Dissed!!

Unbelievably, the Bead and Button Show has decided to omit any mention of ceramic, porcelain, raku, and fired clay in general from their Bead Dreams competition this year. What makes this even more inexplicable is that they did not include ceramic bead artists last year but in response to numerous letters of protest they actually revised the criteria to include us. A ceramic bead artist even took 3rd place last year in the handmade bead and button category. In a previous year, a ceramic artist even took 1st place!

So, even though ceramic bead artists are good enough to have tables as vendors at the show, be featured in projects and articles in Bead and Button/BeadStyle magazines, and are frequent advertisers in both magazines, it appears that we are not up to the standards of B & B to warrant a chance to compete? I'm actually pretty disgusted about the whole thing- to overturn the exclusion last year then to have to go through the whole thing again this year seems like a deliberate snub. So, polymer, PMC, seed beads, lampwork and crystals are really sooo much more artistic than fired clay can be? Really? REALLY? Seriously?

Not just the exclusion of fired clay... what about fiber and fabric beads? Metal beads? Paper beads? I understand the need for categories but how about broadening them? Right now the only way any of these media will get recognition is in the finished jewelry category.

Please take a minute to leave a comment in their forum on the Bead Dreams Concern topic to show your support for ceramic artists to be included. Even better, send an email to the show organizers at: beaddreams@beadandbutton.com

I'm actually so annoyed about this that I cancelled my magazine subscription to Bead and Button. There are other publications out there that are actively looking to expand their coverage of fired clay beads, I'll show my support by choosing those magazines instead.

Ok, enough of the soapbox for now- please make your comments known so that B & B will legitimatize fired clay beads and we can make sure that this doesn't happen again next year!