These wonderfully eccentric window arrangements at Narcissus have brought a welcome touch of the Hebrides to Broughton Street this month.
The various assemblages – part-bird-part-fish, float-flowers, Domestos-chickens, torpedo-bladders and beastie-buoys – are the work of Skye carpenter and artist 'Beads'.
Since January this year, he has regularly fashioned them from the manmade jetsam washed ashore on the beach near his home at Dunvegan in the northwest of the island. Their finished forms usually suggest themselves, either by pre-existing resemblances or through coincidental and convenient ways of joining them together.
The profits from those he sells go towards further clean-ups and raising awareness of the seaborne pollution problems facing that beautiful part of the world. Beads thinks most of the rubbish originates from fishing boats, but also larger vessels using the Minch in contravention of shipping regulations. Some of the beaches in Skye, he says, are often feet deep in detritus.
You can see more of Beads's comical and inventive work at Chapel Croft Creatures.
A close friend of Narcissus staff was born and bred on Skye, and noticed Beads's work on a recent trip back to the island. All the works on display in the window are for sale. To buy one, Tel. 014705 72772.
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