Fire Mountain Gems and Beads

Beading Contest 2009 Details

You supply the creativity, we supply everything else®

Fire Mountain Gems and Beads is looking for your entries that showcase your designer talents.

There is no limit to the number of pieces you may enter. The same piece can be submitted in two different categories and, when appropriate, Fire Mountain Gems and Beads can assign a third category. However, each piece can take a winning placement in only one category.

Design entries must be comprised of at least 50% of products purchased from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads. Each entry must include at least 50% of the product in the piece of the category in which it is being submitted.

First Place Gold medal winning designs in each category will go on to compete for the Grand Prizes and may be showcased in and on the following:

Your designs will be seen by hundreds of thousands of beading enthusiasts, along with your name if you desire.

Beading Contest Categories:

Acrylic and/or Resin Bead: Create fantastical jewelry designs with a wide array of acrylic beads in bright and fun colors. Acrylic beads are known as "the great imitators" for their ability to mimic natural and luxury materials.

Art Clay® & Metal: Indulge your imagination in creations with any of our precious gold and silver metal, plated metal, brass, copper, nickel, pewter, special findings, jeweled links, focal components, and chains or sculpt any one-of-a-kind jewelry or non-jewelry creation; use 99% silver or 100% 22Kt yellow gold Art Clay® for infinite creative possibilities.

Briolette & Faceted Drops, Gemstone and Glass: Delicate, faceted briolettes and glass drops are famous for their whimsical splendor. Choose from the wide selection of gemstone, crystal and glass varieties to create unforgettable pieces.

Cabochon: Choose any size or shape cabochon and embellish on or around it with sparkling crystals, seed beads and more for an out-of-this-world combination. Have fun and make a big statement.

New - Earrings: Take this must-have accessory to the next level -- in long, short, hoop, cluster, chandelier and every style in between. Experiment with different earring components for intriguing and new design ideas.

New - Findings: Let your ingenuity and creative innovation shine by using jewelry findings in unexpected ways. Experiment with findings such as clasps, scrimps, cabochon bezels, bead caps or crimp covers.

Freeform Expression: Unleash your creativity and express yourself in this category that offers you the freedom to create innovative, edgy designs. From jewelry to home décor, fiber art to functional art -- step outside the jewelry box. If you can dream it, you can make it.

Gemstone: Translate your design ideas into bold, colorful and glamorous statement pieces with faceted or carved opaque and translucent gemstone nuggets, chips, stations, focal components and pendants.

Glass: Calling all glass! Create masterful art and jewelry pieces with Czech fire-polished, Czech pressed glass, opalite, goldstone, rainbow "stone," bumpy beads, lampworked glass, liquid glass, dichroic glass and glass components ... the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Jewelry Maker's Comprehensive Catalog's the limit!

Jumpring: No longer just for connecting your jewelry, these rings ARE the jewelry. Use any color or size jumpring to create intricate chain mail and fancy chain designs.

Kato Polyclay™: A rainbow of opportunity awaits you... Create your own original jewelry and non-jewelry components using the finest, most colorful molding clay available.

Kids' Creations: A category designated specifically for the young designer-artists out there. If you are 15 years or younger, enter your jewelry and non-jewelry designs in this category - using any materials that inspire you!

Metal Beads and/or Chain: Take any metal beads such as Hill Tribes fine silver, pewter, sterling silver and vermeil and stretch your creativity to the limits for jewelry designs that will outweigh the rest.

Pearls, Natural or Created: Design an elegant or fresh and edgy piece using timelessly classical cultured freshwater pearls in any size, color, shape, component or finding.

Seed and Bugle Bead: Paint a picture with the smallest of beads, that is, seed and bugle beads. Design in a multitude of colors, styles, shapes and sizes.

Shell, Wood, Bone: Speak the ancient language of Mother Nature when you design with beads and components of shell, mother-of-pearl, quill, wood, bone, horn, encapsulated flora and fossil. (Please submit cultured freshwater pearls to Natural Pearl category, above).

Swarovski®: Create unforgettably spectacular, sparkling jewelry and non-jewelry designs with an array of Swarovski® crystal components and beads.

Turquoise and/or Coral: Whether it's Sleeping Beauty, stabilized, natural, chalk, simulated, reconstituted, resin or howlite if it looks like turquoise -- and has plenty of it -- it's in the right place.

New - Wedding: Go beyond traditional bridal jewelry and create one-of-a-kind wedding jewelry to be cherished forever. Creamy cultured freshwater pearls, Swarovski® crystal, colorful gemstones and more.

Wire Work: Get wired with sterling silver and gold-filled wire, color-coated copper wire, niobium wire, Wonder Wiggle Wire® and memory wire.

How to Enter the Beading Contest:

To enter, submit your design on an 8x10 color photograph or a digital file on a CD/DVD disc. Multiple designs may be submitted on one CD/DVD disc. Resolution must be at least 300 dpi. Email entries will not be accepted. Please do not submit your design photographed on a person. Please photograph the entire piece, including clasp or closure if applicable. Additional detail shots are permitted. Pictures and/or CDs become the property of Fire Mountain Gems and Beads; do not send the actual jewelry design unless requested.

For photography tips click here.

All entries must be received by April 15, 2009. We recommend shipping your entry via a trackable shipping method with delivery confirmation since Fire Mountain Gems and Beads is not able to confirm receipt. We also recommend insuring your package for the value of the contents. Any boxes or packaging materials received will become the property of Fire Mountain Gems and Beads.

Please make sure to fill out the entrance packet completely including: one release form, one contact information form and a materials list for each design. For minors, please include the account number through which the beads were purchased.

Download your Standard Entrance Packet here. Please make sure to provide a complete materials list and the category(s) you wish to enter for each individual piece.

All entrants 17 years and under must complete the Minor entrance packet. Download the Minor Entrance Packet here. Please make sure to provide a complete materials list and the category(s) you wish to enter for each individual piece as well as the account number through which the beads were purchased.

Send your photograph or CD/DVD to:

Contest is open to all Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' customers. Employees of Fire Mountain Gems and Beads are not eligible to enter.

Finalists will be notified by mail by 5/30/09. Finalist pieces must be received by Fire Mountain Gems and Beads for judging no later than 6/30/09. Entrants will be asked to sign a release form which will allow Fire Mountain Gems and Beads unlimited use of the photographs of the winning pieces, although submission will constitute agreement. Winning pieces will be returned upon completion of photography, approximately 2 months after receipt date.

We look forward to receiving your incredible creations!

Beading Contest Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: What is a briolette?
A: A briolette is an elongated, pear-shaped stone covered with bands of triangular or rectangular facets, usually with a pointed end and without a girdle.

Q: Is there a limit to the number of categories I can enter, or designs I can submit?
A: Yes. You can enter as often as you want and as many categories as you want; however, you can only enter the same project in up to 2 categories.

Q: What other items, if any, are allowed to be in the design if they are not purchased from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads?
A: If it's a bead or beading component, it must be purchased from Fire Mountain Gems or made by the artist. Other components, such as fabric, feathers, and items which Fire Mountain Gems and Beads does not sell, may be obtained elsewhere and incorporated into the design. At least 50% of the design, however, must be composed of product purchased from Fire Mountain Gems and Beads. When a piece is made by the artist, please note that on the materials list accompanying the entry.

Q: Can customers based in a facility enter?
A: Absolutely. Due to facility regulations, we may not be able to send the pieces back to the customer. Facility entries will be sent to a family member after photography, instead of being returned to the customer.

Q: Can pieces made with Fimo or Sculpey be entered in the Kato Polyclay™ category?
A: We are limiting entries in the Polyclay category to products made with actual Kato Polyclay™ available on our website. You may enter projects made with Fimo or Sculpey into any other category they may apply to, depending on what other Fire Mountain Gems and Beads products are contained in the pieces. If a design contains elements made from Kato Polyclay, you may enter it either in the Polyclay category or into whatever other category the secondary elements qualify it for.

Q: Is my child allowed to submit a design they created?
A: Yes. Designs by younger customers can be entered in the general categories or in the age-defined Kids' Creations category. However, the same guidelines apply for entering one piece in multiple categories.

Q: Do entries have to be original creations or can they be something that you make from a pattern?
A: Fire Mountain Gems and Beads prefers that customers enter projects of their own design. However, if you are using someone else's pattern, contact that artist and receive their permission, in writing, to use their design for the contest. Please include a copy (you keep the original) of that document with your entry.

Q: Why do you limit which components we can use in a Beading Contest entry?
A: Fire Mountain Gems and Beads limits which products can be used in contest entries for the benefit of our customers. Many of our customers like the pieces in the Beading Contest so much that they choose to make one for themselves. To assist in that, we request that the majority of each Contest entry be composed of products available in the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' Jewelry Maker's Comprehensive Catalogs. Designs may also contain "found" components or elements made by the artist themselves as focal interest pieces.

If you have a question regarding the contest, please send an email to: beadingcontest@firemtn.com