In addition to the many, many other things that I have going on this week, I am finishing up my entry for Scarlet Lanson's Use the Muse III competition. Here is a sneak peek:

That's all I can show you right now! The space in the center between the two flowers is where the Muse component will be placed. If you like the flowers, you can try your hand at making your own Russian style netted flowers.

I'm very happy with the warm colors I chose to use in this project. All of the beads came from my shopping spree at the Beyond Beadery booth at Bead Fest Philadelphia this past August. (Can you even call it a booth? It's more like a portable seed bead and Swarovski crystal store!)

Scarlet was nice enough to extend the deadline so that the international participants in the competition would have enough time to complete their entries, and that worked well for me, since the extra time allowed me to meet my other deadlines and still have time to finish my design.

Since I'm not allowed to reveal the beautiful Muse component that is the focal point of the design, you'll just have to wait until The Big Reveal on Scarlet's website, The Beader's Muse, when she announces the winners of the competition.

I hope Scarlet has a fourth Use the Muse competition - check her website often for updates!

A new beadwork competition has been announced at the Land of Odds, the creative folks that bring us the annual Ugly Necklace Contest.

The Illustrative Beader: Beaded Tapestry Competition is now looking for entries. This will be a bi-annual competition and the final deadline for acceptance of entries is August 31, 2011.

The theme for this year's Beaded Tapestry competition is mystery book covers. Beaders and artists should create a beaded mystery book cover using fabrics, fibers, and of course, beads. The piece must be made of at least 70% beads, and will be judged on insight, technique, use of beads as an artistic medium, visual appeal, and the quality of the required written artist's statement.

Guidelines for the Beaded Tapestry competition can be found on the Land of Odds website. Two prizes awarded will be a $1,000.00 and $400.00 shopping spree on the Land of Odds website!

Don't forget that you can still enter the Ugly Necklace Contest sponsored by the Land of Odds until March 15, 2010.

Some great new updates to my favorite beading blogs this week:

BeadedBear's Nonsense and Complete Waste of Time - Sig Wynn-Evans

Beadazzled of Oregon - Dini Alves

Beady Eyed Women - Jeanette Cook

Ramblings on Jewelry Making and Life - Jean Campbell

Contemporary Beadwork by Kerrie Slade - Kerrie Slade

MAD Designs - Marcia DeCoster

Tapestry Beads - Jill Wiseman

Artisan Clay - Kristie Roeder

Happy Halloween and Happy Beading!

Progress is being made on the freeform peyote necklace! I really love the colors in this one. The creams with the browns and other Earth tones are really the colors that have spoken to me since I started beading more than ten years ago. I always find myself drawn to these colors when designing and shopping for beads.

The piece looks a bit lopsided right now, but it's only because I was so anxious to attach the beadwork that I had done for the left side of the piece. I needed to get an idea for where the beadwork was going so I could judge how much more I needed to do on the right side.

I've been having great fun with this technique because it really lets me stretch my skills and my creativity as I figure out how to incorporate each element as I go. That's one of the many things I love about freeform peyote beadwork!

More pictures and updates will come next week after I return home, along with some great tutorials on how to do freeform peyote beadwork. Get your beads ready!