leaves made using variations of St. Petersburg Chain. 

I would definitely participate again and love the challenge of working with elements and making them my own.