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Dig out the best pictures of your work – or get started now on a new piece – and enter the fifth annual PWM Excellence Awards for a chance at the $1,000 grand prize. Submissions are accepted accepted in five categories from now through June 16 – click on the logo at left (or above, if you’re on mobile) to enter (or see the link below)
There’s no fee to enter – the only “string” attached is that we’ll print the work of the grand-prize winner, the winners in each of the five categories and the Readers’ Choice winners in the November 2017 issue.
You can enter up to five pieces total in the five following categories:
■ Casework, Cabinets & Bookcases
■ Seating
■ Tables
■ Boxes & Smalls (a “small,” for example, might be a mantel clock or a beautiful shop-made wooden tool)
■ Turnings, Carvings & Objets d’Art (“objets” encompass wall-hung art pieces, sculpture, wooden jewelry, etc.).
The editors and contributing editors to Popular Woodworking will select the grand-prize winner, plus the winner in each of the five categories. Your online voting determines the Readers’ Choice winners (voting opens June 20).
The category winners and the overall Readers’ Choice winner get $100 gift certificates to ShopWoodworking.com.
Alex Sutula’s 2016 grand-prize winning “Circular Seating” (he also made the tables shown in this image).
Last year’s competition was fierce, with several stellar pieces vying for the $1,000 prize – but it was Alex Sutula’s circular bench (shown above) that nosed out the competition in the end. We were impressed by not only the fair curves of the 10′-diameter bench, but by the execution of the many Maloof-style joints in the base.
I’m hopeful the 2017 competition will yield a similar battle – it’s fun to discuss the finer points of joinery, wood selection, form and style.
And that’s why it’s of utmost importance that the photos you enter allow us to appreciate your work; if we can’t clearly see your piece overall and the crisp details of the work that went into it, you hurt your chance of winning.
First and foremost, make sure your pictures are in focus. An uncluttered background is best so as not to pull the eye away from the work, and diffused natural light (say, sunlight through a sheer curtain) helps to avoid harsh shadows. (And if your work is chosen as a winner, you’ll need to supply high-resolution digital images for print.) You’ll upload up to three images for each entry – one that gets seen by every visitor to the site, and two additional shots for the judges.
Find all the contest details, as well as directions on how to enter, at popularwoodworking.com/2017readerexcellence .
I look forward to seeing this year’s entries! PWM
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