Inspired by Reading: An Atlas of Impossible Longing

After last month's failure to finish our book club book (I'm still working on getting it read!), I'm happy to report that I did manage to finish our June selection An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy!  It helped that this was a much shorter book and that I had a plane ride to and from San Diego to put a dent in it.

This is another novel with an unusual narrative structure.  It's told in three sections from characters in three different generations with fairly large amounts of time separating the sections.  The first section focuses on Amulya and his wife Kanabala in their home at Dulganj Road, Songarh.  It also introduces their sons Kamal and Nirmal... ending when Nirmal's young wife dies in childbirth.  The second section shifts between Nirmal, his daughter Bakul, and the orphan boy Mukunda.  The final section is really Mukunda's story although it brings things full circle.

The title is really very apt... there are so many characters who are in impossible situations where what and/or who they long for are an impossibility.  One major relationship seems to get resolved at the end of the story, but so many others have no real resolution.  While this is probably much more true to life, I found it somewhat unsatisfying as a reader.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for a happy ending!  

I was struck by the idea of the gardens Amulya cultivates with only pure white flowers and used that as a jumping off spot for my designs.  The gardens provide a backdrop to the story throughout all three sections of the novel so it seemed a fitting inspiration.  I decided to make a few pieces related to this theme... sometimes I just get on a role.

I started with two pairs of earrings.  My original idea was to use some fun bead caps that I picked up on my trip to Asheville, NC back in May.  They remind me of Lilly of the Valley flowers (which are also white) and that was part of the appeal.  I wanted to play with white flowers dangling down from the bead caps on chain.  As I was trying different things, I decided that three of the white bell flowers was just a little too much so I substituted in a tiny faceted hematite round into that third spot.

For my second pair of earrings I pulled out the fancy leafy chain that I bought a while back with earrings in mind.  I loved the idea of the silvery leaf fringe hanging down from gemstone beads.  Since I wanted to keep with the all white idea, I chose some matte crackle rock crystal beads paired with silver plated bead caps to fancy it up a bit.

I was still feeling the creative spark, so I rounded things out with a fairly simple charm necklace.  The large poppy pod from Nunn Design is quite hefty in weight.  I used a large fancy silver plated ring to anchor the charms and added in some white Czech glass and a white howlite bead.

Pop on over to Andrew Thornton's blog to see what the rest of the group made this month HERE.  Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!