Better luck next time!

Ok, so readers of my blog and friends will know that for the last two years I have travelled from the UK to the USA to attend the annual convention of Lampworkers organised by the ISGB called The Gathering. I am going again this year and it is is Albucuerque, New Mexico. I'm really looking forward to it, the weather should be great and this time the hotel is in a lovely location rather than in a central business district.

Anyway, the reason for my blog. Each year the ISGB has a commemorative bead based on a theme for The Gathering. This year the theme is 'Forging connections, celebrating community'

I don't go out of my way to enter these competitions, if I have an idea for it then I enter but I don't spend hours racking my brain for an idea. I might do a little research of images in Google to see if that helps but that is all.

Anyway here is the bead that I entered

I called it 'Togetherness' The bead at the centre represented the ISGB and the discs were brought together with the dots representing the members.

Each bead also fitted perfectly together with the one next to it.

I spent quite a few hours working on this, mainly trying to get them all the same size as the winner is required to make at least 50 of them!

Anyway, I didn't win. This is the bead chosen and it is made by Leah Fairbanks who I have met and taken a class with.

The ISGB said 'the winding vines around the bead remind us of community connections and make it a wonderful representation of this year's theme'.

Thanks for looking.

Linda
x