Etsy and Vintage Halloween

I have recently developed an addiction to Etsy, I've been buying some interesting new additions to my collection and generally browsing for hours.

during one late night Etsy binge I stumbled into the world of vintage Halloween items, and I just love them! I have been drooling over vintage boxed costumes from Collegeville and Ben Cooper.
I bought this lovely 1950s Devil costume, it has abit of a Casper the Friendly Ghost style to it.

It's inspired me to start drawing again, I have an idea for a series of images that i'll produce as small prints based on this vintage Halloween vibe I'm loving at the moment.
Today I found an old piece of backing card from a picture frame and I loved the old. browned paper, so I did a quick sketch on this.

New French Post Mortem

My second birthday present from my parents was a lovely little French Post Mortem Cabinet Card (I chose it) its a small sized card, and I love it, its so delicate and beautiful.

Here I am holding it so you can get an idea of its size, I went through a phase of the bigger the better with the photos I was buying, but I'm getting much more interested in the little ones recently. There's something so fragile and delicate about the small ones that is so beautiful. I have another one this size and they look so lovely together, a good quality image in this size of cabinet card is just unbeatable! 

Here is a scan of the full thing, as I've mentioned it's from France, the child is posed outside judging from the wall behind. He or she has the typical 'death curl' in the hair and the face is just heartbreaking and slightly spooky. This poor child looks so fragile in death, hopefully this photograph brought some comfort to the parents and helped preserve the child's memory.

Birthday Tintypes

I got some lovely little tintypes for my birthday, they came from America, I do adore American Tintypes.
They are all children, two of them feature 'hidden mothers' where a parent had to hide just on the edge of the shot to hold a baby still for the picture, mine just feature an arm and side of head, the best hidden mother pictures have the whole figure draped in black fabric, it looks incredibly spooky.

Here they are in my hand to give an idea of size, they're very small and delicate.

The first one features a baby being held up by its mothers arm, the rest of her being out of shot. I love the way the baby is slumped in the chair in this one, makes it look quite weird. A lot of uneducated people online would say this was a postmortem picture (like they do about any slightly spooky looking photo from this era) but this was in fact a common way of trying to keep a baby still for long exposure times, as were stands with a neck holder for adults, this isn't holding up a corpse but just a way occasionally used to help keep subjects still for long periods.

This next one is beautiful, the detail is so lovely, it features the child's father holding her up with a fabric draped arm, you can see the side of his head in the image, this was originally hidden behind a paper mount.

This third one I thought was just lovely, the child looks so sweet just sat there with a funny face, he or she had done a good job of sitting for the picture as it doesn't look anyone is holding them up.

1920s Fancy Dress

We received a bundle of old photographs recently from a family member on my mums side. My mum is looking into her family history and has been asking around to find more pictures and information. Among the new pictures was an incredible, tiny picture of my Great Aunts school class on a fancy dress day in, I am guessing late 1920s.

I took two pictures of it to show the most interesting costumes, the main standout one is the amazing homemade, slightly weird looking Gollywog. My mum rang my Great Aunt who is now 90 years old to ask her about it and it turns out my Great Aunt is, in fact the child inside the Gollywog costume, she says she hated wearing it, and was really annoyed that she had to! I've seen and collected so many 1920s era fancy dress photographs, mainly from my own family, but until this one none of the subjects still survive, so it was great to hear her first hand account of it. Her parents certainly made some effort making it.

To the left side of the Gollywog is an incredibly weird looking costume, which is very spooky on first glance, as it looks like a faceless child, like some weird slenderman type figure.

A more detailed look and we think it is meant to be a duck outfit, with the winged sleeve and flipper like feet,  but how the child could see is abit of a mystery!

Renwal's Visible Head and Visible man

Earlier in the week I had a flashback to my childhood, randomly remembering the anatomy models my Dad kept in the loft when me and brother were younger.

They'd be brought down every so often, smelling musty with yellowed plastic outer casing, and we'd play with them for a bit before they went back up the ladder into the loft. I hadn't seen these for years, but with my interest in vintage toys and medical items I was really keen to see them again, even though they don't really class as toys as they are a nightmare to put together, especially the head! one wrong movement and his jaw falls off and the teeth go clattering all over the floor!

I asked my Dad about them, intending to have them as decorative items in the flat I hope to move into next year, he managed to dig them out of the loft after wondering if he might have thrown them away in the many loft clear outs hes had over the years, luckily they were all still intact along with the instruction leaflets. The Visible Man and the Visible Head were originally bought in the late 50s as kits to paint and put together, you could also get visible woman, visible dog, visible horse and possibly more. My Dad was given them when he was 12, painted and made them up, so I am thrilled we still have them and they can take pride of place when I have my own flat.

Acock Green Infants

I found this awesome picture in my grandads old album, its the Acock Green Infants in 1925, clearly putting on a production of 'Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross'
Seated on the far left is my Grandmother

I just love the outfits and the girl on the rocking horse is amazing, I had to save some detail crops

 

Some Darkroom work

I dug out a couple of old pictures I did for my A Levels, these ones were inspired by the work of Julia Margaret Cameron and I processed these myself in the darkroom.
I was never very good at darkroom processing and discarded these at the time as failures, but I can see something in them now that I love so I thought they were worth ressurecting
The first one I particularly love.

My Doll Collection

I got a new photo editing program and thought i'd photograph some of my favourite dolls from my collection, although I feel bad having favourites! I have hundreds, but here is an overveiw.

I've been collecting since I was a child, I started off with a rag doll my grandmother had made for my mother when she was a child, and I just wanted more. Above is the Ragdoll by my Grandmother, along with Mr Beast made by my Great Aunt Beryl and sent to me when she learnt of my interest in dolls.

Christmas Time

Its Christmas day! I've had a pleasant, chilled out day. My parents are watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special, which I don't like, so I decided to share my Christmas pressies on here.
I got two amazing postmortem pictures from my dad, so Chuffed with them.





The Man who sold these photographs said they were both of the same child. This could well be true, the children appear to be the same age and the wreath of flowers round the head on the one picture does look alot like the wreath resting on the childs lap in the other picture.
The only thing is I wonder why the two set ups are so different in background, the one in white with wallpaper behind, the other completely surrounded by Dark fabric. the mounts are also different, why would only one mount have the photographers stamp on it? I guess we'll never know for sure.

Sleeping Beauty 3

Here is the book I want for Christmas, shame the postage costs more that the book! I hope it gets on Amazon soon so i can get it sent a little cheaper before it goes out of print and cost hundreds, I am lucky enough to have the quite rare 'Sleeping Beauty 2' and I want to add to the collection with this one



heres a couple from the amazing selection of postmortem pictures of children that are included

Framed Drawings

Here are some of my drawings for the exhibition in their vintage frames, it was really nice to have these, as so much of my work has been digital in the last few months

Album page

Today I have made use of an old album page I have had for a while, I created my own portraits inside, do enjoy.....

Another great birthday present

Some people just know me so well, that when they go into an abandoned house, where the previous occupant commited suicide and have a root around, they immediately think of me upon finding, a very disturbing, flaking, dirty painting of a baby, that they bring it home and give it to me for my birthday! My brother is pretty cool.
I think I'm going to be able to get some pretty sick textures from this one for some art work, really excited
This present beats a pair of socks or a candle any day!

Secure the Shadow, Ere the substance fade

I found this amazing picture. I love the houses and graves in the background, and the whole composition, i've found afew outdoor and graveside pictures recently.

Young girl with Leprosy

Young girl with Leprosy, by Dr. A. de Montmeja, a Parisian ophthalmologist and pioneering medical photographer. France, ca. 1868. - Thanatos.net

Nice things

I thought people might like to see afew more bits and pieces from my collections, here is one of my favourite cabinet cards, i bought earlier this year, i just adore the childs expression and face and the fur shes sitting on, beautiful



This is my postmortem nun pendant i bought last year and one of my collection of old family photos



one of my favourites from my collection, bought years ago, from an old photo album i got, she was the highlight, with the beautiful little frame around her, i placed the picture on a page from our family bible for this photograph



and finally a picture of my great grandparents