These have been on my mind a lot recently for a whole wide range of reasons.

Mainly because it's that time of year where entrants into Bead Dreams are finding out whether they got into the final; entries into the competition I will judge are coming in; I've just written an article for issue 24 of Bead magazine about entering competitions, and I'm still mourning the loss of Step By Step Beads and their Bead Arts Awards.

I frequently try to enourage people to enter competitons, not because I love seeing beaders and jewellery makers pitted against each other gladiator style, but because I think it's great as a personal challenge and can be a great way to let the world know about your work.

I don't normally post when I plan to enter competitions, partly because some require you to keep your entry quiet and partly because who wants to have to post that you didn't get in?

But, after reading Louise Hill's wonderful post last year about her rejection from Bead Dreams, I realise that 1- if I am rejected I'm in good company and 2- there really is no shame in not getting into a final.

Also, in the last year and a half I have judged two competitions so have seen it from the other side.

For the first, fortunately, I only had a few entries to choose from (others had narrowed the entries down to those finalists based on their own criteria) and in the end, my final choices came down to which I felt was more wearable (which was what the competition was about). Did that make them "better" than the others?

The next competition was the British Bead Awards and here I (and two other judges) had over 100 entries to narrow down by photo and then 32 finalists we saw in person to chose our "top three" from and put them in order of 1st, 2nd and 3rd- not an easy task!

It made me realise just how subjective it all is.

Would a different mix of judges have come up with a different result? Surely the personal choices of each would change the results.

How about if the same entries came in this year to those same judges?
Would a years worth of life experience and seeing different work colour how we viewed the entries?

What if all entries were judged in person?
Work looks so different in real life and some photos weren't as good as others at showing the work. Would a piece have shone in real life when it didn't look so good in photo?

What if the judging had taken place at a different time out year?
The seasons, the colours around us, how hot or cold we were, our mood- would any of these have affected us?

At the recent Big Bead Show I got to see in person two of the most incredible pieces of beadwork I have ever seen. One was by Lynn Davy and the other was by another wonderful UK designer (staying anonymous for now). Both pieces (and their variations) absolutely blew me away with their cleverness, sophistication, beauty and skill.

I have just found out that only one of these (Lynn's) got into the finals of Bead Dreams. Does that make one worse than the other? or less deserving of an award? Not in my eyes. The work was amazing and if I had created it I would have been bursting with pride.

I have noticed this year more public posting by people about entering Bead Dreams and not getting through to the final- and I think it's great.

Some examples are:
Louise Hill's new post (I love that necklace and if I knew where Lousie lived, I think I'd be climbing through a window to steal it right now!)
Smadar's Treasures post.
A Facebook page for people who've been rejected to post their work and be proud of it.

I love people standing up and being proud of their work! Whether or not it reaches a final is more of a judgement on the judges and their tastes than the actual work. That doesn't mean their opinion doesn't count- just that it is one opinion, on one day.

Having said that, I am far too easily swayed by other people's opinions and take their comments to heart.

Many months ago two people told me to stop my geometric work. One said it had been done to death and one told me it was boring. The result... I stopped my geometric work.

But because it was all I wanted to bead, I ended up pretty much not beading anything.

Nothing else satisfied me and anytime I picked up my beads all I could think was "has this been done before?" or "is this boring?"

Not very inspiring!

Then I finally put thread to beads and came up with two projects I absolutely love- they are what I have entered in this years Bead Dreams contest. I finally felt I had my bead mojo back.

I have kept them fairly quiet up to now as the first person I showed them to burst my happiness bubble by telling me they weren't different or "wow".

Well- there went my mojo again!

Two weeks on and after much internal debate as to whether I should give up beading I have made the following decisions:
1- I will continue beading as I love it.
2- I will continue beading as I like what I make.

Some people who see my work may not like it and may be vocal about it, but I'm going to work hard on having faith in it myself and not compromising my work to suit other people, their opinions and agendas.

Read what Louise wrote- she's far more eloquent on the subject than I am!

Anyway- back to beading.

Here are some photos of one of my entries- hope you like it- or not- or maybe appreciate the work that went into them- even if you don't think it's wow.