Welcome to By Odette
Created with a fierce love for anything old and historical
I’m Odette, an independent writer, editor, classical art historian, and soon-to-be teacher with a love for travel and fascination with old things — buildings, artworks, jewelry, anything and everything that has a story to tell! Beautiful objects with long shelf lives that defy the death of detail.
After living in Rome (the most beautiful city in the world) for 2 years while completing my master’s degree in art history and ancient studies, I began working in the contemporary museum world, where I developed a blinding, burning hatred for gallery administration.
I have written a little of everything: from art critiques, museum catalogs, and academic book and film reviews, to essays about travel, style, food & wine. I am currently an editor and contributor for The Italy Edit. However, soon I began to crave a space where I could write whatever came to mind. No deadlines or needing approval from editors, just me.
Enter By Odette + The Jewelry Casket
By Odette is…
…part blog, part diary, part memory scrapbook about my travels, dubbed here as my “Odysseys,” my love for Italy, food, wine, and anything else that comes to mind. Expect to see personal reflective essays about my travels and my time abroad – I write about everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly – exploring (and embracing) the messy, honest, wonderful side of traveling that you don’t often see.
The Jewelry Casket is…
…all about my raging love for jewelry, instilled and passed on to me by my mother who is quite the avid collector! In this section of my newsletter, I talk about jewelry as art objects and its role in history as amulets of protection, symbols of power and wealth, and personal heirlooms. Expect to see historical essays on jewelry from antiquity to the present, and lots of art :)
There is a distinctly human element to jewelry, waiting to be discovered. Whatever its story, it’s something that has meaning, an object that connects humanity like a red thread! And that is what jewelry is all about for me, something that carries memory and history, a puzzle to be figured out sometimes, and something that is made even more special by its trials and tribulations.
Like I said, I love old things.
Combining history + shiny baubles, join me as I dive into the glittering world of jewelry!
Why Subscribe?
There are thousands of amazing Substacks out there, but I’m so pleased you’ve stumbled across mine :)
Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives
I’ll be starting with a newsletter 2x a month, but I may change this in the future. Thank you so much for being here, and happy reading!
xo Odette
NB: For the Love of Niches
If you like to read about several different things and can’t pin down a niche, you’re in the right place :)
In art history, students cover many things: anthropology, archaeology, history, visual arts, the decorative arts, fashion, languages, architecture, photography, poetry, literature, etc. It is a discipline that looks at history through humanity’s creations, thousands upon thousands of years.
The side effect? You end up with a lot of interests. From jewelry, history, and luxury products to food, travel, museums, and style, the list is endless.
Thus, this newsletter and its many pages are like Rome: a mishmash of themes, topics, historical layers, and shiny baubles, all coexisting peacefully in the fabric that makes up this publication.
Thank you for following along as I retrace my steps, and travel along new roads, I’m SO excited you’re here – andiamo!
