I highly recommend entering many art and jewelry design competitions each and every year. This is a good way to
· Raise your visibility
· Practice your self-promotion skills
· Get feedback on your work
· Gain more legitimacy and credibility
· Promote your value
· Keep aware of current trends and expectations in jewelry design
· Further inspire your clients
Competitions can supercharge your jewelry design growth and career.
The First Competition I Entered
In 2004, I submitted an entry (see image above) to the Swarovski Be Naturally Inspired jewelry design competition. I downloaded a copy of the rules and set to work. The project had to be at least 75% Swarovski Austrian crystal beads, stones, or other components. You had to submit an image of your final piece, an image of your inspiration, an artist bio, and an artist statement about your piece and how you translated your inspiration into the finished piece.
This image of the Grand Canyon at sunrise was my inspiration:
I set out to work. Created the general design, selected the technique I wanted to use, and with determination and a lot of trial and error, created the finished piece. In the process, I discovered that different Austrian crystal colors, when used together, tended to blur boundaries and lose some of that distinct color sense that I wanted. I had to solve that problem, which I did, by using black 1.8mm delica beads between each crystal bead. This helped create sharper boundaries.
Up until that point, I had not written any kind of bio or artist statement. I was uneasy about how to describe the finished piece, such as what to call attention to. I had to do several drafts of each. Was a great exercise.
Submitted the piece. Heard back that I was a finalist. Then I had to send them the original piece. I had trouble letting go and saying goodbye. I found one package to use, then rejected it. Then another package, and rejected that. The fifth packaging idea was finally satisfying. Then I held onto the ready-to-ship package for almost a week before taking it over to the UPS shop. I had to insure it. The value was priceless to me. But I had to pick a number. And I prayed that the package would not get lost or damaging.
Swarovski emailed me that it had arrived safely.
I was invited to the awards ceremony they held in their offices in New York City.
And said goodbye again to my piece which was headed for their museum in Innsbruck Austria.
You Are Always A Winner
Whether you win or lose, you are, in fact, experiencing a rich source of inspiration and learning. There never really is a setback.
At the very least, you most likely will be included in a publicly presented list of submitters. You have already increased your visibility.
If your submission is accepted, you have something to list on your resume or list of achievements. You can use this as talking points when selling to a client, store or gallery. You can add this information to wherever you showcase the submitted work. You can embellish your descriptions with information from the materials you submitted for contest entry.
You can generate press releases, social media posts, special email announcements. You can send out updates as your submission progresses through the competition process, such as should you become a semifinalist.
As you do these kinds of things to increase your visibility, this builds credibility and brand awareness. Many store and gallery owners watch these contests closely, often making note of the better pieces and their designers, often following the designers over their career.
Whether The Feedback Is Positive or Negative —
It Always Gives You A Better Understanding of Yourself As a Designer
Feedback provides clues to why your jewelry has VALUE to them. What do they want to know about it? How does the design help them solve a problem? What key attributes of VALUE should you promote to your clients?
Participating in competitions gives you a great opportunity to practice speaking about yourself and your jewelry, and seeing how others react.
Competitions provide many clues about what is relevant in the moment. They force you to figure out how to relate you and your design sense to a set of competition rules and expectations.
All this public visibility will actually inspire some people to spread the message about you. Generating word-of-mouth is often the most successful type of marketing.
Competitions Are Juried
Periodically do online searches for jewelry and art competitions. If the active link is a newsletter or mailing list of some sort, give them your email address. Some art competitions will allow submissions of jewelry; others will not.
Some sources of interest:
Jewelry Design Professionals’ Network
Last Note
Be sure to familiarize yourself with all the rules, particularly concerning deadlines, word count limits, image formats and maximum and minimum sizes.
____________________________________________
I hope you found this article useful. Please consider sharing.
I’d welcome any suggestions for topics (warren@warrenfeldjewelry.com)
Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).
Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft Video Tutorials online. Begin with my ORIENTATION TO BEADS & JEWELRY FINDINGS COURSE.
Take my tutorial on THE JEWELRY DESIGNER’S APPROACH TO COLOR .
Follow my articles on Medium.com.
Check out my books on Amazon.com
Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).
Follow my series HOW TO BEAD A ROGUE ELEPHANT.
Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.
Check out my Jewelry Making and Beadwork Kits.
Add your name to my email list.
_________________________________________________________________
CONQUERING THE CREATIVE MARKETPLACE: Between the Fickleness of Business and the Pursuit of Design
___________________________________________
