From trash to treasure: Big Sky {Tapestry}

Ok, so you've probably clicked on this post and are now thinking 'where's the trash?!' At least, I kind of hope that's what you were thinking. Not that kind of trash. 

A while back, I was lucky enough to score a MEGA destash bundle from one of my favourite jewellery designers, Eve Smith of Silver Meadows. Eve used to work with (and had an eye for) some really special lampwork glass beads, but since moving on to working with silver (and if you take a look, you'll see she's really found a beautiful and unique voice!) doesn't work with them to the same extent. 

However, this all worked very much to my advantage when I purchased her destash at the end of 2014. Seriously good stuff - fellow art bead-enthusiasts, you would be sick to the back teeth at the goodies I  scored! SERIOUSLY GOOD STUFF. 

Because of one thing and another (essentially, 2015 being a bit of a bugger of a year for us), it's taken me a while to dip my toe into the wonder that is my destash wonder-haul. But recently, I've managed just that. Perhaps even a couple of toes, or even a whole foot. 

One of my favourite things about this type of purchase is that (although Eve furnished me with a full round of pictures), you somehow don't really know what you're getting. Eve had beads from so many lampwork artists - some of which were familiar to me, and some of which were unknowns. Some of these artists don't even make beads anymore, which makes this finds extra special, somehow. 

That was the case with the bead artist here - on double-checking with Eve, Beverley Hicklin. These beads were ones that particularly leapt out at me when I took a good look through my stash again a few weeks ago. They have amazing depth and layers of colour, almost like a slice of rock or agate.

I knew I wanted to do something that just show-cased their astonishing beauty, but that they needed something special as their surroundings....and so I immediately thought '{song}beads'. It took me a while to find the right colours to complement the lampwork, but I remembered I had a tube of slightly odd-coloured beads - beads which had been described as 'Coated White Opaque Lila Gold Lustre'. Sounds gorgeous, right? All shimmery, with maybe a hint of purple, Lila being the German for purple? 

Nope. Kind of oatmeal with a light Picasso. Not what I was hoping for at the time, so they just got tossed into my bag of tubes and boxes of seed beads. But when my mind started whirring with what to do with Beverley's beads, I remembered and thought that perhaps that oatmeal would be just the ticket - and what do you know, it was. A touch of blueberry Picasso in the mix to bring out those blue layers in the lampwork, and this bracelet almost stitched itself. (It didn't though. These handwoven glass bad boys take around half an hour each - ouch!). 

I'm pleased with the finished result - and although I've entitled it Big Sky, which seems apt given the landscape quality which the lampwork beads have, in my head I've also called it 'Tapestry'. Something about the layers within the lampwork glass being paired with the woven nature of my own beads. 

You can find Big Sky {Tapestry} in my shop here.