The Victorian Romantic Tarot
It’s been a while since I posted and I almost gave up on this blog all together but I keep running across the most fascinating things on the web. Like the Victorian Romantic Tarot deck put out by Karen Mahony and Alex Ukolov. The deck is a nod not only to the lost Victorian aesthetic but to the growing neo-Victorian art scene of today.
Visually stunning and with a hint of fin-de-siecle sensibilities the Victorian Romantic Tarot makes a decadent addition to your divination collections.
There’s a YouTube video that shows most of the cards in the deck if you’d like to take a look before purchasing a set for yourself. You may want to turn the volume off though.
Madame Talbot’s Victorian Lowbrow
(image: Madame Talbot’s Victorian Lowbrow on Myspace)
I was recently reminded of Madame Ashleigh Talbot’s stunning Victorian Lowbrow work while browsing Kirsten Anderson’s Right Some Good blog. Madame Talbot uses her substantial talent to make gorgeous framed curio exhibits, handmade books, hand-illustrated posters, mourning dolls, and more.
Madame Talbot’s creations are composed of items like vintage velvet, century-old paper, and bits of real bone, teeth, and hair. Although her primary implements are needle, thread, and her own hands, she counts among her tools a vintage typewriter from the early 1900s.
Her site and art celebrate:
Sideshows and the Elephant Man, Victorian era tattooed ladies, strange medical exhibits, dime museums and East End shows, the cult of death and the funeral rituals of the lower classes, pubs, bars and saloons, public executions, titillating scandals involving death and betrayal, morbid legends such as Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden, the penny dreadful, Victorian drugs such as Opium dens, Absinthe rituals & Wormwood deliriums, Morphine syringes sold to High Society women, Chloral Hydrate fiends, Laudanum addicts, Secret Hashish Societies, laughing gas parties, and patent medicines.
(image: Framed Witchcraft Curio Exhibit by Madame Talbot)
My favorite objects are the lovingly crafted pieces in the Curio Exhibits section, like the Civil War weeping bottles and the test tubes intended to hold the final dying breath of a loved one. The description that accompanies each curio exhibit is as delightful as the exhibit itself.
Madame Talbot also sells wonderful vintage items, like an engraved mausoleum key and mostly empty bottles of medicinals and poisons.
Many dozens of unique objects are available on Madame Talbot’s Victorian Lowbrow site and some of her less pricey work can be purchased in the Madame Talbot eBay Store.
Zombies Are the New Bunnies
Just in case you haven’t heard, zombies are the new bunnies, and Etsy crafter Tina Seamonster has all the gear you need to commemorate this shift in the order of the universe. Pictured above is one of her full color “zombies are the new bunnies” cards, complete with an angry green bunny who thinks Easter zombies are “crap.” Guess he liked things the way they were before.
By the way, if Tina’s zombie looks familiar, you might remember her design from the zombie plague holiday cards mentioned in my list of handmade gifts for zombie lovers.
Easter is March 23, 2008, so get thee to the Tina Seamonster shop at Etsy if you don’t want to be stuck sending cards emblazoned with cotton-tailed rabbits and baby chicks. If cards aren’t your thing, you can also pick up a refrigerator magnet, t-shirt, or necklace decorated with the “Zombies are the new bunnies” motif.
Omen Antiquitatum
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society is known for producing quality Lovecraftiana for live action role players as well as we aficionados who simply enjoy decorating our abodes with those reminders of the mind shattering horrors that lurk just beyond our feeble senses. One particular offering I am currently lusting after is their Omen Antiquitatum, or Elder Sign, supposedly based on the works of John Dee.
The real life John Dee probably never encountered the malevolent gods of Lovecraft, but for some reason Dee is a popular figure in many of the mythical stories told about the equally mythical Necronomicon. The HPLHS pays homage to the late Dr. Dee’s invisible influence on our imagination with their magnificent version of Dee’s Elder Sign carved into copper just as occult manuals of old instructed would be sorcerers to.
The sign itself bears more than a passing resemblance to John Dee’s Sigillum Dei Aemeth lending an air of occult authenticity to the piece that few other Lovecraftian props can match. At under $40 it’s a steal you can’t afford to miss. Get it from the HPLHS Bazaar.
Glow-in-the-Dark Skeleton USB Flash Drive
From illustrator and designer Dino Alberto come these fiendishly adorable glow-in-the-dark skeleton USB flash memory drives. The limited edition “rayD8 mimobots” are available in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities, and you can choose to add on a tiny black zipperback hoodie to keep your mimobot snug.
Until now, I didn’t realize my flash drive was missing a little black hoodie emblazoned with a glowing skeleton, but now I don’t see how it can go on without one.
The Art and Alchemy of Scent
Driftwood.
An ancient forest in the heat of a summer afternoon.
Shelves full of old books.
The smoke of burning maple leaves.
These are some of the extraordinarily specific scents Christopher Brosius has captured in his collection of decadent and delightful perfumes, accords, and home sprays. His mission is “to give you a pleasure you never thought possible” by capturing and bottling all of the world’s pleasant scents. His approach to aroma is part science, part art.
At any given time, there are up to 400 hand created accords on display at CB I Hate Perfume, Brosius’ Brooklyn gallery. You can purchase a single accord, or arrange for a custom blended perfume made without any alcohol. Many of the ready-to-wear scents are also available online.
For those not able to travel to the gallery, the online shop offers detailed descriptions of each accord, accompanied by the story behind each scent. Brosius’ inspirations are also evident in the literary references that pepper the site.
His Chemical Series of perfume accords contains scents that truly underscore the link between aroma and memory. The series “captures the scents that symbolize technology, industry and man-made objects.” At first this may seem bizarre, but imagine the nostalgia when you catch a whiff of a smell from your childhood - a fresh new box of Crayolas or sun tan lotion, for instance.
If you feel that women should smell like Britney Spears Fantasy and men should not enter a room unless preceded by a cloud of Drakkar Noir, then CB I Hate Perfume probably isn’t for you. But if old paper and autumn leaves or spring flowers, wet dirt, and moss tickle your fancy, take some time to explore the CB I Hate Perfume online perfume shop.