If you've ever wondered what a prize winning piece of art shot to professional standards looks like, search no further: Joy Cichewicz’ Tiger Lady took top honors at Gathering's first ever Bead Pen contest, winning by just one vote. (This was a fund-raiser for the ISGB: we bought raffle tickets, six for $5, and stuffed them in the boxes for the pens we liked best. One local guild member—Joy, in addition to making wonderful animal heads, also is president of GlassAct251—put all her votes in for this pen, she was so impressed with it. The winner of each pen was drawn at random from the tickets in each box.)

This was evidently the first time Joy had ever won anything like this, so it only took a moment for me to go from, ‘well, you should at least let me get a shot of it’ (she had no record of the piece) to ‘here's Jerry Anthony right on site. Have him document this—you can use it for your postcard next year, and even if you don't slap it all over your promotional literature, you'll really appreciate having a record of your first win a decade from now.’

Tiger Lady, by Joy Cichewicz. soda lime, 2005. photo: Jerry Anthony. All rights reserved.

Joy agreed.

Thanks go to the bead pen folks, for sponsoring the contest and providing the prize money (which funded the photography!) and the winner of the pen, who not only insisted Joy have it for Bead Bazaar day, but also provided, therefore, the opportunity to get it documented. And to Joy herself, of course, for allowing me to showcase her work;)

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.