Eve Bead

Since childhood I confess to have always been fascinated by gaudy stuff - stones of different hues which would catch light at different angles and reflect them in the most dramatic fashion. My sister would start me off on my exploration- demanding that I bring back some specific pieces of trash. I would wander around in the neighbourhood, keeping an eye out for any interesting twig, leaf, flower, chip of mica, buttons, odd shaped pieces of broken glass, a thread of unusually coloured wool, a brightly printed vivid cloth - anything at all which we could recycle! My offerings would be gone through perfuntorily, most would be discarded summarily and yet some pieces (with possibilities!) would be treasured.

We would tax our imagination (hers more than mine) to come up with innovative uses for the junk. Most often it would be fashioned, by means of wires and threads and vines and twines, into sorry but very unique looking jewellery.

Then growing up happened and one got a lot more self-conscious about trawling around looking for and picking up road-side junk. There was also the phase of absolutely no jewellery- junk or otherwise.

College was this first all-female institution I found myself in. And it did bring out the best in creative stuff. There were matching jingle-jangle bangles and all other trappings that came with it. Not that I was ever the most jingly-jangly Jane around but I did stretch mine own limits of being jazzed up. It was by its very nature self-limiting and I found myself reverting to non-matching stuff as soon as I stepped out of the college gates.

Now after all these years, I discover that I am truly fond of glass, wooden, stone, shell and any which coloured beads. Wish I had hoarded those shiny pieces of shell, wood and stone which I had picked up from fishing village off Dwarka or the loads of shiny smooth beads I got from tiny weekly shandies in Garhwal or pebbles and rough stones from Jhansi or other places tucked away in heart of central India. I could do with all those now as I regularly change my accessories even if I remain to my solitaire friends.

Inspired by this.