Apr 2, 2013

The Blu Mudd Design Team Challenge and Contest


Blu Mudd on Etsy

Blu Mudd is a wonderful shop offering ceramic art and wearables. Moriah Betterly creates gorgeous art beads, with motifs from whimsical to pop culture, from power animals in nature to botanicals, in a range of double fired, top quality ceramic styles.


Amber Burgundy Ceramic Focal


Rustic Flower and Square Swirl Ceramic

Flower Focal Ceramic
Pink Orange Bicycle



This spring, I have had the honor of being part of the Blu Mudd Design Team, a group of 17 artists chosen (by order of sign-ups) to be a part of the Rouge Berry Pendant Design Challenge & Contest.

Together, there are 17 contestants each challenged to create a necklace using one of the Rouge Berry Blu Mudd ceramic pendants as the focal point and inspiration. The ceramic art bead was compliments of Blu Mudd! We were each given one of the Rouge Berry focals to design our necklace.   




The package I received was as gorgeous as the ceramic, with beautifully sewn tissue paper and sewn soft textile, rather than the usual bubble wrap and plastic. Truly creative and lovely! 





The Blu Mudd Rouge Berry Pendant I received is so pretty!  I've loved creating with the high quality ceramic focal, and am extremely excited to see everyone's necklace designs. 



For me, spiral beadwork with lucite flowers and freshwater pearls, Czech leaves and daggers, lampwork that I won at Christmas --  the beautiful satin white lampwork by Sue Beads -- and floral pillow beads by Crazy Lady Glass all came together to celebrate the lovely ceramic. 


Making the design interchangeable, 
I added neon apatite and peridot rondelles.










There are many incredible necklaces to enjoy, so please check out all the amazing Blu Mudd Design Team creations and vote for your favorite (it doesn't have to be me, I promise) by leaving a comment on the necklace at  Blu Mudd on FacebookVoting ends on Saturday, April 6th. And look for the next Blu Mudd Design Challenge; Moriah Betterly has created over 40 ceramic focals for the next contest! 






And to celebrate, I'm giving away a Hello Kitty Blu Mudd art ceramic! To win, just comment on this post, and a random winner will be chosen and announced on April 7th :) 








Toltec Jewels is an author by day, jewelry maker by night. Her literary work is housed by the San Fransisco MOMA and is published internationally in popular magazines, literary quarterlies, and university publications. She has won a number of awards for literary and jewelry arts. She is happiest making handcrafted jewelry with her entire family, snuggling with her doggies and grandkids, sewing, singing, reading, and learning jewelry techniques. She is the host of Jewel School Friends, a community of expert and emerging artisans taking inspiration from each other and Jewel School. Join her on Facebook for networking, fundraising for Beads of Courage, jewelry making challenges, contests, give-a-ways and of course, cool beads and jewelry!

27 comments:

  1. Your necklace is just simply gorgeous! I don't know how the voters do it. I couldn't choose only one. Thanks so much for the shout out and thank you so much for participating in my little contest. I have had an absolute blast getting to know each of you and watching as you all created such wonder works of art that made my pendants sing.

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  2. I had a lot of fun participating in this too! I love how everyone came up with different designs. :)

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  3. I love her flowers, and your piece is fantastic! So springy and fun!

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  4. They're all beautiful but I love yours the best!

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  5. I love the kitty cat ceramic. I have 3 cats and they all love my jewelry room. I would love to win that cat ceramic.

    Your necklace is amazing. The colors and design are wonderful.

    I am glad to get to know Blu Mudd. I love the ceramics from this shop. You are so lucky to have gotten such a beautiful one.

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  6. I love love love the necklace.. The colors soo remind me of Spring.

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  7. I had a blast too...loved to see how your gorgeous necklace turned out!!! I really loved it esp since we had the same colors to work with and totally different approaches! =)

    ~Kelly

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  8. Loved the design. I could look at it for a long time and not see it all.

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  9. Love your piece, Rita... and it's so kind of you to offer a giveaway! That is one of my favorite pendants from BluMudd. ;) (The other being the PINK Hello Kitty pendant, LOL).

    Thanks for the chance to win it!

    ~Andrea
    zenithjade@yahoo.com

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  10. Wow, you did a wonderful job, and I am not just saying that because blue is my favorite color! This is the second time I have seen Hello Kitty in blue...hmmm might have to look for more! Blessings

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  11. I love ceramic beads! Thanks for hosting the contest!

    ms.tmok@gmail.com

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  12. That is a beautiful piece of work! I love the colour!

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  13. Beautiful necklace. And the Hello Kitty pendant is so cute!

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  14. Your Necklace is lovely, Blue , I luv bue. spring time romance is what ur necklace reminds me of.

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  15. Rita: Your combination necklace, bracelet is great! Love the dual idea, and the flowers are just beautiful! Just the perfect addition to the Blu Mudd pendant. My grand daughter loves Hello Kitty...would love to make her a piece using the pendant! Best of luck in the contest!

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  16. love the necklace! And I would love to win the hello kitty pendant, I would make my daughter a necklace with it, she loved hello kitty as a little girl!

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  17. Wow! Your work is incredible! I would love to win Hello Kitty. I would design a necklace just for my daughter who is obsessed with Hello Kitty!!

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  18. I had so much fun in this challenge. I doubt I will win, but it was definitely a great experience.

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  19. i adore the blues, greens, and flowers of this delightful piece! So pretty! I had so much fun participating in the contest for Blu Mudd, hope to see more from you :)

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  20. WoW this necklace is just gorgeous!! Love that satin white lampwork too.

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  21. Beautiful. There were great beads and designs at Blu Mudd. Nice colors.

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  22. It was a great contest. Very pretty!

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  23. wonderful love everything here i found it

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  24. alot of pretties i found it yay

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  25. Ok. This is the 4th time I've tried to leave a comment cleats hope it works this time. Lol.

    Loved your piece and so many others. Had so much fun creating.

    Kimberly Flood

    Blazesandbubbles AT gmail DOT com

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  26. Rita, so glad you posted this on FB. Missed the contest, but I'm so very glad I got to see the gorgeous necklace you made. The colors and design are awesome! Great job!!

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Gracias for your comments and for visiting! I appreciate every word :)
Namaste --
Rita