PRESS RELEASE –5/5/03
TOPIC: The Ugly Necklace Contest – Voting Begins!
May 6, 2003 thru July 14, 2003
----------------
WHAT:
The Ugly Necklace Contest
An annual jewelry design competition with a twist
10 Semi-Finalists Have Been Picked By A Panel Of Judges
Voting begins On-Line on May 10th, thru July 14th for the Winner and Runner
Up
Grand Prize: $992.93 shopping spree on Land of Odds web-site
Runner Up Prize: $399.07 shopping spree on Land of Odds web-site
More details and images on-line at:
http://www.landofodds.com/store/uglycontest.htm
WHO:
LAND OF ODDS (www.landofodds.com) with,
BE DAZZLED BEADS and,
CENTER FOR BEADWORK & JEWELRY ARTS
WHERE:
On-Line at www.landofodds.com
Physical address:
718 Thompson Lane, Ste 123
Nashville, TN 37204
Phone: 615-292-0610
Fax: 615-292-0610
Email: warren@landofodds.com
WHEN:
Voting on-line between May 6, 2003 through July 14, 2003
INTERESTED AUDIENCES:
Any artist, jewelry maker, beadworker, craftsperson who loves making and designing
jewelry.
Any person who loves wearing jewelry.
Anyone who ever made or received an Ugly Necklace.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR
INTERVIEWS:
Warren Feld and James Jones are available for interviews at any time. They
may be contacted by phone (615-292-0610) or email (warren@landofodds.com).
Warren Feld may arrange interviews with any of the 10 Semi-Finalists or 6 Judges.
All the 10 Semi-Finalists necklaces are on display at Be Dazzled Beads, 718 Thompson Lane, Ste 123, Nashville, TN 37204. 615-292-0610
FURTHER INFORMATION:
http://www.landofodds.com/store/uglycontest.htm
http://www.landofodds.com/store/uglynecklace.htm
http://www.landofodds.com/beadschool/
PRESS RELEASE:
VOTING BEGINS FOR THE UGLIEST NECKLACE IN AMERICA!
A Jewelry Design Competition with a Twist
It’s difficult to do Ugly!
So our hats are off, and we offer loud applause to the 10 Semi-Finalists of
The Ugly Necklace Contest. These 10 beadwork and jewelry artists have demonstrated
their talents and design skills. They have been judged by a distinguished
panel of six members at The Center for Beadwork & Jewelry Arts in Nashville,
Tennessee. Fifty eight (58) submissions were received from many states across
America between September 2002 and March of this year in response to a nation-wide
call for submissions announced in the summer of 2002. The judges reviewed
how well each submitted necklace met and then violated a set of ten jewelry
design principles. Based on this review, the judges selected the 10 best
designed, most hideous, yet still artistically and architecturally functional,
Ugly Necklaces in America.
Now it’s time for America to vote for the winner – The Ugliest
Necklace in America! The Ugly Necklaces of the 10 Semi-Finalists are on display
on-line at www.landofodds.com/store/uglycontest.htm . Visitors to the web-site
may view the necklaces, read the artists’ comments and poems they have
written about them, and vote for a winner between May 6 and July 14, 2003.
The winner will be awarded a $992.93 shopping spree on the Land of Odds web-site
(www.landofodds.com), and the Runner-Up will receive a prize of a $399.07 shopping
spree on the web-site.
Ugly Necklaces. You’ve seen them! Perhaps you’ve even worn them.
Perhaps you’ve been reluctant to tell someone that they were wearing
an Ugly Necklace. Perhaps you’ve hidden some of your own-designed Ugly
Necklaces somewhere in your bead room, studio or closet. Perhaps someone you
loved gave you a very Ugly Necklace.
The Ugly Necklace Contest is one of the many programs at The Center for Beadwork & Jewelry Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, that encourage beadwork and jewelry makers to test their design skills, and learn some fundamentals about jewelry design in the process.
It is not enough just to string a bunch of ugly beads on a
wire. As one entrant learned, when she strung her ugly beads together, the
final project was beautiful, and sold for $225.00, before she could enter it
into the contest!
It’s difficult to design an ugly piece of jewelry because your mind and
your eye won’t let you go there. As research into color and design has
shown, your eye and brain compensate for imbalances in color or in the positioning
of pieces and objects – they try to correct and harmonize them. You are
pre-wired to subconsciously avoid anything that is disorienting, disturbing
or distracting.
Because of this, any jewelry designer who attempts to achieve “Ugly,” has
to have enough control and discipline to override, perhaps overcome, intuitive,
internally integrated principles of good design. The best jewelry designers – and
in our case, those who can design the Ugliest Necklaces – will be those
people who are somehow very aware of what the rules of design are, and how
to manipulate them. Their awareness may be very strategic and conscious. Or
it may be intuitive. People who are clueless, however, will never succeed at
designing a necklace that is truly ugly.
To achieve a truly hideous result means making the hard design choices:
- Can I push myself to use more yellow than the purple warrants, and mix in
some orange?
- Can I make the piece off-sided or disorientating, or not have a clear beginning,
middle or end?
- Can I disrupt my pattern in a way that, rather than “jazz,” results in “discord?”
Adding to the fun, the contestant also has to create a piece of jewelry which
is functional and wearable. This is what sets beadwork and jewelry design apart
from other design arts. A piece of jewelry as art, (even Ugly art), has to
maintain its essence and purpose, even as the wearer moves, bends down, or
rubs against things. Jewelry is art and architecture in motion, often frenetic
motion. The pieces that make it up, and the techniques and designs which coherently
interrelate these pieces, must also anticipate this dynamic totality, as well.
Otherwise, the piece of jewelry becomes a failure not only as a piece of jewelry,
but of art, as well.
The Ugly Necklace Contest is an arena for budding and established beadwork
and jewelry designers to strut their stuff – to show how adept they are
at creating ugly-necklace-pieces-of-art. It’s a jewelry design competition
with a twist.
The finalists of The Ugly Necklace Contest are those beadwork and jewelry
designers who can best elaborate upon rules of design, whether intuitively
or strategically.
These rules of design are, in effect, an underlying grammar and vocabulary – the
theoretical and professional basis of beadwork and jewelry making as art,
not just craft.
So vote…. Go on-line, and surf to www.landofodds.com. Click on Ugly
Necklace Contest, and show America its Ugliest Necklace (and thus best
jewelry designer)
for 2003.
And if you are in the Nashville, Tennessee area, please stop by Be Dazzled Beads, where the 10 semi-finalists’ Ugly Necklaces are on display through September 15, 2003.
LIST OF SEMI-FINALISTS:
1. Kathleen Lynam, from Franklin, Tennessee, “My Ugly Necklace by Saddam
Hussein”
2. Tammy Hicks, from Old Hickory, Tennessee, “Flowers From Hell”
3. Vera Fox-Bond, from LaVergne, Tennessee, “Don’t Cry Over Spilled
Beads”
4. Melissa L. Kahl, from Divernon, Illinois, “Beauty”
5. Valerie Lehman, from Pawnee, Illinois, “This necklace is so tacky…”
6. Meagan Miller, from Taylorville, Illinois, “Everything You Need”
7. Anita M. Tidwell, from Scotts Hill, Tennessee, “The ugliest necklace
I’ve ever seen…”
8. Natalie Zurawski, from Springfield, Illinois, ”One of A Kind”
9. Nancy Rundhammer, from Apex, North Carolina, “Beach Combers Nightmare”
10. Robert De Luccia, from Ridgewood, New Jersey, “Ugly Truth”
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About Land of Odds,
Be Dazzled Beads, and The Center for Beadwork & Jewelry
Arts
At Be Dazzled Beads in Nashville, Tennessee and at Land of Odds on-line, accessible
from everywhere, you can find one of the country's largest selections of glass
beads, seed beads, delicas, semi-precious stone beads, cords, chains, filigrees,
sterling silver components, earring findings, pin findings, clasps, charms,
stringing supplies and more.
Land of Odds and Be Dazzled Beads provide the supplies you need for designing
jewelry, decorating clothing and costumes, or enhancing furnishings and decorative
accessories. A visit with us on-line is a perfect opportunity to settle in
with your computer, friends and family, have some fun, and indulge your shopping
pleasures. Each wonderful and imaginative alcove in our on-line shop is chock
full of interesting "what-is" and "how-to" information
and insights, as well as great selections of merchandise.
Land of Odds was founded in 1980 as a shop where antique lamps and furniture
were restored. We sculpted, detailed, painted, stained, carved, glued and did
whatever it took to return an antique to its original beauty and luster. Over
time, our skills evolved, and so did our medium. We opened a shop in downtown
Nashville, selling a wide assortment of jewelry making supplies, gifts, jewelry,
gourmet foods, and posters. In 1998, we decided to turn Land of Odds into an
internet-only business, specializing in jewelry making supplies. We closed
our downtown store, and opened Be Dazzled Beads 3 miles south of downtown Nashville.
Today, James Alfred Jones (James' signature name on his jewelry designs and
lampwork beads) works with silver, bronze, copper, glass and semi-precious
stones to create pins, earrings, bracelets, necklaces and objects d'art. You'll
find James' studio in conjunction with Be Dazzled Beads in Nashville. Warren
Feld manages the on-line and in-store operations for Land of Odds and Be Dazzled
Beads.
We also operate a professional beadwork and jewelry making school called The
Center for Beadwork & Jewelry Arts. We offer 80-100 classes each month
in various disciplines, including beadwork, bead stringing, polymer clay, metal
clay, wire work jewelry, silversmithing and lampwork bead making.
The public is always welcome to come by. And when you do, you might catch
a glimpse of our dogs, Rosy and Dottie. They are so smart, and love to
wait on
customers when we're busy.