Of blank minds and reeling books.

My creative journal has been flooded of late by academic musings and their respective photographs. Busy making decisions about what grad school to go to, I have utterly neglected my jewelry/art making. Even those moments of inspiration when I really wanted to create something new have been interrupted by the need to go to work, or the need to merely sleep during my non-working hours. This post will attempt to steer the blog back onto its familiar road.























You may have noticed a new type of pictures taken for my etsy shop, involving better lighting, earrings made using antique objects and books used as props. These, my friends, are symbols of things to come...
More I will not say, for then the symbols will lose their mystery. Only this: greciangoldsmith is changing.

In Limbo Between Mind and Body

In the last few days I've drank so much coffee that the phrase "my brain is melting" has become a staple utterance. The reason for this, in two words: retail job. Arriving from an academic tour high right into a sell-your-soul-to-satan-for-money kind of low can only be endured with copious amounts of caffeine.

Thankfully, I am leaving the country once again, to visit Northwestern University in Evanston (right next to Chicago). Initially, I wasn't going to visit it, but then I decided that it would be silly not to. What have I got to lose? It's a fantastic program with fantastic faculty members. They absolutely deserve a visit. I fly on Monday morning and return Wednesday night. Ahh, the sweet flavour of anticipated travel.

Among other activities, I've been keeping busy (translation: procrastinating more useful tasks) with a new marvel of Interwebs teknologie: Looklet.com. Just see what amazing looks it has allowed me to create!




Achingly chic, aren't they? I would absolutely wear all three (and I do wear similar things). But this is nothing compared to the things my lovely friend pledgerose creates over at her fashion blog Aduial Reverie...

Tah tah for now!

Academic Hangover

Hello darlings.

I just got back from my lovely academic tour to the three most prestigious universities that accepted me into their PhD programs. I am overstimulated at the moment, having absorbed so much intellectual conversation. A cerebral revelry it was!

Though I am still trying to get my life back into some form of a regular routine, I will share a few snaps with you--completely unedited and therefore delightfully raw--for your joy and viewing pleasure.

New England and West Philadelphia

Tomorrow, at the indecently early hour of 7AM, I will be taking off on a plane that will bring me to the fair city of Providence, Rhode Island, home to Brown University's German Department, where I may or may not be a graduate student this coming September.























After that, I am off to Boston, Massachusetts, a mere 47 minute train ride away, to visit a very special person who resides in Cambridge and attends a very prestigious University there. I love Boston, and I hope to sit around in cafes for four entire days, exchanging romantic looks while surrounded by the faint and salty mist of the sea.






















The last destination, reached by enduring (or enjoying?) a 6 hour train ride is Philadelphia.

























And then it's sweet home Toronto, Ontario.

(Image source: Wikipedia)

The Perfect Anxiety

Sometimes my creative energy is more like a leveling force: I feel the need for order and consistency.

My customers ask me: where are the new items you promised? We are anxious to see more of your stuff! And I blush and make more promises.

I vowed never to reveal too much of my inner life on this blog, but today, I am breaking all the rules. The truth is, I am a closet perfectionist. Yes, if every detail is not as I had envisioned it, my happy self recoils into a surly, withdrawn and lazy hermit.

Being a writer and scholar, most of my life has been spent using words to express myself. How easy, that! Words; my dear friends... They never need too much coaxing to flow onto the page in beautiful order and logic, nevertheless able to express the most profound and obscure of thoughts. But when it comes to pictures, fabric, gems... These things are so shy! They need attention, promises, whispers in the night to obey that beautiful vision I glimpse through the clouds of my subconscious. Sometimes they would rather perish in a rebellious fit of self-destruction than bend to my will. Oh, you breathless things!

I am going to make the most gloriously imperfect ring I can think of; I am going to let it emerge all on its own into its being. I will call it "The Perfectionist's Nightmare", because it is usually your worst fear that will cure you of fear itself.

Which picture shall define me?

Recently, I started experimenting with a new style of photography for my etsy shop. Having built a light box, I now have the pleasure of shooting in the middle of the night and not having to depend on the the sun when, in its mercy, it decides to grace us for a few hours to bring humble slivers of light into our gloomy, Canadian winter days.

But let us to put such run-on sentences aside: I am thinking of changing my avatar. Should I? Do tell me which you prefer:

OLD:










NEW:










I've changed it to the new one in my shop, and you can also see some of the new versus old pictures of my jewelry. Pretty please have a look and tell me what you think! xo

http://greciangoldsmith.etsy.com

The son and heir.

Of nothing in particular.