The Ugly Necklace Contest -
Commentary
As we answer questions, we will try to include our responses on-line for all
to see.
1. It's difficult to design an ugly necklace.
It's difficult to design an ugly necklace. Your mind and eye want
to take you away from "ugly" toward good principles of jewelry
design. While a good deal of perceptions about what is "ugly"
is subjective, there is a strong, underlying objective grammar of good jewelry
design that steers even the weakest designer away from "ugly".
As research into color has shown, your eye compensates for imbalances in color
relationships -- it tries to correct and harmonize them. You are prewired to
subconsciously avoid anything that is disorienting, disturbing or distracting.
Because of this, any jewelry designer attempting to achieve Ugly, has to have
enough control and discipline to override, perhaps to overcome, intuitive,
internally integrated principles of good design. The best jewelry designers
will be very aware of what these rules of design are, and thus be able to strategically,
not just intuitively, know how to manipulate and apply them.
2. The panel of judges has a list of about 20 jewelry design
principles. They will use this as a check list against which to
measure how many principles a particular necklace violated, and to what
extent. The panel will also factor in a judgment call about
the degree they believe the original designer of the necklace had some control
over achieving the piece's "ugliness".
Here's a good website that has information about jewelry design principles/rules.
How many of these has your ugly necklace violated?
http://char.txa.cornell.edu/
also, see our article about judging criteria athttp://www.warrenfeldjewelry.com/wfjugliestcriteria.htm
[Beginning in 2008, rules also specify that the Ugly Necklace must consist
of 75% beads.]
3. The Necklace should be Ugly, yet still function as a piece of jewelry.
Better designers will demonstrate a degree of control over achieving these
ends. Better designers will show a sense of how both the larger context within
which the jewelry is worn, as well as the overall effects of the wearer wearing
the piece, will increase the piece's Ugliness.
4. The exact criteria the panel will use are unpublished. However,
some research on-line and in texts will quickly pull up an array of generally
accepted jewelry design criteria. The easiest ones involve the use
of color. For example, colors work well together in certain
proportions. When using Yellow and Violet, a harmonious balance
is achieved when Yellow is 25% of the piece and Violet is 75% of the piece.
If the proportion actually used was, say, 50/50, then the piece would begin
to look ugly.
Also read:www.landofodds.com/store/ugliestcriteria.htm
5. The poem.
Jewelry is not merely art. It is wearable art.
Appreciation of a piece very often depends on how, where and when it is
worn. The poem is a fun way to make the judges aware of the
designer's intentions, and to help them understand submission as "ugly, yet wearable
art".
The poem, then, should illustrate, in a fun way, your choices about materials,
designs, combinations, and clasp.
Don't forget to give your poem a TITLE. The title will set the tone for the
viewer on-line.
6. Because "functionality" is an important component of design, whether the
necklace is ugly or not, judges will examine how the piece holds up functionally.
They will examine how the piece was finished off, what kind of clasp and other
supporting systems are designed, that contribute both to "ugliness" and "functionality" at
the same time.
7. When designing your Ugly Necklace, try to picture who might wear it,
and when. Some contextural visualization often helps in selecting the components
to your design.
8. An Art Professor in a community college assigned the contest to her art
students. Great idea. We received great submissions from all the students in
her class, that were very sensitive to design issues (and how to violate or
incorporate them).
9. An Ugly Necklace is more than a bunch of ugly beads strung on a cord. In
fact, often, by stringing a set of ugly beads together, you might end up with
an attractive necklace -- something more than the sum of its parts. One entrant
had made a few dozen ugly lampwork beads. She strung them into two necklaces
with some spacer beads between each one. The necklaces turned out
to be beautiful, and she sold each one for about $225.00.
10. Different participants interpreted "Ugly" in different ways.
Some focused on the ugliness of each individual component. Some used materials
that they
felt conveyed a sense of ugly, such as llama droppings, or felted matted dog
hair, or rusty nails, or a banana peel. Some focused on mood and consciousness,
and how certain configurations of pieces and colors evoked these moods or states
of
consciousness.
Others focused on combining colors which don't combine well. Still others focused
on how the wearer's own body would contribute to a sense of ugliness, when
wearing the piece, such as the addition of a "Breast Pocket" which
would lay just below the woman's breast, or peacock feathers that covered the
wearer's
mouth, or the irritating sounds of rusty cow bells, or the icky feeling of
a rotting banana peel on the skin.
11. Your Materials List:
Think of this as another opportunity-- (like your poem and your poem's title)
-- to influence the on-line viewer to positively vote and evaluate your piece.
If you're smart, it will be more than a boring list of materials.
12. Images
We need hard-copy images. At least of:
- full view with someone wearing it
You can supplement this with additional images, if you want.
You may submit .jpg files (at least 300dpi).
REMEMBER: These images will be posted on-line for visitors to www.landofodds.com
to review, vote and evaluate. Images on-line lose a lot of the details.
[You still have the poem and the materials list to make some of these details
come alive for the viewer.]
Don't forget to write your name on the back of all your photos.
13. The web-page for each semi-finalist will remain posted on the Land of
Odds web-site for as long as the web-site exists. That's great exposure for
anyone. After all, this contest says that the semifinalists have some jewelry-design
talent, because it isn't easy doing Ugly.
14. Question from viewer: "It seems to me that the entries are just a
bunch of ugly very large elements, and there's not much design to them --
Trash on String."
It's difficult to do Ugly, and there are many different and legitimate approaches
toward that end. I've noticed over the 3 years we've done this contest, that
it is perhaps easier to use larger elements, than to create something that
uses smaller beads and is eminently fashionable -- except perhaps that it's
ugly.
As I wrote above, the entrants have approached the definition of Ugly from
several different vantage points. Each is viable.
No matter how out-sized or not, or how bead-woven the piece is or not, the
judges use a set of jewelry design criteria to evaluate the pieces submitted.
The criteria are very rigorous.
But our challenge remains for all bead and jewelry artists: Create a well-designed,
ugly necklace. The more wearable and let's say "rational/fashionable" it is,
and yet still ugly, well, that's the noble goal. It ain't easy to accomplish.
Beginning in 2008, a requirement was set that the necklaces had to consist
75% of beads. This makes the design challenge harder, because people will have
to work with smaller pieces, and they will have to rely more on design talents,
rather than simply on ugly objects, to get their points across.
15. Ugly pieces do not make an ugly necklace.
A lot of the entries use things, which by themselves are ugly, but when assembled
into a circle, no longer retain their "ugliness".
After you have assembled your necklace, try to visualize it as if it were
composed of attractive beads and other elements. Does it still look ugly to
you? If Yes, you probably have a winning entry.
16. What is considered a Bead?
A bead is an object with a hole through it. It is meant to be strung or positioned
over a string or wire.
People have been very creative in turning objects into beads, including hollowing
out chicken bones, matting dog hair, drilling a hole in llama droppings, putting
a hole in the center of post-it notes. Really, the possibilities are endless.
17. What is stringing material?
The options here vary widely, and what is appropriate depends both on your
assembly techniques, as well as the theme of your necklace. Stringing materials
would include string, cable wire, threads, bead cord, hemp, rope, twine, leather,
waxed cotton, hard wire, chain, dental floss, electrical wire or cord, yarn,
grasses, elastic string or cord, fishing line. There are many creative possibilities.
There's no reason you have to rely on only one stringing material within your
piece.
18. Introduction of special rules in 2008 contest
The judges decided to make the contest a bit more difficult, in requiring that
more of the parts in the necklace be beads, and limiting the length of the necklace
to no more than 32". It's been obvious that it is easier to work "ugly"
on a larger canvas with larger pieces. We also wanted our jewelry designer participants
to better understand, appreciate and work within the maxim: A collection
of ugly parts does not necessarily an ugly necklace make.
19. Relationship of on-line votes to final score
The on-line votes count 25% and the judges votes count 75%. This means that
someone who scores high on-line may not be the final winner. It also means that
someone the judges scored high may not remain on top.
The Ugly Necklace Contest is a design competition
That said, it's important that any artist, to be successful, must be able to
promote her- or himself. Part of this promotion comes in the package the artist
sends the review panel -- the quality of images, the quality of the poem, the
demonstrated creativity and forethought in materials chosen, and clasp assembly
design. Another part of this promotion is getting votes, and securing high evaluations
on-line. This includes contacting your friends and relatives, acquaintances,
people you think you can influence to come to the website and vote for you.
People who vote on-line, overall, don't necessarily vote for the best-designed
"ugly" necklace. Most people don't bring a design-orientation to their
voting process. So the artist needs to visibly make the case why and how their
piece is "ugly", and why people should vote for and highly score them.
There are many strategies here:
In effect, The Ugly Necklace Contest measures many aspects to the jewelry artist
and his or her piece. Design control, artistic control, artistic self-promotion,
and the like.
