Jewels Vine: Steampunk Gothic

Jewelry designer Jules Vine works in New Zealand, and you can find his pieces on Etsy at JewelsVine. Vine describes his work as Victorian Steampunk, but I would include gothic as well. There is definitely a sense of gloom and mystery with his mourning jewelry. You may find it interesting (I did) that Vine apprenticed with jewelry designer Jens Hansen who created the "one ring" for the Lord of the Ring movies. Vine uses a technique in creating his pieces that provides great detail. I love it all.

I've been watching the Jewels Vine shop for some time now.  There are lots of great items on this site. I think I'm getting closer at making my decision on which piece to purchase.

Mourning Ring in Solid Bronze

Bronze Skull with Key Ring

Silver Eye Charm

Skull Ring

Stirling Silver Human Skull Charm

Mourning Skull Locket

Coffin Poison Ring

I've only shown a portion of the skull jewelry in the shop and none of the fabulous robot, alien, and steampunk themed jewelry. You really need to see the robo puppy with moving legs. You're going to fall in love.

Handbags for Horror Fans

Today, some vegan-friendly handbags from Serbia at a shop called FiMachine. These are fun, stitched bags made from "leatherette." That means while you'll look like you could kill something, nothing has been.

Skull Messenger Bag

Dragon Wing Cosmetic Bag

Spider Web Bag

Bat Bag

Bat Hip Belt

Octopus Bag

Every woman needs a new Spring handbag, don't you think?

Harry Price, Give Us a Sign

Harry Price (17 January 1881 - 29 March 1948) was a complicated man. Price was a well-known psychic researcher and ghost hunter during his days. In the 1920s the world was full of mediums, seances and ghost sightings after so many deaths during World War I and the Spanish Flu Epidemic. He was best known for exposing a celebrity spirit photographer as a fake and earning the wrath of Arthur Conan Doyle who was a Spiritualist.

I say Price was a complicated man because while he made a career out of exposing fake mediums and ghost sightings his methods were occasionally suspect and several have claimed he faked his own reported real ghost sightings. The truth is out there somewhere.

You can find out more about Price on a website dedicated to him called Harry Price: Ghost-Hunter, Psychical Researcher & Author. It's possible to spend a good hour wandering around the site and following all the ghostly links. He really is interesting. So interesting, in fact, that a TV movie was shown in Britain last December about his life. It's also called Harry Price: Ghost Hunter, but though I've tried, I can't locate a way to watch it yet. Let me know if you discover a link or where I can purchase it.

While Price didn't give us an answer on whether ghosts exist, he did leave us one very important thing- or rather 13,000 important things. The Harry Price Library of Magical Literature is housed in the Senate House Library at the College of London. According to the library, the Harry Price Collection contains:

Nearly 13,000 books, pamphlets, and periodical titles, some rare, on all aspects of magic: conjuring (from legerdemain to scientific recreations), witchcraft and the occult, prophecies, abnormal phenomena such as ghosts, mediums and spiritualism, scientific phenomena such as animal magnetism and eighteenth-century work on the automata, and psychical research. The books date from 1472 to the twenty-first century with emphasis on the nineteenth and especially the twentieth centuries.

Next time I'm in London, I'm making a stop here. Thank you, Harry Price, on the anniversary of your death, and if you're out there give us a sign.

Skulls at Stephen Einhorn

Stephen Einhorn- the man and the shop. You can visit him-it-them in London where you will find fine jewelry with an edge. There is an online shop for those of us who won't make it to London this season and it's there that I came upon these fabulous skull bathroom accessories.

Forward Facing Skull Tap Handle

Bath Skull Overflow

Skull with Ruby Eyes Faucet

These would work perfectly with our vintage sink and I would die and go to heaven if my bath time included a skull overflow.

The jewelry is just as interesting.

Fang Cufflinks

Dia de Los Muertos Skull Bracelet 

Skull Charm with Diamonds

Browse around the shop. You'll find some beautiful things.

Pin Me

I remember when pins were all the rage in the 70s and early 80s. Didn't Mork from Orc wear them on his rainbow colored suspenders? Anyway, they're back. I was amused by the offerings from Ectogasm. There are a lot of funny pins on this site. You need to check then all out.

X Files Mulder & Scully 

Future Ghost

YOLO Ghost

Bride of Frankenstein

Ouija Planchette

Cthulhu Tentacle Girl

Get out your jean jacket and pin away.

Some Carved Bones from Indonesia

Suddenly Sudden: Skeletonic Amulets has some pretty creepy jewelry. The pieces are mostly carved from ox bone, so I'm guessing that they are ethically sourced. I would imagine ox bones are pretty plentiful if the meat is being eaten.

Each piece is hand-carved and like I said, they're sinister. These are the perfect accessories for any upcoming events you might have on your calendar that would include a sacrifice or death curse.  No judgement.

Spider and Skull Pendant

Arachnid Black Pendant

Snake and Skull Pendant

Half Human Half Skull Pendant

Coffin Bracelet

Dhampir Amulet

The more I look at these the more I'm fascinated by the detail. They're wickedly captivating.

Shopping with DeadRockers

It's a short week because our office is closed for Good Friday. That always means my mind starts to go on vacation by Wednesday. What's better than shopping when you're not interested in working? To help you along I present DeadRockers, a self-described punk rock shop which for us means lots of skulls.

Anatomical Heart Pillow

Memento Mori Pillow

Tombstone Pillowcase Set

My Eye Handbag

Working Stiffs Clutch Wallet

Annex Barber Shop T-shirt

Death Head Moth Cardigan

There is a little something for everyone here. Waste some time with me today.

Skull House Pottery

Cyrus Swan is the artist behind by Skull House pottery. The slip cast porcelain skulls that Swan creates are rather soothing to look at, at least for me. These are truly memento mori pieces that make me ponder death and hope that it is as quiet and peaceful as these hand-crafted skulls.
(forgive my somber mood- i'm still processing the news of attacks in Brussels this morning)

Dark Craters Everyday Skull Box

Smokey Crackle Urn

Wing Man Burnt Orange Skull

Skulls Replace Eggs Basket

Catacombs Wall Hanging

Stay safe and treat each other with respect.

Skull Mugs from Dave Cohen

It's Monday, the second day of Spring, and it's snowing outside. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  I need a big cup of coffee this morning, so it's no wonder the ceramic mugs from Dave Cohen Art caught my eye. I hope you like them as much as I do.

Wake the Dead #14

Wake the Dead #17

Wake the Dead #11

Wake the Dead #16

Wake the Dead #1

These are fun and the patterned ones have interesting designs on all sides, so check out the full listing on Etsy.  I could almost forgive the falling snow if I had one of these.

Detroit's Red Dwarf

(Kate Cho photo)

I've been waiting almost a year to tell you about the Marche du Nain Rouge in Detroit, MI. According to legend, back in 1701 the man who founded Detroit, Michigan met with a fortune teller who told him that a red dwarf (le nain rouge) would cause him great troubles. (The nain rouge is a menacing little devil whose story is believed to have originated in Normandy, France.) As luck would have it, the settler of Detroit, Antoine de la Moth Cadillac, was French and absolutely heeded the fortune teller's warning.

Antoine is believed to have been attacked by the nain rouge and so he high-tailed it back to France, but that didn't stop Detroit from flourishing. Sighting of the nain rouge continue to this day and it's believe he stirs up trouble where ever he goes. To combat this evil menace, the city of Detroit hosts the annual Marche du Nain Rouge. It sounds awesome. Residents make floats and wear costumes and parade through town chasing the red dwarf away for another year. The parade lasts several hours and everyone is encouraged to bring a stick to beat back the nain rouge. There are official party sites the week leading up to the parade too. Most of those seem to happen in bars, so you can understand my fascination. This year the parade takes place on March 20th. We still have time to get there.

(Kate Cho photo)

In my tradition of if you can't be there buy something that looks like you were I'll send you over to  Etsy for some official looking t-shirts.

The20sixth

Citybird

Citybird

Citybird

I wish my town had an evil demon we could chase away every year....