"The Call for Artists: Ugly Necklace Contest - A Jewelry Design Competition With A Twist"
2004-09-22 until 2005-03-15
Land of Odds
Nashville, TN, USA United States of America

Yes, an UGLY Necklace Contest. Here's your opportunity to show your design skills, your visual acumen, your senses and sensibilities. Can you put together a well-designed and functional, yet UGLY, necklace? Can you beat out the contestants from the first and second annual contests?

The Third Annual Ugly Necklace Contest for 2005 is offering a first prize of a $992.93 shopping spree on the Land of Odds web-site (www.landofodds.com), and a Runner-Up prize of a $399.07 shopping spree on the web-site.

We need photos!

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 or closet. Perhaps someone you loved gave you a very Ugly Necklace. Now's your chance to make something truly Ugly, and have great fun with it. And even win a prize!

It’s Not Easy To Do Ugly!

Your mind and 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. Thus, the best jewelry designers will be those artists who can design the Ugliest Necklaces. We invite all those jewelry designers out there to give it a try.

Enter to Win!

Entering is easy. Take three good color snapshots or scans of your necklace, and write a short poem about it. You've got until March 15, 2005, to send your entry to Land of Odds, Ugly Necklace Contest, 718 Thompson Lane, Ste 123, Nashville, TN 37204.

Entries will be judged by a panel from The Center for Beadwork & Jewelry Arts. These distinguished Beadwork and Jewelry Artist instructors will judge based on the hideousness of the necklace, its shape, color and use of materials, its functionality and wearability, how well the artist has shown an understanding of good design principles (and how to violate them) to achieve this "Ugly" end, and the quality of the accompanying poem.

From the entries submitted, 10 finalists will be selected. Photos of their necklaces will be placed on the Land of Odds web-site. Visitors to the web-site will be asked to vote for the most Ugly Necklace. Based on their votes, a Grand Finalist and a Runner Up will be selected and awarded prizes.

In order to give you a head start, here are some poetic words that rhyme with "beads":  leads, seeds, deeds, creeds, heeds, cedes, feeds, meads, needs, weeds, bleeds, reeds, supersedes, speeds, exceeds, breeds, Swedes, accedes, concedes, godspeed's, impedes, misdeeds, precedes, proceeds, recedes, succeeds.   And two words that rhyme with "jewelry": foolery, ullery.

You may view Official Rules on-line at www.landofodds.com. Or, you may obtain a copy of the Official Rules by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Land of Odds, 718 Thompson Lane, Ste 123, Nashville, TN 37204. You may view the work of last year’s 10 semifinalists on-line, as well, at www.landofodds.com/store/uglynecklace.htm .

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.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Tennessee

Other Important Exhibitions in United States