Imagine Art Contest Winners

First prize:  Carol Roberts Entry

Carol Roberts.
Carol did an amazing piece. Very original and with an amazing design. Carol has a true gift for jewelry design, coming up with combinations of shapes, colors and textures that are gorgeous. Even if we had to deduct a point due to the use of the dye in her focal, the points that she finished with to which we applied the last point as the judges determined us to give her the first prize.

Second prize:  Brenda DiMartino Entry

Brenda's entry is absolutely fabulous in terms of originality. As veterans in polymer clay, we can say we were really amazed at her cane and the pattern and the color combination; also at the inventivity of using various things around the house for tools. We were also impressed with how thoroughly Brenda showed every step of the process.
Unfortunately, the craftsmanship is lacking. Using different brands of polymer clay in making the cane and then a few other details in making and finishing the pieces made us unable to give her a point for craftsmanship
Actually because of this entry we were sorry that we didn't make the rules providing for more point levels for each of the three criteria, as from the point of view of originality Brenda would have gotten more points.

Third prize - We have actually two winners:  Katy Quigley Entry  &  Katia Demetz Entry

Katy Quigley's entry was a delight. This is a very solid polymer clay artist who will reach far. Her craftsmanship would have deserved more points, but as we only announced one in the rules... Even if the project she submitted did not have much in terms of originality and intricacy, the way that it was worked and the cleanliness of the craftsmanship make it a beautiful project, bringing us to the "you can do beautiful work with basics".

Katia has an absolutely fantastic gift for polymer clay painting/sculpting. A very original piece, we loved each and every detail, and her patience and savoir faire are astounding.
Unfortunately, we couldn't give her a craftsmanship point. Even if she would deserve way more than one point on that, the piece itself is not suitable for a bib necklace, as it is flat. This type of pieces need to be baked on a curved surface, so they would conform to the shape of the human chest. Then there is also the fact that the piece is not entirely finished, and not set up in a finished necklace. As much as we understand Katia's intent "to show only the polymer clay" we still needed a finished piece. To be very honest, in the beginning we actually considered disqualifying her entry for this specific reason, but ended up by just not giving her the "craftsmanship" point and deducting one point for an unfinished piece. We are really sorry that Katia didn't finish her piece, she had really great chances for the first prize.
We have looked at Katia's creations and we think that she has an amazing gift, we were blown away by some of her pieces and we recommend you to check them out. We will post the pages/profiles of all the contestants after this, with their permission.

 

We must make one mention of an entry that was really wonderful, unfortunately because a power tool was used, the points deduction brought the entry lower than the first 4 contestants:

Teresa Barnes  Teresa Barnes Entry

Teresa's entry is amazing. We had to give her tops for each and every criteria. Her entry showed not only a thorough knowledge and observation of the material that was imitated, but the major intricacy of the process was dealt with great craftsmanship. The finished cabochons are flawless and the resemblance with the real stone absolutely amazing.
Unfortunately Teresa used a power tool (Dremel) for buffing the cabochons, thus having 5 points deducted.