I’m a curator of bling and, perhaps, a bling hoarder. Whenever I find cast-off items like broken jewelry, vintage metal buttons, uniquely twisted pieces of metal, or beads and art glass, I organize them into homogenous bins. I say homogenous, but I cannot always explain why each element is part of a certain group. They may simply be “Earth Tones” or they may be “Copper” or “Pet Bling.” But suddenly, I will look at a bin and I know: THIS represents [inspiration of the day]!
It was unusual to see so many shades of oranges in my bling hoard. Even more unusual were the tear-drop shaped pins that were in the same color. Then it hit me – These look like the folded end of the paisley designs I wore (yes) in the mid-sixties. Paisley designs have been around for centuries, but became identified with psychedelic style due to a resurgence in the pattern's mainstream popularity leading up the mid- and late 1960s, partly due to The Beatles.
I immediately gathered the tear drops to determine how many paisleys I could create. Plus, the detailed patterns paisley designs allowed me to use all the orange bling I could find. My completed mosaic, done in the ‘tapestry method’ but without the traditional fringe, reminds me of youthful summers gone by, when hippies were in, social change was afoot, and my favorite song lyrics were “…The mornin' sun is shinin' like a red rubber ball.”