ABS Monthly Challenge-September

Pumpkin Harvest Necklace by Melanie Brooks Lukacs featuring beads from Earthenwood Studio, Marla's Mud, Golem Studio, and Captain's Clay, information available through FiredClayArtists.com

The theme for September's ABS challenge is When Beads Collide! The goal of this challenge is to incorporate the art beads of two or more artists into a single piece. Try mixing bead artists who work in the same materials, like in the Pumpkin Harvest Necklace above. Or use art beads of different materials to great interesting contrast, like in the Sunken Treasure Necklace below, which uses both porcelain and glass art beads.

Sunken Treasure Necklace by Melanie Brooks Lukacs, with beads by Earthenwood Studio and Cindy Gimbrone

Let your imagination and art beads collide to create the perfect union of art bead jewelry! Share your creation with all of us by posting your wonderful entry to our Flickr group. Our sponsor this month is Joan Miller Porcelain and Humblebeads. The prizes will be posted later this week.

The Details: This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc.

***Beads by themselves DO NOT qualify. Pendants need to be shown on a chain or cord to qualify.

***What is an Art Bead? An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not art beads.

How to enter: Submit a photo of an object you have created with art beads that fits this month's theme to the Art Bead Scene Flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here, and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group. If you can't upload to Flickr, send your entry and information to Heather.

Your entry can feature art beads created by you or someone else. Each entry has to have at least one art bead.Each unique entry that incorporates an art bead and the monthly theme will qualify for the drawing. The winner will be randomly drawn from all the qualifying entries on October 1st. Enter as many times as you'd like.

Please label & tag your photos SeptABS. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog or website, if you have one.

Good luck and happy creating!

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness!