The votes are in and we have a winner for The Bead Monkey Employee Bead Challenge, Battle: Sprockets. Employees were given 10 brightly colored acrylic sprockets and charged to make whatever their little hearts desired. The only rule: each submission must contain at least 2 sprockets. Voting happened on Facebook with TBM customers “liking” their favorite piece.
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| "Blue Buds" - Kathy - Design/Merchandising |
Kathy’s “Blue Buds” were the crowd favorite! To make these dangling darlings Kathy flattened a Vintaj bead cap and used a Vintaj blank. A tiny screw and nut combo secures the pieces together and adds interest. Adorable. Congratulations, Kathy!! You win a Bead Monkey gift card, a special gift pack from Tina, the owner, and the bragging rights. In preliminary design stages, Kathy was also showing off a nifty riveted sprocket necklace that incorporated chain and metal stamping. The necklace wasn’t submitted, as it only featured one sprocket, but we definitely plan to use more bright color with our Vintaj brass after seeing how well the two combine! See more of Kathy’s work in our sample cases and classrooms- she’s our merchandising and teaching superstar.
Our first runner-up is a tie between Mitch and Suzy. Mitch is our web guru and he designed “Summer Fun”. It’s an ultra-wearable lariat with leather, silk cord and base metal spacers. We loved the bright colors and playful design! Perfect for a day at the beach or paired with a tank top!! Our kit crew chief and newsletter designer Suzy’s “Pignons de Printemps” is an elaborate confection in glitter, fabric, wire and deliciously chunky pearls. Our favorite part? The “twig connector” made from a spray-painted twig and decorated with a perfect little bird’s nest. We’re definitely stealing Suzy’s springtastic color palette for our next design.
Two of our sprocketeers went above and beyond the call of duty and design and created utterly phenomenal pieces that showcased The Bead Monkey’s latest obsession: bead embroidery and embellishment. Kearstin from St. Paul was responsible for “Mermaid Navigator”, an asymmetrical piece featuring a bead-embellished mermaid. She rounded out the design with “seaweed”: sequin and sprocket dangles, crystals, CZs and stone and added a bold clasp. We love how Kearstin integrated chain, spockets, jump rings, wire links and sequins in unique design sections to create a playful piece.
If you’ve got an eye for detail, then you probably loved Katie H.’s “Garden of Beadin” as much as we did. Look very closely and you’ll see bugs, buds, a plethora of grassy-green detail and the cutest little serpent in the world- complete with eyes and a juicy apple in its mouth! Katie made her own bracelet form for this design using heavy gauged wire- we’re excited to use this method to make our own crazy-cool cuff!
Our beadweaving fanatics got inspired by the sprockets, too! Jeanie created “Twirly Sprockets” a peyote bracelet that cleverly uses a sprocket for the closure. The citrus shades work great with matte turquoise and we love how she combined delicas with seed beads for a wavy pattern.
If you like a beaded bezel, then you have to check out Ashley’s “Shifting Gears”!! It’s springtime bright and vibrant and we’re totally stealing the design to make a blingy bracelet out of Swarovski rivolis.
Lindsay and Kajsa created playful sprocket pieces that scream “Springtime”! Kajsa, our bright color queen, put together a piece that shows just how much fun you can have with rivets. Not only did Kajsa use one of our favorite color combos (red and turquoise) she repurposed tabs to create the spunky star design. Nothing like saving the planet one piece of jewelry at a time! Lindsay’s “Spring Garden” reminds us why pink and green are a fail-safe combo. Who doesn’t love a leafy green paired with a vibrant pink?! Just add a little Czech glass for sparkle and you’re set! We’re also in awe of Lindsay’s tidy wire work on these earrings, from teensy little bails to the flawless wire wraps, they’re sheer perfection.
We’ve always loved designs with an edge and we’re adoring “Sprocket Punk”, Autumn’s complete set of jewelry. You’ve got admire her devotion to the sprocket challenge, she stayed up until 5 am stitching and bezeling and showed up with the completed peyote bracelet the day after the challenge was announced. We can’t decide which piece we like the best, so it’s a lucky thing they can all be worn together.
Some of the Bead Monkeys weren’t content with the natural shades of the sprockets, so they played with different mediums to achieve metallic or muted effects. Katie B., buyer extraordinaire, watered down acrylic paint to coat her sprockets and achieve a less vibrant shade, then she added bronze seed beads and a glass drop. Katie’s “Cog in the Wheel” utilized only beads and components she already had. We admire her discipline! Erin, your blogging friend and office Gal Friday, couldn’t help herself and used this challenge as an opportunity to incorporate her favorite finds from the store: Swarovski cup chain and rivolis, brand-new links and crystal rhinestones. She spent an afternoon bonding with epoxy to attach the up-eyes to the ends of the sprockets, playing with her trusty can of bronze spray paint and setting rhinestones. The result: “Sparkle-Me-Sprockets”. 
Christy is our fearless leader, General Manager and resident classy lady, so it was no surprise when she submitted a tasteful statement ring, “Ring Around the Sprocket” in matte and shiny bronze, cool blue and mauve beads with matching sprockets covered in metallic nail polish. Sophistication, thy name be sprocket.
We noticed that votes have continued to come in, even after our winner was announced. Please continue to vote and leave comments on your favorite pieces- we’re all about sharing the love and gushing over a job well done! If you loved Battle: Sprockets, stay tuned for news of the next Employee Bead Challenge coming soon!
