Madelein L’Engle

Tags

A Wrinkle in Time, Allegory Gallery, Andrew Thornton, Inspired by Reading Book Club, Madelein L'Engle, The Classic Bead, Tracee Dock

Allegory Gallery hosts the Inspired by Reading Book Club. The idea is to read a book and then create something based on the book. This time the book is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. Somehow, I managed not to read this book or any others in the series when I was young, so it was completely new to me. I did enjoy the book, but I didn’t have a lot of ideas about what to create. I often design from a really visual place, and the only visual that stuck with me from the book was a scene where the character Meg used the scent of flowers to help her breathe when traveling through time and space.

Then Andrew Thornton reminded group members that there is inspiration on the Pinterest page. That really helped focus my thinking. Instead of trying to find something very specific for inspiration, it opened me up to what the book was really about – everything! The universe, everything we are, what makes us human and what else might exist in the world. Then I immediately thought of a geode type pendant I got from Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead. It just felt right, a little bit about space and nature.

I wanted to include a lot of natural elements with the pendant and make the necklace look really organic. I nestled some herkimer quartz “diamonds” above the pendant. I like the rough yet beautiful nature of them and really thought that went with the theme of the book – even though life can be difficult, it’s also really beautiful.

I knotted a few other beads along the black waxed linen. I wanted a little color but not too much. I used an old yellow Hebron bead, and a blue recycled glass disc. I wanted to include some wood, so I used a few rondelles. I didn’t want to totally forget the flower image, so I used a carved coconut shell flower bead. For the rest of the necklace, I used some small river stones with a larger one at the back for the clasp.

I’m pleased with how this necklace came out. It feels like the book, full of beautiful things you might not recognize right away and sometimes a bit of a jumble that you have to work out. Please visit the Facebook group page to see what other people have made based on the book.