Io collection - Beverly Bartlett

As part of or 10th anniversary celebrations we asked some of our artists and makers if they would like to suggest collections of work to mark the occasion. Beverly Bartlett has most definitely risen to the challenge with a stunning - and entirely new - collection of silver jewellery.

She explains her inspiration: 

"Whilst making jewellery a while ago it occurred to me that the number 10 in digit form looked rather like IO, which is one of the moons of Jupiter. 

I took this observation a bit further and concluded that a large textured silver disc from my Circles range looks like a moon and a long ‘bail’ would look like the ‘I’ and so the idea of some pieces for Elaine at the Byre Gallery developed.

Then I did a little research to see if the origins of Io would influence my design:

Io was a daughter of Inachus in Greek mythology. Zeus fell in love with her and, to protect her from the wrath of his wife, Hera, changed her into a white heifer. Hera persuaded Zeus to give her the heifer and sent Argus Panoptes (“the All-Seeing”) to watch her. Zeus sent the god Hermes, who lulled Argus to sleep and killed him. Hera then sent a gadfly to torment Io, who therefore wandered all over the earth, crossed the Ionian Sea, swimming the strait that was thereafter known as the Bosporus (meaning Ox-Ford), reached Egypt, where she was restored to her original form and gave birth to Epaphus.

Fascinating, but not a lot of help in progressing the design process. But I hope you will enjoy the collection which I hope has a nod to Greek mythology in a contemporary style.