Steampunk!

A)































































B)





























































































C)








































































D)



















































E)





































































I let off some steam with Steampunk last week! Forgive the horrid pun. Can't wait to make Joycean creations that have the element of Victorian & Edwardian romance and sensibility (which of course Joyce loathed) and harsh punk technology and gadgetry. I cannot wait to experiment with this new genre and add perhaps a modernist, futurist, Dadaist twist! Hope you enjoy these new creations. Let me know what you think!

A) "Kick Up Your Heels"; made with black chain, an antique door hinge and key, reproduction antique sprockets and gears, vintage buttons wire wrapped, and paper.

B) "This Way Out"; made with various scrapbooking materials, small paper flowers, reproduction antique gamer spinners, freshwater pearls--dyed various colors, gold filigree, clock parts, a commemorative stamp of a Rhode Island Windmill, gunmetal chain, scraps of an old Engineering textbook, and a belt buckle.

C) "Tonobungay"; Inspired by H.G. Wells's novel of the selfsame title. Made with glass beads, wire, gunmetal chain, reproduction antique typewriter keys, clock parts, reproduction antique sprockets and gears, scraps from an old Engineering textbook, scrapbook materials, and an old stamp "Pharmacy."

D) "Time Flies"; It sure does with this necklace (already sold). Made with gold butterfly filigree, clock parts, antique button and key that I got from a flea market in Paris, gunmetal chain, scraps from an old Engineering textbook, a sticker--modern but cute, dyed pearls and seed beads, and of course, the fabulous green flower button bead--also obtained in Paris for an extraordinary fee. Best buttons I ever bought (even though they were 3 Euro a pop! Yipes!).

E) "Clocks in the Windmill"; My favorite creation of the bunch. Made with silver and gold filigree, dyed pearls, gunmetal chain, wire, plaid ribbon, Rhode Island 1790 Stamp, clock parts, gold key, antique reproduction gears and sprockets, antique reproduction game spinner, scrapbook materials, paper flowers, and jump rings!

My Solid There

I've been at my kitchen table sketching and decoupaging paper all week in between reading. Tonight I revisited a summer favorite, Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife and rediscovered something I had forgotten. She writes so beautifully of creating art:

The compelling thing about making art-or making anything, I suppose—is the moment when the vaporous, insubstantial idea becomes a solid there, a thing, a substance in a world of substances. Circe Nimbue, Artemis, Athena, all the old sorceresses: they must have known the feeling as they transformed mere men into fabulous creatures, stole the secrets of the magicians, disposed of armies: ah, look, there it is, the new thing. Call it a swine, a war, a laurel tree. Call it art. The magic I can make is small magic now, deferred magic. Everyday I work, but nothing ever materializes. I feel like Penelope, weaving and unweaving. (248)

Thought I'd share something that I had found again and also post some pictures of my latest experiments. I've been dabbling with decoupage, paper, rubbish, and little scraps of magazine print culture!

7 Eccles Street

Perhaps one of the most beautiful and organic pieces I have created...here is "7 Eccles Street":

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.