The Ugly Necklace Contest - 6 Semi-Finalists' Page

Lori-Ann Scott
Spokane, Washington
"Sweet"
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...GO VOTE & EVALUATE...

HAIKU POEM

Sweet

sweet and tasty treat
forks delight just at the sight
hideous necklace

#2

Deborah Eve Rubin
Rockville, Maryland
"Ode To An Ugly Necklace"
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Ode to an Ugly Necklace

I think that I shall never see
A necklace, ugly as thee.

From trash cans and recycle bins
Some of your pieces come.
But as for many others,
I know not where they're from.

But is this really jewelry
Or just some base tomfoolery?
I've got the stuff on hand, you see.
I want to use it up.
Boxes full of this and that
I want to use it up!

Gottya! You expected a rhyme
But here there's no balance,
Here there's no time,
To ponder the perfect in poetry too,
I'm making a necklace, just for you.

With wires and beads, and chains and glue,
A nightmare-inducing necklace ensues.
A thing of beauty? A joy forever?
Well, maybe not -- just a tiny terror.

#3

Jolynn Casto
Logan, Ohio
"Four Season's Necklace"
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Four Season's Necklace

All the leaves are brown
and the sky is gray

Then the snow will fall
and freeze the ground away

As the weather warms in spring
the snakes and frogs will play

Summer finally comes
Is sunshine here to stay?

OH, NO
All the leaves are brown

The four seasons go round and round

In my ugly necklace
T hey can all be found.

#4

Sarah Allison
Gresham, Oregon
"Walk In My Garden"
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Walk In My Garden

In this delicate necklace,
I tried to recreate the beauty of a garden,
Full of bright blooms and fresh green leaves,
Leaving out the dirt and mess.

It seems that my black thumb
Comes out even if the flower is just a bead,
Because my garden is full of blooms that clash
And leaves that look kind of dumb.

Please don't walk among these flowers,
For you will crush them,
And be left with nothing but glass shards,
Stringing it together took me hours.

No, I didn't make it blindfolded,
But there were other distractions,
TV and Internet and other shiny things,
So that is where the blame should be holded.

Maybe someone will dig deep,
And see it's inner beauty.
If you want to wear it on your neck,
It is yours to keep.

#5

Juli Brown
RUNNER-UP
Wells, Minnesota
"Coffin Nail Necklace"
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Coffin Nail Necklace!

Cigarette smoking,
Crude, caustic & cancerous,
Taints Breath, Teeth, Heart, Lungs.

Second-hand room-smoke,
Drenches spider webs with tar,
Now shellacked Tar Phlegm.

Washed my smoky clothes,
And in the dryer they went,
Fur-Ball Hacker's Beads.

EXPENSIVE "Ciggies",
Coughin' nails burned down to butts,
Litter the ashtray.

Spurned disdainfully,
These shellacked & ugly butts,
Now are "Ciggies" Beads.

The Willow branch wreath,
Now a dried & woven noose,
Slips over the head.

Copper wire with beads,
An ugly pull-on choker,
Coffin Nail Necklace!

++++++++++++++++++++

#6

Lynn Margaret Davy
WINNER
Wimborne, Dorset, United Kingdom
"The Story of My Beading Life"
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The Story Of My Beading Life...

Unfinished objects - UFOs.
All beaders have a lot of those,
Enthusiastically started
Before you got a bit half-hearted.

I pick beads up, I start to stitch,
But just can't make decisions... which
Of all these beads spread on my table
Will make this cuff most fanci-able?

And so I put it to one side,
Leave it till later to decide,
Get out some other beads and things
And start a range of fancy rings.

...poem continues

Seventh Annual, 2009
The Ugly Necklace Contest
A Jewelry Design Competition
With A Twist

Visit the web-pages of each of our 6 The Ugly Necklace Contest Semi-Finalists.
Evaluate their images, their poem, and their materials and techniques.
Then use the on-line form you will find on each of their web-pages to Score them in terms of Hideousness, Materials Used, Design Principles Violated, and Artistic Control.
It's more difficult to do UGLY when you use smaller beads. You can award any of the semifinalists
extra points for using small beads, if you want, when you vote/evaluate on these on-line forms.
You can vote/evaluate each of the six necklaces, if you want, or just your favorites --
that's up to you. But all our artists would appreciate your votes and evaluations.

When voting closes, voting logs will be reviewed
for any duplicate or otherwise illegitimate votes
(for example, those from the same IP or email address), and these will be deleted. The on-line votes will be tallied and used to adjust the original votes of the Panel of Judges at CBJA, in the selection of a winner. The public's votes will weigh towards 25% of the final tally in selecting the Winner and Runner-Up.

And consider submitting an entry to next year's
The 2010 Eighth Annual Ugly Necklace Contest!
Entries accepted beginning Sept 1, 2009,
with the final entry submission date of Mar 15, 2010.

Now entries open to both US and International submissions as well. There are talented Ugly-Necklace Jewelry Designers everywhere!

Share your reactions, opinions and thoughts about our Ugly Necklace entries,
or about the Contest as a whole on our
Learn To Bead Blog.
blog.landofodds.com

ABOUT THE JEWELRY DESIGN CRITERIA USED TO EVALUATE THE ENTRIES IN THE UGLY NECKLACE CONTEST - It Ain't Easy Doing Ugly, or as my momma says, "Ugly is as Ugly does."

Summary of Adjusted Judges Scoring Criteria

ABOUT GOOD JEWELRY DESIGN
- Principles of Composition
by Warren Feld

Contemporizing Traditional Etruscan Jewelry
Next open jewelry design workshop:
May 22-29, 2010, Cortona, Italy

Toscana Americana has invited Warren Feld of Land of Odds and The Center for Beadwork & Jewelry Arts to lead this 8-day Jewelry Design Workshop. Enjoy the relaxed pace of Italian living with an in-depth educational experience on your sojourn to Cortona and the Medieval hill towns of Tuscany and Umbria. For both beginner and intermediate level beaders and jewelry makers alike.
Read a Narrative Summary of the workshop with links to more informaton about itinerary, supply lists, cortona, the hotel, and fees.

If you would like us to forward your comments
to any of our semi-finalists, we will be happy to do so.
You can send your comments to:
oddsian@landofodds.com

To add your name to our email list
associated with The Ugly Necklace Contest, send an email to:
oddsian@landofodds.com
and Write "Ugly Necklace Email List" in the subject line.

It's not easy to do Ugly!

Our 4 distinguished judges associated with
The Center for Beadwork & Jewelry Arts reviewed
12 Ugly Necklace submissions to our contest,
and selected 6 semi-finalists.
They rated each necklace using
10 jewelry design criteria. They examined the

overall hideousness of the necklace,

how clever were the materials used,

how the design of the necklace violated
good jewelry design rules associated with color, form,
balance, distribution of the elements, and focus.

They also looked at issues of
how the necklace was constructed
and its wearability, and

how well the accompanying poem
elaborated on the necklace and its ugliness.

MORE ABOUT THE JEWELRY DESIGN CRITERIA
USED TO EVALUATE THE ENTRIES