More on the Battle of the Beadsmith, and losing it

 Why, oh why have you amphibian alien gods forsaken me?????

In the 3rd round of the battle of the beadsmith, I got my butt kicked.

 Here are a few of my favorite shots of my Battle Piece, Dagon.

This is my friend, Anna. We work together at the shoe store. She has a degree in women's studies, also known as feminist studies.

 This is my friend Melissa. She also works at the shoe store despite the fact that she has a degree in biology, but she will be moving on to be a vet tech soon.

 I am surrounded by incredibly talented, wonderful people, who thanks to the way our economy is as bad as it is, are all putting shoes on cranky people's feet day after day to pay their bills.

And then, when they are off, they are kind enough to model for me for free, and put up with my crazy.

 This is Dagon close up.

 This is Dagon from afar.

 This is Dagon from behind.

 This is Dagon modeled by Samantha Regina Herself.

And this is me at the Bead and Button show  wearing Dagon with Suzanne Golden wearing my last year's Battle  of the Beadsmith piece, Fishies.

Well, I did not win this year either. But I wasn't really thinking I would anyways, and if I had to be knocked down, at least I got knocked down by an equally awesome design by Kris Empting.

There are many ways of going about not winning something.  A couple of years ago I would have been crying my eyes out about how misunderstood I was and how the world is just not ready for my particular brand of awesome.

How silly I was!

This has been such a wonderful journey. I made something that I dreamed up ( in this case quite literally because the idea for this piece came from that inbetween place of being awake and falling asleep, while contemplating H. P. Lovecraft's short story, The Shadow Over Innsmouth),

it reached so many people who got enchanted by the frogmaids/ merfrogs

(not many got that they were alien amphibian gods, but that's ok),

 and I made a ton of new friends in the process.

I went to the Bead and Button show, trotted around wearing it for days, and everyone loved it!

Including the beady goddess  that Suzanne Golden is!

And so it is only right that even though  did not make the next cut, I still feel like a winner.

In case any of your Dear Readers ever feel loserish,

here is my guide for evaluating feelings of beady losses in contests:

-Remember  that judging is very subjective.

-Do not get defensive. Learn from the experience and keep on trying.

-Remember that it's all a silly game, where not winning was very much a possibility from the beginning.

-Remember that in an event where pairings are random, like in the Battle of the Beadsmith, winning and losing  have a lot to do with dumb luck.

-Stay humble. " I am a genius the world is not ready for just yet" is plain silly. Instead of that, just keep calm and carry on.

-Stick with it. Keep doing what you are doing. It pays off. Patience and persistence and time.

You see, life is like a bead contest .

Hopefully we win sometimes. I sure hope that all my  smart and talented coworkers will eventually move on to better things instead of looking at bunions all day.

So remember, you are not defined by losing battles, but your willingness to fight on despite of them, as in beady life, so in everyday life.