Forged Fairytales — The Final Chapter
This year, Alloy shared a vision of catastrophic levels of creativity. A CHALLENGE to grip the mind and light a fire in the bones of our members…And we couldn’t be more amazed with what these participants brought to the table.
Our very first Creative Challenge theme “Forged Fairytales” was released in January 2026. Members were prompted to create a wearable piece of jewelry inspired by a fairytale, myth or legend — which represented their chosen tale through impactful design elements and solid craftsmanship. We had the very difficult task of jurying these incredible works to select a winner for the grand prize…Read on to find out who won and to learn more about this NEW concept!
once upon a time…
Our members transformed powerful stories into wearable ART!
If you’re scratching your head wondering what this is all about — gather round and let me tell you the story…
For years here at Alloy, we have dreamt of a way to draw all our various member types together in an exciting and productive way, where we could share and learn from one other in a supportive and encouraging environment. We finally had the bandwidth this year to develop that vision and worked hard to bring forth the Creative Challenge!
Here’s how it works. Each season (winter, spring, summer & fall) we host a themed challenge with detailed guidelines to help participants narrow down their vision and create a finished piece of work.
The purpose? To encourage our members to dust the cobwebs out of those right hemispheres and create for the sake of FUN!
Free for ALL member types, Alloy provides opportunities for members to meet with their peers in person, supports them with helpful resources, host events for sharing their work with the world, and gives away awesome prizes!!!! Yes you heard that right, we gave away $150 to the winner of our Winter Challenge! (and, we’re gonna do it AGAIN!)
MIDPOINT MEETUP!
Halfway through the challenge, we got together at the studio to share our ideas and help each other work through any design hurdles. It was seriously so much fun ! We were wildly inspired by the cool ideas everyone brought with them.
SHARE PARTY!!
When we reached the deadline for project submissions, we celebrated the hard work that was put into each piece at our “Share Party”!
Each participant had the opportunity to talk about their project, what it symbolized and walk us through their design process.
see what our members made this season!
Participants work ranged from contemporary creations, to epic feats of fabrication — but each one told a special story…
Which one would YOU CHOOSE?!
and the winner is.......
and the winner is.......
It was an agonizing process trying to select the winner for this season’s challenge. While we wish that EVERYONE could be a winner, we had to pick just three. The pieces we chose truly met the criteria for the challenge: Wearable Design, Well Constructed, and Told a Story without words.
In Third Place, we chose Stephanie Graeber with “Tortoise & Hare” Earrings. Inspired by the classic Aesop Fable, Stephanie used strong illustrative design and incorporated challenging new techniques of Chasing and Repousse to accomplish a clean and thoughtful design.
In Second Place, was Allen Richter with “The Round Table” Charm Necklace Inspired by the Arthurian Fellowship. Allen fabricated each charm with a multitude of new techniques to forge a playful and creative representation of the famous Knights' tale.
In First Place, We the jury agreed that the piece that best reflected the criteria for the Winter Challenge was………DRUM ROLL
Erica Roberts with her“Transform” Neck Piece Inspired by the Legendary Phoenix! Erica came on strong with a visually striking project containing many different design elements that really brought forth the essence of transformation. Her clean use of hinges, interesting connections and creative use of materials really blew us out of the water. Well done!
Congratulations to our ALL of our wonderful participants!
Want to join us for the next one? Stay tuned — We will be announcing the Spring Challenge theme on MARCH 23rd!
Not a member yet? What are you waiting for? Social Membership is a great way to get involved in our community with benefits !
