Thursday, December 11, 2014

Proust's Overcoat: Inspired by Reading Book Club

This is the last installment of the Inspired by Reading Book Club for 2014.  I feel like a broken record lately but, seriously, where has this year gone??


I actually read this slim volume during my trip to Pennsylvania for the book club meet up in October.  I have to admit that while it was a quick read, it didn't really resonate too much with me... likely because I've never read anything by Proust (and probably never will.)

This is a nonfiction title that relates the story of one man's passion for (maybe even obsession with) all things Marcel Proust.  Being a librarian married to a book collector, I get the desire to collect to some extent, but I have a hard time going to some of the lengths that Jacques Guerin did.

The imagery that really stuck out to me was really just a tiny mention in Guerin's backstory describing his family's perfume company.  The author describes a large, bright room that housed women "sorting through white, yellow, orange, and crimson rose petals, which, once picked over, were piled high in huge wicker baskets."

I ended up wire wrapping some orange and yellow Czech glass flowers to a brass filigree hoop and hanging it from a simple brass chain.  I wanted to give a little more movement and visual interest to the pendant so I hung the hoop from the chain slightly off center and then added a dark red glass flower and an orange leaf dangling from the bottom of the hoop.



You can check out what everyone else made this month too:


Sarajo Wentling - That's me!


3 comments:

  1. Hello Sarajo! I almost used that image from the book, glad i didn't cause you got it perfect! Great Job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sarajo!! I think the intensity of the colors of the flowers in your necklace conjure up the scents that the women must have experienced while sorting petals for perfume. I like to imagine what it must have been like and this has helped me be there. Lovely necklace and interpretation!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This beautiful necklace looks just like that passage you quoted from the book. It's really lovely. Those colors are so vivid they almost bring to mind a scent!

    ReplyDelete