SAN FRANCISCO, CA –  In March 2017, Good Vibrations marked 40 years of bringing pleasure-positive sex information and high-quality adult products to customers in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. The iconic legacy business will be celebrating #40YearsOfPleasure all year long starting with a fabulous, fun and arty contest: Bling My Vibe!

Bling My Vibe! invites sex and art celebrities as well as members of the public to make an art piece using a simple Smoothie vibrator. Once the artist has their vibe, they can paint it, decoupage it, bejewel it, sew it an outfit, or otherwise get creative. For those crafters looking for a little encouragement and inspiration, Good Vibrations Polk Street store hosts a special Bling My Vibe! workshop on Sunday, April 30th for those who want to make their arty vibrator creations together. They’ll have vibrators ready to bling, plus hot glue guns and lots of bling to put onto them! (Participants can bring their own supplies too, of course, if they have something special they want to use.) Hosted by Staff Sexologist (and arty collagist) Dr. Carol Queen with burlesque blinger extraordinaire Dottie Lux of Red Hots Burlesque (who frequently teaches her School of Shimmy classes at Good Vibrations), all participants over 18 years of age are welcome. Details:

Bling My Vibe! Workshop & Crafting Session
Sunday, April 30th
4:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Good Vibrations Polk Store, 1620 Polk Street, San Francisco CA 94109
$10 advance, $15 at the door: fee covers the cost of vibe and materials

More about the contest:
For those wishing to conduct their own vibe artistry at home, the vibrator base will be available at all Good Vibrations stores for $5, now through April 30th (while supplies last). 20% of the purchase price is donated directly to the company’s GiVe program to support community sexual health and related initiatives; this quarter’s nonprofit recipients are Planned Parenthood of Northern California and the Transgender Law Center. Those who don’t live near a Good Vibrations store who wish to bling a vibe can call GV’s Customer Service Center at 1-800-289-8423 to order the Smoothie base.

These arted- and tarted-up vibes will be displayed at the Good Vibrations Polk Street store during the months of April and May. Winners will be announced at a special awards event on May 21st, 2017 (details below). Which will be the best-blinged vibrator of them all? Blinged vibrators will be voted on in May—watch the Good Vibrations Blog for a chance to participate. The top three winners will receive a Good Vibrations gift basket/gift card combo valued at $300, $200, and $100 respectively.

“The last time we did a contest like this, the results were amazing!,” says Staff Sexologist and 2013 Bling My Vibe! judge Dr. Carol Queen. “Artists crocheted, added beads, Barbies, actual dirt, and a fish jaw, referenced the Surrealists, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (that was the team from Maxim Magazine), and the Coneheads, and turned a vibrator into a geisha. We can’t wait to see what people will make this time, but I can reveal one hint—the first celebrity-blinged vibe we received is called ‘Trump Prophylaxis.’”

Rules and Regulations:
Artists must use a Good Vibes Smoothie or comparable hard plastic Smoothie-style vibrator as the basis of the art project. They may add any element/s to the vibrator they choose. The finished vibrator will be displayed at Good Vibrations, and photos of it become the property of Good Vibrations to be displayed on its website and any other contexts it deems appropriate. Participants must be 18 and over. The artist will retain ownership of the vibrator itself, and the artwork may be claimed after the GV show is over.

Deadline is May 7th, 2017.

Artists may drop creations off at any GV retail location, or mail it to:

Good Vibrations Bling My Vibe
1800 Sutter St., Ste. 700
Concord, CA 94520

After the winners have been chosen by vote, they and their fellow artists will be honored at a special Sunday afternoon party:

Bling My Vibe! Reception & Award Ceremony
Sunday, May 21st
1:00pm – 3:00pm
Location: Good Vibrations Polk Store, 1620 Polk Street, San Francisco CA 94109
Free!

The Bling My Vibe! Reception kicks off a special Day in the Antique Vibrator Museum. From 3-4pm, Curator Carol Queen PhD takes participants on a tour of the museum’s collection, with stranger-than-fiction information about the history of our favorite household helper. (The tour is Free, but sign-up is required

​.)​ From 4-6pm, join our friends from innovative local vibrator company Crave for a very special class geared to the Makers among us:

Crave Build-A-Vibe at the AVM!
Participants will make their very own Crave Duet vibrator!
Sunday, May 21st
4:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Good Vibrations Polk Store, 1620 Polk Street, San Francisco CA 94109
$95 (covers 1 or 2 people plus one vibe)
Space is limited, you must pre-register!
(choose the 4-5pm or 5-6pm time slot)

Our innovative friends at Crave want to let you in on the vibrator-building action! Come learn about vibrator design with Michael and Ti, then assemble your very own Duet vibrator from parts they provide, with their expert instruction. A huge hit at SXSW! Come build a vibe by yourself or bring a friend! Up to two people can attend per ticket and build a vibe together. You will build a popular Crave Duet vibrator and the price of the ticket includes the vibe you build–Crave Duet vibrators normally sell for $149!

Bling My Vibe! photos are available upon request.