Bead Dreaming

Over on Marcia's blog yesterday she posed the question as to whether very accomplished bead artists and teachers should be allowed to enter the Bead Dreams competition because it sets the bar too high for everyone else.
As many of you know I enter lots of competitions and have done very well, so far.  Bead Dreams is, I think, the biggest bead competition in the world and so the bar is set VERY high!  The floral bouquet pictured here was a grand prize winner a couple of years ago....yes, those are beads.  "Early Summer Wedding" by Miyuki Sugimura, Hiroko Toda, Masako Kato, and Akemi Hara inspired me so much and made me set the bar higher for myself.

I'm entering Bead Dreams for the first time this year and I know what I'm up against. Should that stop me? Hell no!
What it does do is inspire me to stretch my skills, work hard and experiment....all good things.  There are lots of smaller competitions out there to enter if you feel intimidated by this one and I do encourage people to enter competitions.  But we, as a beading community, need a competition like Bead Dreams to set the bar high and show just what you can do with beads.