Those Stylish Divas

Since my last post about picking up on your beadmaker's style got so much attention, I thought I would post another with this month's Spring Flowers entries. It's really interesting that not many of the Fire Divas use flowers in our beads. I think all of us grew as beadmakers with this challenge. We had lots of entries this time - so many, I'm going to make this TWO posts.

First place went to Deirdre from Ankle Biter Beads. And had I not read about this bead, I would have not pegged it as Deirdre's. She's known for her whimsical little aliens, puffer fish and fly's in the soup bowl! This piece is much larger than the work I've seen from her before. And while her previous work is often highly detailed, it seems she really stretched a bit with this piece. I love to watch favorite artists grow and I felt this piece would win and it did! Congrats Deiedre

Second place went to Lori Bergman of Ashlyn Design. I love the watercolor effects in this bead. They remind me of one of my all time favorite glass artists, Dolly Ahles. And even though Lori has florals in some of her beads, I found this piece a real unique. Another example of an artist stretching.

Artist Lara Lutrick always has sleek and elegant beads but you don't find many florals in her shop. Had she not labeled this picture, I'm not sure I would have picked it out as hers.

I knew this next bead because my friend Janel of Janel Dudley Beads had blogged about this new design of her during the last Art Bead Scene Blog Carnival. And even though this is a new direction for her, you can see the seeds of where she came from. Janel favors silvered ivory and high silver in her beads. Look at the base of the bead...silvered ivory. Look at the flower petals...see the mottled color??? That's probably a high silver reaction. Isn't it amazing that, even though it's a new direction, Janel is still true to her roots???

This next glass bead is one I didn't guess in the competition. It's made by fellow Diva admin, Lea of LA Jewelry Designs. This is such a perfect bead, my first guess would have it to be a Lutrick bead but I already knew which one was hers! But let's look closer... see those swirls on the base of the bead??? That's something Lea favors but she took it to a whole new level for the contest. The layers of color on the flowers and the cubic zirconia centers really make this a statement bead for sure!

I would have picked these earrings to be created by Laurie of Glassbead. Laurie actually has a tutorial on making floral beads and she also has a tut on cut disk beads which yields a most unique way of applying color. Laurie's beads are always high on the eye candy color factor.

Check back here tomorrow for MORE post contest analysis.