Congratulations to Amanda of chrysanthemumveil Winner of the "Lord of the Rings" Popular Vote

Congratulations go to Amanda of chrysanthemumveil and her Nightingale Necklace.  Amanda received 108 (17%) of the popular vote.

This month we also had an internal vote with the members of Etsy Beadweavers on our new forum Etsybeadweavers Freeforums.  The winner of the internal member vote is Marsha of HauteIceBeadwork and her "Ash and Amber" The Balrog. 

On Saturday/Sunday Blogger had some problems and we saw an influx of voting that was very odd (several enteries votes were increased by over 100 votes in one day).  Because of widespread blogger isses over the weekend (our blog was one of thousands affected) when the polling closed it revereted back to the Friday count.  The problems we experience were out our control and so any ligitimate votes we received on weekend are not included in  this tally.  The winning order of the voting was not affected but some of us lost votes (mine included - AngelqueCreations).

So moving on I would like to announce the Popular Vote runner's up of the May Challenge "Lord of the Rings"

2nd Place #5. The Dead Marshes - 4uidzne with 100 votes (15%)
3rd place #10. EDORAS - crownrosegems 81 votes ( 12%)
4th place  #17. Ash and Ember - The Balrog- HauteIceBeadwork with 46 votes (7%)
5th Place #9. Key to the Shire Beaded Necklace - crystalwonders with 38 votes (5%)
Tied for 6th place - #4. Leaves of Lothlorien Necklace - RareSpecimens and #31. Ent Necklace- Burarum - WhiteRabbitJewels each with 27 votes (4%)
7th Place #25. The Eye of Sauron Ring - bysalla with 25 votes (3%)
Tied for 8th place #6. The Light Star of Earendil - AngelqueCreations and 29. Sea Green Ornate Necklace - SilverDragon with 23 votes (3%)
9th place #8. One Ring to Rule Them All - MyOrcaDreams with 20 votes (3%)
and 10th place #1. The One Ring - NewWorldElegance with 14 votes (2%)

Congratulations to everyone who entered the challenge this month, it was awe inspiring to see all the wonderful creations.  I can't wait to see what everyone enters for "Heal the World" the theme for the June Challenge 

Voting For the May Challenge - "Lord Of the Rings"

The May 2011 challenge, chosen by Sharayah Sheldon of 4uidzne, invited our members to create original designs inspired by J.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings."  
Voting for the challenge runs May 9 -May 15 2011.

Please click on any image to be taken to the artist's listing to see more images and read about the work in detail.

1. The One Ring - NewWorldElegance
2. Heart Bracelet in Metallic Gray and Bright Red - enchantedbeads
3. Éowyn Beadwoven Pendant - beadn4fun
4. Leaves of Lothlorien Necklace - RareSpecimens
5. The Dead Marshes - 4uidzne
6. The Light Star of Earendil - AngelqueCreations
7. Gollum - Kankou
8. One Ring to Rule Them All - MyOrcaDreams
9. Key to the Shire Beaded Necklace - crystalwonders
10. EDORAS - crownrosegems
11. The One Ring - MelJoyCreations
12. The Leaves of Lothlorien - ElementalNature
13. Shield Necklace - annamei
14. Arwen Evenstar - SpringColors
15. Mallorn of Lothlorien Beadwoven Necklace - MaryTDesigns
16. Goldberry - roseworksjewelry
17. Ash and Ember - The Balrog- HauteIceBeadwork
18. Memories of Rivendell - glimmerstone
19. Greenleaf Bead Embroidered Bib Necklace - beadsandblooms
20. Ring of Fire Beadwoven Bangle - LaBellaJoya
21. Arwen Necklace - tenstoreylovesong
22. Galadriel's Gift to Gandalf - ArtMasquerading
23. Beaded Links - BoonieBeads
24. Shieldmaiden's Neckpiece - flagrantdesigns
25. The Eye of Sauron Ring - bysalla
26. Gandalf Beaded Tapestry - arjarvis
27. Nightingale Necklace - chrysanthemumveil
28. Galadriel's Circlet of Elanor - njdesigns1
29. Sea Green Ornate Necklace - SilverDragon
30. The Prancing Pony Fantasy Bottle Ornament - FrancescasFancy
31. Ent Necklace- Burarum - WhiteRabbitJewels

Lord of the Rings: what does it inspire in you - some strategies and politics of choosing?

The Etsy Beadweaver’s (EBW) May 2011 challenge is to bead something inspired by J.R. Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, & Return of the King. Your design should be based on, or created for a character, creature, prop, or location in the story and when listing your challenge submission in your Etsy shop you should specifically state your choice, and explain how your bead work represents your chosen aspect of Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy in your listing.

When I first heard about this month’s challenge I headed to my bookshelves to find my rather battered copy of Lord of the Rings. Flipping through its pages bought fond memories flooding back to me of long hours spent reading it over the summer holidays when I was totally immersed in its tales of middle earth, Hobbits, princes, wizards, dragons and of course the Dark Lord Sauren. Now I wonder at it's politics and where my pleasure would lie reading it now (more of that later!).

In the 1960s I had only images from my imagination to conjure up the worlds created by Tolkein. Now imagery abounds amongst the artwork, films, wallpaper and even video games that have been inspired by it. Just go to Google and search for images for Lord of the Rings and you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the drama and atmosphere of the colours, patterns and characters that are readily available to inspire beadwork. Take for instances, The Mines of Moria image (above) I found on Google images – the wonderful colours and shapes alone could be the theme for a monthly challenge.

In fact the plethora of places, characters, creatures or props that could inspire is part of the challenge of this challenge. How do you choose and why do you choose what you do? Here's six strategies that might help those feeling overwhelmed or those just not quite sure where to start:

1. Take a quiz and see which Lord of the Rings ‘Race’ you are and then use what you find to bead something for that ‘Race’. http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/new/Kryssi/which-lord-of-the-rings-race-are-you/
2. Scroll through an alphabetical listing of the characters until you find one whose name and temperament you like. http://www.sparknotes.com/film/lordoftherings/characters.html or http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_characters
3. Go to Google images and search for Lord of the Rings wallpaper – this search created the greatest diversity of images for me. Scroll through looking for shapes, colours and atmospheres that speak to you.
4. Search online for Lord of the Rings jewelry – yes it exists! See the Ring of Aragorn (Also known as the Ring of Barahir) image (left) I have included in this blog. Here are some sites to get you going:http://www.lotrfanshop.com/ or http://www.lordoftheringsjewelry.org/
5. Play a free online Lord of the Rings computer game searching for that image that you can’t resist being inspired by - link here http://www.lotro.com/
6. Be challenged to choose by taking a critical look at the gender, ‘race’ and class controversies underpinning the imagery of Lord of the Rings and see how this might take your beading to a different place. For instance, Kim (2004) wrote that ‘goodness correlates to whiteness, both racially and as color scheme, and is associated with Europe, particularly England and the Scandinavian countries, the West, and the North. Evil is invariably black, savage, Southern (or "Southron"), and Eastern. All racially "white" actors, whether from New Zealand (where the film was shot), Australia, the US, Ireland, or England, are assimilable as Middle-earth heroes (although they must adopt British accents), and the "good" display a heterogeneous mix of European (mostly British and Scandinavian) cultural references”. For a more detailed look at these issues see: A Reflection on Tolkien's World - Gender, Race & Interpreted Political, Economic, Social & Cultural Allegories by Michael Skeparnides - http://www.sffworld.com/authors/t/tolkien_jrr/articles/areflectionontolkiensworld.html

Personally, it is the final strategy that offers the biggest challenge to me - to my pleasant memories of first reading Lord of the Rings in the 1960s it adds a new twist and tension and to my decision as a beader it brings me to decisions about how I can honor my own values of equity and justice in 2011 in what I choose to bead for the EBW May Challenge. A challenge indeed!

Best beading wishes in making your choices and as always I look forward to what our monthly EBW challenge inspires in each of us.

References
Kim, Sue, Beyond Black and White: Race and Postmodernism in The Lord of the Rings Films
MFS Modern Fiction Studies - Volume 50, Number 4, Winter 2004, pp. 875-907