Hooray! We have our winners!
1st prize goes to #8 from Valera Todd
2nd prize goes to #13 from Cheryl Colville
3rd prize goes to #7 from Barbara Zaner
Thanks so much to all of our challengers for sending in their lovely work. It take courage to enter these contests and I salute all of you for doing so. Congratulations to our winners, your gift certificates will be email to you shortly.
Thanks to everyone who entered their beautiful pieces, and for those who voted as well. We will print out and verify the votes and total them up and announce the winners tomorrow! Stay tuned!
#1 - From all the dresses I saw at the Oscars this year I was inspired by Penelope Cruise’s grey elegant dress. I designed an asymmetrical necklace with cabochons, and positioned the cabochons in my drawing, interlocked with beaded “pipes” full of pearls. The necklace catches the neck and values the cleavage underlining the simple elegance of the dress and catching the eyes. The glamour of the necklace is given by the design and especially by the shiny and elegant mother of pearl cabs.
I created a “Medusa” necklace beaded with Miyuki seed beads and mother pearl flat beads and pearls. The Medusa body is tentacled and the flat mother pearls are cabochon encased using the chevron style. The “lace” is beaded with round mother pearls, in a chevron variation technique. The upper side of the laces are beaded also in a chevron style and grey organza is woven in. Dimension: 16 x 14 cm; 46 cm around the neck.
Here is my website: http://www.spiraldesignjewelry.com/jewelry/necklaces/medusa-necklace.html
#2 -
I designed this necklace for strapless dresses. It was used at a bridal fashion show and totally completed the gown. When I see a lady in a gown with hardly any jewelry I really see the outfit as incomplete. I feel the right pieces of jewelry compliment and complete an outfit! www.jazzyjewelzbynancy.com
#3- I was inspired by the classic design of Natalie Portman’s necklace. Using triangle seed beads and 15/0 silver makes my piece casual enough to wear everyday.
#4 -
I was so excited to learn about the challenge with Oscar theme! I have decided – for the first time – take part and submit my piece of jewelry! I just could not pass such a theme! I’ve looked at MANY photos from this year’s awards ceremony and from last year.. and even though there are some nice pieces of jewelry, the thing that inspired me in the end was.. the Oscar “himself”.. him and red carpet! I think there are not enough rubies at the celebration.. I mean, seriously.. sparkly red in gold – what can be more festive than this combination of colors! So rubies (Swarovski’s Siam red bicone beads of 4 and 6 mm) and gold (Toho seed beads in 2 different “gold” colors, ##15 and 8) were used to make my Oscar Inspired Necklace which I called “Down the Red Carpet”. It is simple yet it stands out. I can only imagine how fabulous it would look on some brunette! Oh..
So whether I win anything or not – it does not really matter as I think I’ve already won by having such a good idea for my necklace! Thank you for this challenge! www.moussycrafts.etsy.com
#10 – How it came together: I watched the Oscars and loved the purple and silver of Maya Rudolph’s gown. The next morning I grabbed various purples and some silver links I had hanging around and had been wanting to work with. I started making peyote rings to link them together, bezeled and embellished an amethyst rivoli, and ended up with this! http://www.etsy.com/shop/onthepondcreations
#11 - The Black Mystic was inspired by an Alexander McQueen dress worn by Jessica Chastain on the night of Oscar. I was inspired by the elegant masquerade theme of the dress- a mysterious black with an intricate use of gold to achieve a classy yet vintage look.
Instead of using the traditional weaving method, the necklace rope was executed with the” herringbone twist”, using size 11 (gilded marble black) seed beads which had an understated gold tone.
Furthermore, I added some matte gold fire-polished and triangular seed beads in between the rope to accent the gold tones of the piece. The rectangular shape toggle and frame pendant made the necklace more unique, in order to highlight the frame pendant, I suspended a black spinel teardrop inside.
www.days-wong.blogspot.com
#12 - My inspiration came from Alexander McQueen’s black-and-gold bespoke gown worn by Ms. Jessica Chastain during the Oscars in 2012.
Inspiration: “The Artist” – black and white!
My original peyote bracelet pattern (Ahead of the Curve) was published in Interweave’s Step by Step Beads in 2009, and I have since made my bracelet in MANY color and bead variations. But the idea of using only black and white beads intrigued me.
So like the movie, “The Artist”, I took something normally done in color and converted it to black and white. This version of my design is slightly wider than my original pattern and the triangle inserts are more dramatic. www.bylynette.blogspot.com
http://pinterest.com/bylynette/i-made-this/
#15 - I have attached 2 views of a necklace that I made primarily of Swarovski crystals. I was inspired by a necklace I saw on Amy Adams two years ago at the Academy Awards (which I attended). Her necklace was round and very colorful, however I love art deco and seemed to gravitate to this style to go with some of the incredible and simple black gowns. I have been beading for 4 years, have a website: www.beadartistrybynancy.com and have sold my work at craftshows.
#16 - I love to watch the stars sparkle at the Oscars only sometimes they just don’t wear any jewelry. But Keira Knightley wore a beautiful Victorian inspired necklace at the 2006 academy awards. It looked beautiful with her one-shouldered dress. I love the sapphire, emerald and ruby color combination accented by the clear crystals. The necklace is made using 12mm rivolis and 4mm crystals along with 2mm crystals for accents. It uses RAW as well as netting to make the elements with 11/0 and 15/0 seed beads.
#17 - A beautiful combination of Swarovski rondelles, sterling wavy disc and cultured pearls, stick and potato. The focal piece is a Crystal Quartz with sterling bead caps surrounding it. It is a beautiful piece that has the ability to pick up the blues and teals in your attire and show those colors as if it were blue or teal itself. The Swarovski rondelles have a hint of blue grey to them. It sits nicely right at the neckline and has a very regal style to it.
Please post a comment on this blog and let us know your favorite. Voting ends March 19th. Thanks to all the challengers! Also, please, one vote per person.
Check out our Oscars-Inspired Challenge on our Facebook Page: https://us1.admin.mailchimp.com/campaigns/preview?id=476481
The Oscars came and went, leaving us all with lots to say about the styles, jewelry and the show in general. Now, take your inspiration and create a piece to enter in our Oscars Challenge!
I invite you to submit a piece you have made that is inspired by something you see at the Oscars. It can be from this year or a previous year. It can include crystals or not, your choice of materials. It does not even have to be jewelry.
And, for one more day, well until midnight tonight PST, you can use this code: OSCAR good for a 20% Discount on everything on the website to purchase any supplies you might need, for the challenge or not, you can still use the code whether you chose to take part in the challenge.
To enter the challenge send a jpg of your submission to: pam@bellomodo.com by March 11, 2012 at Midnight PST. A description of what inspired you, and any info about the making of your piece will be posted along with your entry, and also include your blog or etsy address so we can direct our readers to your sites.
All entries will be posted on our blog, By March 15th, and we will ask the public to vote for their favorite. Prizes will be awarded as follows:
1st Prize $100.00 Gift Certificate
2nd Prize $75.00 Gift Certificate
3rd Prize $50.00 Gift Certificate
and, as usual the Fine Print about the code:
All codes must be used during checkout as we cannot apply it retroactively. The discount code is valid through midnight on Monday Feb. 27th, and you do not need to take part in the challenge to use the code.
A huge new selection of Long Magatamas from Miyuki Bead Co.
New 2012 Long Magatamas
Hooray! Congratulations to our winners!
Karen Williams won 1st place, a $50.00 gift certificate
#12 by Karen Williams 'Points Unknown'
Ellen Lambright won 2nd place, a $25.00 gift certificate.
#3 by Ellen Lambright titled 'Steampunk Challenge'
and Liz White is our 3rd place winner, a $25.00 gift certificate.
#11 by Liz White 'At the Bottom of the Ocean'
And finally, our random voter winner is: Susan Walters! We will be sending a $20.00 gift certificate to Susan.
Thanks to all of you who voted, and especially all who entered. Your energy and efforts are very much appreciated. Thanks for sharing your designs and creativity with all of us.
* If you are a winner please email me at: pam@bellomodo.com so that I can email your gift certificate to you.
The NW Bead Society from the greater Seattle area held a retreat recently (in November) and while at the retreat took part in a Button Challenge we sent them.
We included in the challenge kits a button we refer to as the Needlepoint Button. They have a grid of holes perfect for sewing or beading through. Also included were seed beads, findings, and Fire-polished & Czech Glass Beads.
13 people sent in pictures of their finished pieces, so now we need to select a winner! Please comment and help us choose. We will add up the comments and add them to the votes from each of us in the shop to select our finalists.
The contest will end Sunday night at midnight and we will announce the winner on Monday here on the blog and on Facebook. 1st place receives a $50.00 gift certificate, 2nd and 3rd place receive a $25.00 certificate each. Spread the word and help us choose!
The First photo is
#1 by Brenda Radford titled ‘Swirl’
#2 by Constance J. Mitro-Johnson titled 'Flower Garden'
#3 by Ellen Lambright titled 'Steampunk Challenge'
#4 by Debbie Zook untitled
#5 by Eileen Nelson Untitled
#6 by Kathy Pepp titled 'Rhapsody in Purple Bohemian Wrap'
#7 Jennifer Brown Untitled
#8 Margaret Brown untitled
#9 Catherine Numata 'Untitled'
#10 by Kate Parsons 'Jellyfish' Visit her site at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SilverCircleDesigns
#11 by Liz White 'At the Bottom of the Ocean' Visit Liz's Etsy store at: My etsy store is lizwhite.etsy.com
#12 by Karen Williams 'Points Unknown' You ca ncontct Karen at: blog: baublicious.blogspot.com site: skunkhillstudio.com Etsy: skunkhillstudio Twitter: @skunkhillstudio
#13 by Tamera Mickelson 'Untitled' You can visit Tamara's website at: http://javagoth.artfire.com
I realize that many people that come to our site are new to the internet, and I want to offer some information about how our site works to help make it easier for everyone to use the site to your best advantage.
First, you can rest at ease if you are in the USA as we currently ship free, though we are planning to institute a minimum $10.00 order to receive the free shipping in the future. Shipping for orders under $10.00 will be $2.00 in the future, the only exceptions are for items very large or heavy then we do ask for help with the shipping, but this only happens on rare occasions as most items we offer are not heavy. An example of an item that requires extra shipping is the Vagabond. And, if you are Canadian, regular shipping to Canada is only $1.00, a pretty good deal I think! International shipping is a base flat fee of $8.50 with more for heavy items. Insurance is optional, ask if you desire it, and we strongly suggest it for international orders. We cannot be held responsible for orders that go missing if they are not insured. We do use Delivery Confirmation on all orders.
The way we process payments is my next topic, something that seems to cause some confusion, so I want to clarify here. We use the highest method of security to process payments, that means no credit card numbers are ever stored on our computers. That is the way hackers get your card number, by stealing it from a merchant’s computer. It has happened to big stores, so we do not want to be a vehicle for some unscrupulous person to ruin your credit. All card info is sent scrambled directly to the main processor, and the order is charged at checkout. Most small businesses store the card information on their hard drives then send the info to the processor, and we find this to be unsafe, even for a few days as you never know when a hacker will get in. Our computers have no personal information of any interest to a hacker so even though we use Mac computers which have good security, we do not have to worry as your info is safely NOT on our hard drives.
All payments are processed when placed, all of your sensitive information, your card numbers, etc, go directly to the processors, and we never even see them. We can access the sale record on the processors website ( we use Authorize.net) which shows the last 4 numbers to process refunds if we need to but that is all. Doing business this way costs us additional fees if we refund, (and for that reason we generally prefer to add a credit to your account for amounts under $5.00) but we feel that the extra fees are worth the peace of mind. We get questions once in awhile about why we charge when the order is placed instead of when its shipped and I am hoping this answers those questions for you.
The next topic I want to address is Your Account. I want to encourage you to create an account, not for me or my business but for you. Having an account gives you access to your history, all the orders you have placed, what you paid, when it was shipped, where it is at in the process, and more information is available in your Account. You also have access to a Wish List, which is very useful to save items and for comparisons. You can add things you like or are interested in but don’t want to purchase at this time, or things you want to compare side by side. They will stay in your wish list until you either move them to your cart of delete them. And, your cart will be saved for you also, until you want to check out.
Next topic: How to add and update or subtract items from your cart. Once you have added a few items to your cart you may want to increase the number of an item you have in your cart, or delete something you have changed your mind about. To do this go to the Home or Front Page, and then click on Shopping Cart at the top right side of the home page. Once it is open simply change the numbers in the item box, or click in the small box to the left of each item to remove it, then click on the Update Button at the bottom of the page and your wishes will be followed through with. You must do any updating, adding quantities or deleting items from your cart before you go to checkout.
Checking out: Make sure that you want everything that is in your cart, and if there is anything in there you do not want or the quantity is wrong, go back to the front page and click on Shopping Cart and make the changes as discussed in the last paragraph. so now, you are ready to checkout! If you are not signed in the do so. Once in the checkout screen start at the top. If you have any credits on your account the first thing you will see is a line of text asking if you want to use your credit or gift voucher if you have a gift certificate. If you want to use it put a check in the box asking you if you want to use your voucher. You must check the box for the program to know you want to use it.
Next, are you using a discount code? If so enter it here and then click on Redeem. Once the screen refreshes, continue on to delivery address. If you want to send it to a different address than the one on file Click on Change Address, and follow the instructions, either select an alternate address already in the list or add a new one. Once done click on Continue, and you will be taken back to the main checkout page where you can select the Shipping Method. The free shipping is automatically selected but if you want Priority or Overnight change the selection to reflect your wishes by clicking in the corresponding box to the right of the type of delivery you desire.
Next choose the billing address in the same manner you chose the shipping address, and then enter the payment type. Be sure and click in the corresponding box that is all the way to the right across from the payment type. You must do this for your payment type to be recognized. Fill in the credit card info if you have chosen that method and finally add any comments you would like to send with the order in the comments box. View your order and if all is as you want it click on Confirm. Once you have done this the order will either go through and you will see a Success screen or it will throw the order back to checkout due to a wrong credit card number or address or something that needs to be addressed. Often if this happens a statement in red text will appear at the top of the page telling you what is wrong. In any event, if you have been returned to checkout be sure to check to see if all the proper checks are in the right boxes before confirming again.
We are always happy to assist and walk through the steps with you or answer questions over the phone or via email, just let us know how we can help!
We attended the Portland Bead Society Retreat, at the Tolovana Inn, in Cannon Beach, Oregon in early March. Our gift to the attendees was a selection of Lucite pieces from our collection, and we asked the members to consider entering a challenge to use the pieces to make something. We received two entries, one from and the second one from. Originally, we offered a $50.00 gift certificate to the winner of the challenge but since we only got two entries we have decide to award a gift certificate to both of them. Here are the pictures from both winners: Jennifer Gallagher who has this to say about her entry: My inspiration for this piece was a hat that was requested by a dear friend for her upcoming Hawaii adventure
My Etsy page is The Glass Stitch.
and from Merle Sherman, who had this t say about her piece: My inspiration to use these Lucite flowers for the challenge comes from a few different things. It is spring time and the flowers are just starting to unfold, flowers always make me smile. I love to bead and garden. My husband made the Opal spider for me for a special occasion. And Jenny Gallagher made me a most exquisite hatband using Lucite flowers. I have a large hat collection that is just yearning for decorations so I used these inspirations to start the creating. Thanks for the challenge, it was fun to do and fun to wear. I get a lot of positive comments when I wear my hat.
Congratulations ladies, thanks for sending in your entries, and enjoy your certificates which are being emailed to you today.
I had a lovely email last night, letting me know that Bello Modo has been selected as a finalist in the 2011 About.com Readers’ Choice Awards!
Take a peek! We are so honored to be included! Thanks to everyone who voted for us and moved it into the finals.
The About.com Readers’ Choice Awards recognizes the Best of the Best in products, services, and features as determined by the readers of About.com. This year is the biggest year ever for the Readers’ Choice Awards, and has expanded to include readers’ favorites in Beadwork!
Voting begins tomorrow, February 11, 2011 and continues until March 8.
Readers Choice Awards Finalist Badge
The link to the voting form is here:
http://beadwork.about.com/od/otherresources/ss/Vote-For-Your-Beadwork-Favorites-In-The-2011-About-Com-Readers-Choice-Awards.htm
We would be so happy if you would consider voting for us!
Thanks, Pam & Crew
