I Love DJ Vadim!

Decadence and Decay

Eily O'Connell Jewelry

winter wonderland...

Have you seen Gareth Pugh's new collection? It brings to mind the tragic beauty of Japanese Ghost Stories. The Obake (spirit or ghost) is often the main character in the bizarre, avant-garde Japanese dance-dramas, called Kabuki, as well as folklore inspired art and literature, like manga and anime. There are different types of Obake, for example Yōkai are a class of supernatural beings ranging from demons to supernatural creatures that possess part animal and part human features. Yōkai generally have a sort of spiritual or supernatural powers like shapeshifting. Another kind of Obake is the Yūrei, the soul of someone who has died in violent manner such as a tragic sudden death, murder or suicide, they are influenced by powerful emotions such as a desire for revenge, love, jealousy, hatred or sorrow. If the proper rites and rituals have not been performed, or the emotional conflict is left unresolved, the Yūrei will persist in haunting a particular person or place until their purpose is fulfilled, and they can move on to the afterlife...
Next we have John Galliano. He also worked with the grey palette for his Winter collection, but the results are rich! It conjures images of Ice Caves, Snow Queens and even Theda Bara's provacative costumes in Cleopatra! The rest of his collection is gorgeous as well and reminds me of Russian fairytales and Balkan Gypsies!

Maïssa Toulet's Cabinet de Sorcellerie

French artist, Maïssa Toulet created an amazing installation inspired by Witchcraft, Voodoo, and Folk Magick! It's a drastic contrast from her last body of work that I wrote about, Cabinets de Curiositie, which demonstrates a modern surrealist sensibility. Check out all the details of her Cabinet de Sorcellerie, on her website! It's like exploring the inside of a Wood Witch's cabin! Très Magnifique!

Ann Wood

It was love at first sight when I saw Ann Wood's dreamy ghost ship and her whimsical, cardboard castles. And now I'm officially smitten! Allow me to introduce you to Chillingworth, the Owl. I've been dreaming of owning one of her raggedy owls...but will she ever make one as perfectly wicked as this ol' fella?

“A striking evidence of man’s faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil’s office.”



Chillingworth was constructed out of an old Victorian Mourning Jacket! Fabulous, don't you think? Visit Ann Wood's blog for more crafty inspirations. Oh, and don't forget to check out the Design Sponge "sneak peek" featuring Ann's BEAUTIFUL home!

Supernatural SATYR Soap

Getting back on track! I finally listed 8 different kinds of soap in my Etsy shop. This project is obviously still in it's infancy, but it's going to to be fabulous! I don't have photos of my labels yet...coming soon! Here's another peek at what I'm offering. This soap is called SATYR, inspired by an old Occult recipe for Satyr Oil thought to be a favorite of Aleister Crowley. Keeping my Vegan/Vegetarian friends in mind, I eliminated the Civet from the old recipe using a vegetal musk instead. This sweet, warm, earthy blend combines just the right amounts of Vanilla, Cinnamon and Clove oils, the perfect amount of Patchouli oil and leaf, and a dash of Cocoa Powder. This combination is believed by some to have aphrodisiac properties that evoke lust and passionate frenzy! The mythical man/beast known as Satyr or Pan, is a manifestation of the Horned God. He is the personification of the life force energy, the wilderness, fertility, sexual virility and the Hunt. He wanders the hills and mountains playing his pan-pipes, frolicking with Nymphs! But Pan of course doesn't just frolick with Nymphs...he's PANsexual!



HYMN TO PAN by Aleister Crowley

Thrill with lissome lust of the light,
O man! My man!
Come careering out of the night
Of Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the sea
From Sicily and from Arcady!
Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards
And nymphs and satyrs for thy guards,
On a milk-white ass, come over the sea
To me, to me,
Come with Apollo in bridal dress
(Shepherdess and pythoness)
Come with Artemis, silken shod,
And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God,
In the moon of the woods, on the marble mount,
The dimpled dawn of the amber fount!
Dip the purple of passionate prayer
In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare,
The soul that startles in eyes of blue {V}
To watch thy wantonness weeping through
The tangled grove, the gnarled bole
Of the living tree that is spirit and soul
And body and brain --- come over the sea,
(Io Pan! Io Pan!)
Devil or god, to me, to me,
My man! my man!
Come with trumpets sounding shrill
Over the hill!
Come with drums low muttering
From the spring!
Come with flute and come with pipe!
Am I not ripe?
I, who wait and writhe and wrestle
With air that hath no boughs to nestle
My body, weary of empty clasp,
Strong as a lion and sharp as an asp ---
Come, O come!
I am numb
With the lonely lust of devildom.
Thrust the sword through the galling fetter,
All-devourer, all-begetter;
Give me the sign of the Open Eye,
And the token erect of thorny thigh,
And the word of madness and mystery,
O Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan Pan! Pan,
I am a man:
Do as thou wilt, as a great god can,
O Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! I am awake
in the grip of the snake.
The eagle slashes with beak and claw;
The gods withdraw:
The great beasts come, Io Pan! I am borne
To death on the horn
Of the Unicorn.
I am Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! {VI}
I am thy mate, I am thy man,
Goat of thy flock, I am gold, I am god,
Flesh to thy bone, flower to thy rod.
With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks
Through solstice stubborn to equinox.
And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend
Everlasting, world without end,
Mannikin, maiden, Maenad, man,
In the might of Pan.
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan!

The Belles of the Black Diamond Field