3x giveaways and contests

Giveaways
As usual, Andrew Thornton presented a new giveaway a few days ago. This time you have a chance to win sparkling chinese crystal beads from US bead shop Auntie's beads. A lucky winner will get three strands of crystal beads and four pendants -- as seen in the pic above.

Via Andrew, I also found a lovely giveaway by Janet Macdonald at her blog Singingwoods. She offers an inspiring lot of beads including eight Green Girl Studios charms, six beads by Gaea and a lampworked rose focal by Helen Simon. If you like fairy, don't miss her giveaway post, showing pics of "fairy doors" -- something I'd never heard about before.

Last giveaway tips is a book giveaway hosted by Melanie Brooks at Earthenwood Studio Chronicles. She is giving away a copy of Dafna Yarom's book Creative Paper Jewelry, celebrating September and the memories of going back to school.


Contests
I'm not good at remembering to post tips about contests and challenges here, mostly as I write about those in my other blog (check out the label tävlingstips to find info on all sorts of beading contests and challenges). But this time I'll try to mention some current ones. Sorry if the info is a tad short.

Art Bead Scene Blog features monthly challenges and this month the artwork your entry should be inspired by is Persia, an illustration by George Barbier.

Simone, AKA Perle4U, challenges you to make a piece of jewellery using her Bellatrix pattern (free for contest participants).

The September theme for Vintaj's challenge this month is Family Tree. Note that the deadline is coming up soon: September 10. For inspirational creations on the theme, check out their blog.

Publisher of Perlen Poesie bead magazine, Best Beads Verlag, is hosting the new International Bead Awards, where you can enter as hobbyist or professional beader/jewellery maker in nine different categories.


You can find links to more current American beading contest in the end of this post.