Bruised and Beautiful Glass Beads

I'm so excited!
Today Rob and I went up to the top (well almost the top) of Mount Lemmon outside of Tucson, Arizona and visited a little gift shop there. It's called The Living Rainbow, Inc. owned and operated by "my new best friend" Debbie Fagan.  Gift shop site: http://thelivingrainbow.com/

Debbie used to have a bead shop on the same spot as her current gift shop with thousands and thousands of glass beads .
In 2003, there was a great fire on the mountain that destroyed over 300 homes and shops including Debbie's bead shop.
The place was a disaster. The beads were all broken, burned and melted - some into clumps with each other and many were visible in the rubble.

Debbie loved her beads and began to collect them up one by one, storing them in plastic tubs and anything else she could find. Remember - there were THOUSANDS of them. It was a monumental task but she wouldn't let reconstruction begin until she had found all that she could. The lovely, new gift shop has now been rebuilt and Debbie lives on site.

She has discovered that the voles have been burrowing in the back of the structure. There are STILL some beads that have worked their way down into the ground and apparently the voles don't like to have the beads in their habitat. So as they encounter a bead in their digging, they bring it up and toss it onto a nearby rock. The voles are now her "new best friends".

Debbie showed me some framed photos of the burned rubble. I asked her about the little cement sidewalk out front that has some broken beads pressed into it. Did they pop out with freezing and thaw? What kind of cement was used? Did she leave the mosaic bench out all winter? What happed to it with the freeze and thaw? All the time I'm thinking about the Rain Garden Mosaic waterway bed. Could this work for us?

THEN she said she gives away containers of beads to people that show and interest. Would I like some? WOULD I?!!!!!
She went behind and brought out two pint containers of the wounded and beautiful beads for me. We talked some more and out came two more larger containers of those gorgeous, colorful beads. I cried.

They are going to be used in the Rain Garden Mosaic. The beads will need some cleaning and volunteers are welcome for that task.
Just think, you could touch each and every one of them!

Here's a photo of about half of them:

I'm hoping to get to a tile place before leaving Arizona - maybe find some tile remnants that can be used in our project.

 

It was a good day in Tucson today.