This piece is based on a very common amulet. Amulets to ward off the Evil Eye are found all over the world, and the eyes are often blue, as seen on the cover of Desmond Morris’s book containing glorious photographs of his personal collection:
Inside there is a montage of this sort of amulet:
The idea behind these amulets is to meet like with like, so the evil eye will be deflected by another evil eye looking right back at it.
My eye is very stylised. It is a big square glass bead which I bought in the extraordinary bead shop on Derby Road in Nottingham. The shop is exciting because it sells a good range of really flashy or big or unusual beads. I couldn’t resist the blue of this one. Then I surrounded it with all sorts of blue beads which I bought as a collection in the Covent Garden Bead Shop, which I have already mentioned:
Once again this is influenced by tribal beadwork:
I have no idea why I love serried ranks of beads so much, but I love these incrusted beads and particularly when they are in rows. This image taken from Sheila Paine’s book on amulets gives a brilliant example in the headdress above.
The strap is a cheap necklace from Sainsbury’s half-price sale.
