Entry Rules and Guidelines - “Hope-on-a-Rope” Designer Challenge For CHA-Anaheim 2008

This year's CHA-Anaheim 2008 "Bottles of Hope" designers challenge is called "Hope-on-a-Rope" honoring Susan Clement, an artist who has made and gifted hundreds of bottles for others. As Clement says, "I am a warrior [having fought recurrent cancer]. The creating and sharing of 'Bottles of Hope' has extended my life." Susan has recently created children's necklaces featuring mini-bottles. The new designers challenge is to decorate mini-bottles for children decorated with STAEDTLER FIMO® Soft or Classic polymer clay that will hang on beaded necklaces; hand rolled beads must be made with AMACO® Bead Rollers™. Founder of "Bottles of Hope", Diane Gregoire has approved this latest designers challenge.

Requirements: Each mini bottle must be decorated with Fimo® Soft or Fimo® Classic clays with a minimum of 10 beads hand-rolled with any AMACO Bead Roller™. Mixed media adornment is strongly encouraged, but the beads and bottle embellishment must be 80% clay. Finished pieces should be created with kids in mind. The entire necklace length does not have to be beaded.

Categories: Winning entries will be selected for the following Categories: Best Expression of Hope, Best Use of FIMO®, Best Use of Bead Rollers™, and Best of Show to be chosen by editors from an on-line gallery at amaco.com; and People's Choice (to be chosen by attendees at CHA).

Awards: Each winner will receive an etched crystal award with the image of their mini-bottle; $200 AMACO check made payable to the cancer-related charity or hospital of their choice; Gift Basket of creative products from AMACO, STAEDTLER, JHB, Swarovski, and other manufacturers; and a press release announcement to editors in crafts industry. Additionally, the Top 25 finalists will be featured in on-line gallery at www.amaco.com and www.staedtler.us, and will be included in the AMACO Press Kit with contact information for industry editors. All participants will be issued guest passes to the 2007 C.H.A. Anaheim, California as AMACO and STAEDTLER's guests in order to attend a special awards reception in honor of "Bottles of Hope" artists/designers. Guest passes will be held for you at CHA registration tables under "AMACO".

Challenge Information: Traditionally, "Bottles of Hope" are made over emptied/sterilized medicine bottles. Instead, amulet-sized bottles can be used. Small glass bottles of any kind (2" H or less) may be used. Any size/shape of beads made using an Amaco Bead Roller is also acceptable. To help, all entries (with fee) that were received before December 7, 2008 were sent one entry kit per person to be mailed out for your use containing (1) mini-bottle, (1) EF8023 01 Fimo Soft half block set of 10 assorted colors, and 1) AMACO Bead Roller. Any entry received after 12/7/07 will not require a fee, only an entry form, and the complimentary kit will be sent after receipt of entry. (Entry kits were previously offered for this challenge to defray the cost incurred for a Beadroller).

Finished entries must be received at the address below by January 12, 2008. Those who have submitted an entry by this deadline will have their check returned unless they choose to have it processed as a donation for the charity (to be announced). Entry fees received from kit orders from those persons who do not submit a "Hope on a Rope" will not be returned but donated to the charity. All new entries require an entry fee only and will receive complimentary kits.

The Bead Roller is yours courtesy of Sue and Gayle Lee of PolyTools, the developers of AMACO Bead Rollers™. Any model AMACO Bead Rollers™ may be used for this challenge in place of or in addition to Pro Set 1 or Pro Set 8 (the sets included in kits). When mailing entry forms, please specify which set of bead rollers (below) you would prefer, if possible while supplies last; another bead roller may be substituted. Please choose between: Pro Set 1 – with two oval bead sizes or Pro Set 8 – with 5 small round bead sizes.

Pro Set 1 - with two oval bead sizes

Pro Set 8 - with 5 small round bead sizes

Use of the competition kit is not required to submit a entry. Small glass bottles of any kind (2" H or less) may be used. Any size/shape of beads made using an Amaco Bead Roller is also acceptable. Those not using a kit or wishing to work with other colors may substitute with any color of Fimo clay, Soft, Effect or Classic.

Please mail entries to Cathy Carlin, Amaco, 6060 Guion Road, Indianapolis, IN 46254.

As a thank you, we will mail to you a thank you gift of one AMACO Beadroller, one assortment FIMO® pack, and one amulet bottle. In the case of multiple submissions, only one thank you gift will be sent. In the case of multiple submissions, only one entry per person will be eligible for selection as a Top 25 finalist. Any questions regarding this event can be directed to Lisa Pavelka at: lisapavelka@cox.net.

Notification of the top 25 finalists will be sent out via e-mail on January 25, 2008.


Please print out two entry forms: (1) to serve as your application for an entry kit and (2) to serve as entry form to accompany each "Hope on a Rope" submission.