I have never made buttons before so this sure was a challenge! Once I got the hang of it though it was hard to stop. I used a “Badge-a-Mint” button maker 
(mixed results with this hand-machine—often it will work and other times it would not). My Joyce buttons borrow heavily from well-known photos of 
Joyce & Nora as well as incorporating more of the 1961 American edition of Ulysses. The background imagery is from a recycled Anthropologie catalog.
I just returned from my first trip to Paris (which was disappointing in a few ways but largely I loved the art, museums, belle epoque architecture, the bread, and of course walking into Shakespeare and Company as is a rite of passage for any young Joycean). The wonderful part of my trip, other than spending time with my mom, was going to all of the flea markets. My favorite one was Porte Vanves where I found several pieces for this necklace: the buttons, the watchface, and of course the fabulous antique keyhole which I salvaged from a box of rusty quelquechose. 
The 7 is obviously placed in the necklace at the edge of the left hand set of beads and buttons. I mounted the letters E-C-C-L-E-S- onto the vintage buttons I found and bent the abbreviation for street out of wire. I, of course, turned the watchface's date to read the 16th and my personal favorite detail is above the watchface--James Joyce's initials spiraled out of wire atop the Protean mass of beads and wire beneath. I hope you enjoy what I have created--honestly after finishing it, very, very, very late last night I could not help but awe at it a little. It has quickly become one of my prized works. 
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