A Cameo Appearance by Jane Austen

  When you write again to Catherine, thank her on my part for her very kind and welcome mark of friendship; I shall value such a brooch very much. Jane Austen to Cassandra October 7, 1808

For the past month, Miriam and I have paid homages---big and small---to that loveliest of authors.  We have tried to incorporate the sensibilities, tastes, styles, and customs of Jane Austen's era and her works into our lives and into this blog.  We wish we could say that we now speak with British accents, and that our children are pictures of propriety, and that our husbands have taken to wearing long cloaks and cravats, but we can't.  What we can say is that we have felt a little prettier, a little girlier, and a little more refined this month.  (And by refined, I mean that I plugged in an iron and used the word "wretched" recently.) As I pondered what to do for our final day of Jane Austen month, I decided it would only be fitting if we had an appearance by the author herself---a silhouette appearance.  And what better way to keep "all-things-Austen" close to our hearts than putting her silhouette on a necklace?  (A small disclaimer here:  I haven't made a necklace since I was five-years-old and enthralled with the multimedia potential of Fruit Loops and macaroni.)

Jane Austen Cameo:

To begin my Jane Austen cameo, I started by printing out Miss Austen's silhouette on regular computer paper.  I then selected the most clear and uniform flat glass marbles I could find in my collection of craft odds-and-ends.  (If you don't have these lying about, you can find them in the wedding and/or floral section of your local craft store.  The marbles I used were about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter). After centering the marble on her image, I traced around the outside of the marble and cut the circle out with scissors. I then put a thin layer of modge podge glue on the back of the marble and placed the paper silhouette on top with the image face down.  (And don't worry.  You don't see the glue after it dries.) I then cut out a piece of black felt the size of the marble.  I held the marble against the felt as my template and cut around it. Then, to gussy the pendant up, I glued some black lace around the edge of the felt using a glue gun.  When I flipped the felt over, this is what the backside looked like. On the lace side of the felt, I glued on a pendant back with a chain hook at the top.  I then glued down my silhouette marble on top of that.  After letting the necklace dry for a few hours, I strung my favorite black ribbon through the clasp.