Songs of Summer 2010

'Songs of Summer Beading Contest' WINNERS!

What an absolute thrill it's been downloading and then viewing the amazing entries as they were submitted in this contest. We were astounded by the originality and creativity! Thank you to everyone who entered, we had a total of 175 entries, many more than we anticipated and it took the judges a couple extra days to complete their work. PRIZES: Our overall grand prize winner won a $100 gift certificate to Happy Mango Beads, honorable mention and all 10 category winners each won $25 gift certificates, plus 5 additional "staff favorites" won $15 gift certificates. We sincerely appreciate the effort of all contestants and we look forward to the next beading contest.

Comments from the judges: "This is a really amazing collection of works by some very talented artists. I'm sure anyone who viewed the entries would see that it was incredibly difficult to judge! The entries were so numerous, and so well done -- I wish we could have awarded many more prizes." "The entries in this contest were amazing! Almost impossible to decide!" "What a pleasure to be able to judge a contest with entries of this caliber. Such absolutely inspiring work. Everyone deserved to win!"

Watch the Songs of Summer Beading Contest music video here.

Grand Prize Winner!

Congratulations goes to Von Ireland for "One Mile Beach"

"I made this necklace after walks along on of the beaches in my town. This necklace is the result of broken shells that I picked up during those walks. It is a bead soup of different sized seed beads, accent beads, broken shells and there are even sequins in there. I used peyote, RAW, oglala lace stitch, fringing, stringing and plaiting... in fact I did whatever I wanted too - hence the sequins which recreate the shiny bits when you are walking a beach." Von Ireland