Happy Belated Birthday Mr. Joyce!

I have been a terrible blogger so far this year. My doctoral exams are imminent and that has taken priority over my creative urges. Given that I have been snowed in now for a few days, the urge is too great to be ignored. Guess that groundhog saw his shadow after all!

I have put together a treasury of James Joyce related art and artists on Etsy in honor of Joyce's birthday two days ago. Follow the link below and see for yourself! There is Joyce inspired jewelery, photography, stationary/paper art, pop art, and even wall hanging for wine enthusiasts!

Enjoy!

Link to Etsy Treasury: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d4c7af565528eef501dcb19/happy-belated-birthday-james-joyce

"7 Eccles Street" Featured in the JJQ!

My necklace, "7 Eccles Street" is featured in the latest edition of the James Joyce Quarterly (vol. 46 iss. 1) on pg. 18.

Thanks to Mary O'Toole for her mention of my blog in her report on Bloomsday at the JJQ this summer!

Paris Inspired Creations

I have been reading travel books lately on Paris and brushing up on my French for my trip in August. Already the city, where Joyce among many other famed modernists and artists convened and lived, has inspired me to create. This particular collection is simple, shabby chic, (very Bohemian and romantic) and I think very elegant for the summer. Enjoy!

Fabulous bracelets!

Pendants that are both light and fun!

Bicycle necklace...j'adore!

"Fleur" necklace

J'aime! I wore this to the Opera the other night and it was a great conversation piece. I love the pun- Opera time!

Clock faces are in a few necklaces and I think it provides a fantastic embellishment to any piece.

"A thimble in time!"

Bloomsday Celebration ~June 16th 2009

"Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past"

~James Joyce, Ulysses, "Scylla and Charybdis"

Tomorrow is Bloomsday and this year I have celebrated it through my other love, jewelry-making! For the James Joyce Quarterly I have created two Shadowbox centerpieces for their reading event and they are displayed above with pride. Also, here are some random Joyce inspired creations! Enjoy them, please check out the rest of my collection below! Thanks, Sam. Have a fabulous June 16th everyone!

"Calypso"

"Another slice of bread and butter: three, four: right. She didn't like her plate full. Right. He turned from the tray, lifted the kettle off the hob and set it sideways on the fire. It sat there, dull and squat, its spout stuck out. Cup of tea soon. Good. Mouth dry. The cat walked stiffly round a leg of the table with tail on high. ---Mkgnao!...Mrkgnao! the cat cried" (U 55).

"Calypso," where we first meet Leopold Bloom, is full of so many rich images it was difficult to create just one piece for this particular collection series; however, I decided upon something simpler since several of my pieces were more involved and perhaps less wearable ("Proteus" is a prime example of this!). Bloom making breakfast, with the mewing of a persistent cat, seemed a nice place to start! The necklace quotes the "Mrkgnao!" of the cat and symbolically represents Bloom's morning. The charms I selected all are symbols presented in this episode which reverberate throughout Ulysses: Bloom's keylessness (i.e. the key charm), his Jewish heritage (the Star of David charm), his alternate identity as Henry Flower and flowers in general (the flower charm--in full bloom might I add!), and last but not least the tea kettle, which we return to in the end with Molly's monologue in "Penelope." A very wearable piece!

"Keyless Citizen"

"What comforted his misapprehension [Bloom's]?

That as a compentent keyless citizen he had proceeded energetically from the unknown to the known through the incertitude of the void" (U 17.697).

The most whimsical and humorous in my collection, the "keyless citizen" is made up entirely by two materials, paper and chain. To my great depair, I would not find real keyholes, it is an odd material to come by if you are not a locksmith, so I improvised and created the keyholes from paper which I treated with a deconstructing paint process to make them appear more like real keyholes. Keyholes...but alas no keys. Poor Poldy!

"Penelope"

"I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as abother and then I put my arms and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes." (U 18.760-768)

I constructed the gray freshwater pearls around the metallic flower (it is unbelievable difficult to locate a rhododendron bead--I guess I will have to mint my own next time!) to represent the Moorish wall of Molly's memory/fantasy and strung pearls that were exotically colored. The "yes" in the necklace is shaped from wire and the key represents just one interpretation of Ulysses's ending: Molly and Bloom together again. This is my favorite piece in this collection. I think it captures some of the beauty of "Penelope."