July Inspired by Reading Blog Hop...

Today is the blog hop reveal for the Inspired by Reading Book Club!  If you're not familiar with the group, you read a book from our book list and then create something afterwards inspired by what you read.  It can be anything!  For July, we read "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot.  This is another non-fiction selection for our group and features an author probing the mystery of who Henrietta Lacks was and exploring the scientific and moral implications of the cells harvested from Mrs. Lacks.  It's a fascinating read and gives life to a character who was the foundation of much of the medical breakthroughs of the last half-century.

We had a fun meet-up at the shop!  It's always an enjoyable time!  We had originally planned to go with a Southern theme of friend chicken and biscuits, but time got away from us.  Luckily, Laurel made blueberry muffins with a lemon glaze that held us over as we sipped moscato and chatted about the book and life.  The meet-ups are so nice, because we just unwind and talk about what's on our minds.  We do talk about the book, but the time is mostly spent bonding with others.

And without further ado... here's the Reveal:

This necklace was made by Dawn.  It incorporates wooden beads with knotted hemp.  She said she was inspired by the descriptions of Home House and early tobacco farm house that Henrietta grew up in.

Dawn also brought these components.  One is a a leaf that she found that she said resembled cells under a microscope.  She wanted to decoupage it to a stone and incorporate it into a future piece.  (Unfortunately the cats at her home got ahold of it and chewed it up a little.)  The pebbles were adhered together and are supposed to represents cell dividing.

This necklace was made by Laurel.  She hung an electroplated druzy shard from a strand of strung seed beads with two corrugated gunmetal rounds, two fine pewter hand charms from my family at Green Girl Studios, and two base metal textured ovals.  She said she was inspired by the descriptions of Deborah's red nails in the book and all the mentions of hands.

This piece was also by Laurel.  She strung polymer clay cells that she made from Ancient Pebble-colored Wooly Wire to form this necklace.

Laurel explained the story to her daughter, Haileigh and showed her some pictures of cells.  Here's the piece that her daughter made.  It represents a cell and is on a paper plate with a concrete and paint.

This is the piece that Alison made.  Here's what she had to say about it:  "I used the frayed recycled sari silk ribbon to represent tobacco leaves, both fresh and dried.  I wanted it to have the look reminiscent of an award or medal.  I made a pendant and incorporated antique lace behind her picture and the picture of her daughter, Elsie.  I coated everything in dimensional ModgePodge to seal and protect the images and lace.  The found object key represents the key to scientific research and reminds me of Home House.  I also used the wood beads and acorns to symbolize the House Home.  The two lampwork glass beads that I used in the necklace look like her cells under a microscope." 

Here is the bracelet that I made.  I was inspired by the idea of a DNA helix.  I was particularly moved by the idea that cancer begins on the smallest and most tiny of levels.  Something happens in the stranded sequence that makes the cells reproduce wildly.  To represent that, I used a spiral stitch and used beads that reminded me of color of tobacco leaves.  The silly thing is that after I finished this bracelet, I found a nearly identical one that I made a few years ago as a class sample.  I quietly kicked myself for not being more clever and repurposing an old bracelet.

Check out what some of the others in the group made:

Mary K McGraw

Jeanne Steck

Sarajo Wentling

Andrew Thornton, Laurel Ross, Alison Herrington, Dawn Berkebile

The next book is "Stiff" by Mary Roach.  CLICK HERE for the list of books for this year's selections.  If you are interested in participating and keeping up with us, CLICK HERE to visit our Facebook group.  CLICK HERE to check out our Pinterest page for supplemental inspiration.  The meet-up for August is scheduled for Wednesday, August 27th and the Reveal is schedule for Thursday, August 28th.