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All posts for the month August, 2023

I have a lot of Halloween stuff. Bins and bins. Most of it is mass produced, from places like Home Goods or Michael’s. This year, doing my usual Halloween hunt at those places just didn’t appeal. I wanted something original, made by human hands.

So for 2023, I am buying original Halloween art. If you are an artist, or know of something good, hit me up in the comments.

Anything I buy will be featured here on Spooky Moon in October, when there’s more traffic. Sales and publicity–what could be better?

Frog Box!

I am super pleased with this box. It’s two separate molds. The base box took quite a bit of resin, but is smooth and beautiful and full of possibilities. The frog was half-poured, and by the time I remembered I needed to finish him, I didn’t remember what I’d used originally. So I used leftover resin…which just happened to be from the box. I think he looks pretty great.

Orange resin box with a frog on top.
Orange resin box with frog on top.
Skeleton with a jack-o-lantern head, fall leaves, and "Countdown to Halloween."

I have skipped the past few years of the Countdown, though I love it so. I just haven’t been up to it.

But this year, I’ll have a new shop on Artisans Coop, so it’s in my best interests to get off my spooky butt and join again!

If you have a spooky blog, they’d love to have you. Just sign up, and post every day (or, you know, mostly) during October. One of the best aspects is going through the list of other blogs–and there are many!–and checking them out and saying hello.

Now I just have to figure out what to post besides spamming my blog with shop updates.

Artisans Co-Op

I have become a Founding Member of the Artisans Cooperative, an Etsy alternative run and owned by artisans, which will be launching in October of this year. Right now, you can go to the site and visit the current shops of the members. Well, not me, as my Etsy has about three items, and I don’t want to give them business.

I’m excited about it, and not entirely because the domain ends in “coop” and the logo is an adorable chicken, but it is a point in their favor.

Because of this, I have been contemplating what I want in my shop. I’ve been thinking about what I’d want to see if I walked into a physical Spooky Moon, perhaps with “Gothic, Ghostly, and Enchanted” on the door in fancy gold script.

Below is a work in progress–some little boxes with vintage Halloween imagery. I love them, and I think they work. I think there’s a place for sparkly goddesses, and maybe even other replicas of ancient art.

Rusty Pins fit well, so I’m not ditching my entire previous inventory. I’d like some sparkly fantasy critters. Some skulls. Some ghosts. I want lots of things most people can afford, and a few things that are more aspirational.

If it were a physical shop (oh, my dreams), I would want an atmosphere of dark magic. It would feel like the soundtrack for Edward Scissorhands.

A box lid with a vintage Halloween postcard saying "Halloween: Ye Ghosts abound, Your mate you've seen, Your fate is found, on Hallowe'en."
Inside of the above box, featuring gothic paper, a clay jackolantern, and a bat on the front.

Considering my chosen soundtrack and the launch date, perhaps I need some spooky holiday ornaments? I can do that.

What else?

I sculpted this Venus of Willendorf a year or so ago because I wanted to make a resin mold. I like ancient goddesses. Because she is in polyclay, the mold turned out less glossy than I wanted. Also, I needed to separate the head mold or she ended up with a flat top. Wasn’t sure how to fix those things then, but now I am. She’s getting a gloss coat, and a re-mold.

Because let’s face it, if the original makers had had glitter and mica powder, they would have used them.