Smashing Trinkets

With the festival just around the corner, you’re probably starting to think about what to bring to Port Eliot. Vicki Sarge-Beamon has one piece of unusual advice: dig out your old jewellery, broken trinkets, beads, chains, brooches, bracelets, buttons and even broken china lying around your house and bring them along to her ‘Trash to Treasure’ masterclass in The Wardrobe Department on Sunday.

This is an incredible opportunity to create your own stunning new pieces of jewellery and accessories, guided by the expert eye and dazzling creative flair of Vicki Sarge-Beamon – co-founder of Erickson Beamon, one of the most respected jewellery houses in the world and a driving force in the fashion industry for over 20 years. Creating designs from street fashion to haute couture, Erickson Beamon’s much-coveted statement necklaces, chandelier earrings, headpieces and unique designs with a sometimes vintage, sometimes rock n’ roll twist have attracted an array of celebrity clients from Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Sarah Jessica Parker and Gwyneth Paltrow to Samantha Cameron and Michelle Obama.

We spoke to Vicki to find out more about her plans for Port Eliot and the sparkling delights she’ll be helping you to create…

“I heard about the festival through my friend Stephen Jones. He mentioned what a great experience he had with his event at Port Eliot and encouraged me to come along and help him with his hat-making workshops last year. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the whole vibe of the festival. I couldn’t say one particular thing – there were just lots of little magical things that you’d happen upon as you wandered around.

“I know Sarah Mower through the business, so when she asked if I wanted to come and do something at the festival this year I said absolutely. I always enjoy reaching out and working with more people – I hope people will come along to our jewellery workshop with as much enthusiasm as they did with Stephen’s hat sessions last year; it was really buzzing.

“Friends often ask me to rework their pieces. People may inherit junk jewels from their family or grow bored of jewellery they already own. Reworking these pieces slightly creates a new, fresh look. For example, a girlfriend bought her mum’s collection of costume jewellery to me and I put them all together into one necklace. Or you can take a brooch and transform it into a striking headpiece.

“I’ll be showing people samples and different ideas, and also how you can even take old jewellery that’s lying around and decorate a pot or a mirror – you can decorate anything with old jewellery. I’d also like to explore the concept of people bringing non-jewellery objects – such as picture frames or old broken bowls – and show how these can be customised and decorated to create new and improved products.

“We’ll have some tools and a hot glue gun and also starter kits for people who are unsure what they may need. I’ll also provide some trinkets and pieces to get people started such as old bits of frames, flower pots and so on. I want to encourage people to throw themselves in at the deep end and explore their creative side in an organic and spontaneous manner – the festival is the ultimate playground.

“Port Eliot is an amazing weekend. I can’t wait. I’m looking forward to seeing Martin Scorsese’s new outdoor cinema area – that’s really exciting. But Port Eliot is not something you could put in a nutshell; it’s not like any other festival. There are so many different things going on but it’s all easy and has a very natural feeling to it. I love simply wandering around, coming across these amazing happenings and watching events unfold before me – it’s so full of surprises.”

>> Vicki’s Trash to Treasure masterclass will be open for anyone to join in The Wardrobe Department on Sunday 24 July from 11:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 16:00.

www.ericksonbeamon.com

Samantha Cameron wears Erickson Beamon at the Royal Wedding (April 2011)