They say you should surround yourself with things you love and enjoy, whoever "they" are...... I enjoy being surrounded by darkness and anything to do with the magical arts, (makes me feel all warm and cozy). I search for old occult items, curios and oddities on my hunting trips to Estate sales, street faires, auctions and other antique shops. Of course, these things are hard to find so sometimes I end up crafting magical creations from a variety of vintage objects that I find. This little tin magic box used to be an old manicurist's kit. Now in a altered state, it contains more intriquing things like a antique vial of myrrh to burn while conjuring, an all seeing vintage taxidermy eye, pair of vintage dice, eye of newt, a real alligator claw, a chunk of Fool's Gold, a little crystal ball, paw of vermin, my version of love potion #9, and an old medicine bottle with faux strychnine! Great gift for the witchy woman in your life or just a fun novelty decor item!
The objects all fit nice and compact into the box which measures only 4" x 3" x 1" high. This little magic box is for sale if you are interested, just email me.
My next latest creation is this Voodoo/Hoodoo Doll. It is 10" tall and created from scratch with real vintage human hair and adornments. It comes with two antique puncture pins and extra little black safety pins to attach personal items. This one is available and I have more of these dolls at my shop and on the curiosity section of my website, each one is different and can be made to order if you have an idea in mind. Email me if you are interested adding one to your altar. One just went to a new home in Canada. Sometimes when I am making them, I picture women with ex's in mind, and recently one of these women came into my store after just spending hours in mediation with her ex husband in the Court House across the street from my shop. Apparently her ex was a real SOB and a full time liar to boot. She was thrilled to find a doll like this and said she will be using it for her therapy!
Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails - that's what little boys are made of
For those of you that didn't see this jar on my old blog, I decided to post it again to share since it was such a special find. -- Last month I was at a tiny mountain flea market and came across this jar of goodies. It is an older large peanut butter jar filled with real snakes, snails, and puppy dog tails. The story of this jar goes like this; It was found in the rafters of an old man's garage. He said years ago after having 6 daughters, he wanted a son. He went to visit a local mountain woman and she made up a spell of sorts for him. This jar is part of the spell. Shortly after she gave him the jar, his wife became pregnant and had a son. Now his son is grown but gay and because his son ended up being gay, he didn't want that jar around anymore................so now the magical jar resides in my kitchen with the rest of my specimens......
Finally after a break in the weather, I was able to get out and do a little hunting. Don't get me wrong, I do love winter - the fog and dampness, snow and exciting thunder storms, the relief of less sunshine....but that all puts a damper on the street faires and antique shows. Last weekend I found some fantastic old gypsy collectibles...this gorgeous gypsy caravan drape is appliqued old silk and velvet with cord embroidery work. It measures about 6 feet wide x 5 feet high.
This antique dream book c. 1887 is a wealth of information.
I was thrilled to find this vintage deck of Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Cards, the older graphics in this deck are fabulous and all the cards are present.
