Filed under: General, Oddities, Steampunk | Tags: Bazaar of the Bizarre, craft show, Curious Oddities, Gothic craft, Halloween sale, handmade, macabre, Plastik Wrap, Royal Sarcophagus Society, Steampunk craft, Toronto
Hello to all! It is time once again for the delightfully macabre Halloween marketplace, The Bazaar of the Bizarre.
Hope to see you there!
Filed under: General, Oddities | Tags: antique market Toronto, Curious Oddities
So delighted that I braved the nasty storm to visit my local antique market for some good ole treasure hunting! A good haul, I can wait to craft some beauty!
Filed under: Oddities, Steampunk | Tags: bulb, Curious Oddities, Decorus globosa, disovery, explorer, journal, necklace, neo victorian, Steampunk
Pluck your own Decorus globosa necklace from the collection at the Curious Oddities shoppe
Filed under: Oddities, Steampunk | Tags: antique, Belgium, Brussels, industrial, lamp, lueurs poetiques, modern, salvage, Steampunk, Zoetises
While wandering the winding streets through Brussels I stumbled upon the most delightful of shops:
Zoétises: Lueurs poétiques located at 10 Rue de la Tulipe, Bruxelles
In her small and very charming studio, Zoé creates magic with salvaged treasures and light. Antique glass cloche 
domes, steel boxes, baking tins, sieves, cages and industrial scrap all become components of her beautiful work. The light from the wide variety of incandescent bulbs highlights the aged, chipped paint and worn textures, casting strange shadows through the mesh, wire and holes of her lamps.
Zoé also shares my love of old fashioned light bulbs, with their coils, filaments and warm glow. She fears that as Belgium, like many countries, switch to compact fluorescents, the beauties at the heart of her wonderful lamps will be harder to find than the salvaged pieces that frame them. Be sure to visit the Zoétises website to see more of her fantastic pieces.
I can’t thank her enough for introducing me to the daily antique/flea and junk market in Marollen quarter of Brussels…it blew my mind…
Filed under: Oddities | Tags: Alice in Wonderland, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, Mad Hatter, Red Queen, Tim Burton, White Queen
The first photos for Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland slated for release in March 5, 2010. I am really looking forward this production, and of course it has a great cast including:
Anne Hathaway as the White Queen
Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen
Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter
Really, is there anything that Johnny can’t do?
As well as Alan Rickman, Christopher Lee, Michael Sheen, Stephen Frye and the lovely Mia Wasikowska as Alice.
The landscapes look fantastic too, here are some great shots courtesy of USA Today.
Very, very excited!
Filed under: Oddities | Tags: A Girl in the Sky productions, aerial, circus, Cognac and Sausages, Femme de Feu, Promise Factory, Rebecca Leonard
A really fun night of performances as a fundraiser to help send the Cognac and Sausages aerial theatre production to Montreal, followed by Promise Factory, temporarily moved from Cherry Beach.
Cognac and Sausage’s absolutely delightful, beautiful and comical aerial performance staring Rebecca and Athena (Aka Anastasia and Miranda Spitalotski.)
Very cool fire performance by Femme de Feu: the flames were coming from the ends of their fingers.
Lots of great performances and dancing, great night…must get some sleep…
Filed under: Oddities | Tags: bizarre, cat toys, Catzilla Crafts, Gooder Goods, Gush 4 Plush, plush, SpellWell
Long gone is the synthetic green pompom, the plastic ball-and-bell, the fluorescent orange tickler. Out is the dreaded hot pink, rabbit fur mouse. Welcome the new generation of fabulous cat toys!
If your cat dreams of a life by the sea, a skeletal fish (pictured on the left) by Gush 4 Plush (visit the blog) or perhaps a tin of crocheted sardines by Handmade Cottage might feed its seafaring spirit.
For the traditionalist, Spellwell offers a de’cat’pitated mouse, pigeon and fish trio pictured at the top (she also offers a robot head option for vegans. The cat with a more adventurous palate might appreciate a felt Paramecium, a Green Egg or a stick of TNT by Caelista.
And we must not forget the overindulgent sweet tooth for whom a low fat, catnip filled, felt donut by Catzilla Crafts or yarn- iced sockcake by Gooder Goods might just hit the spot!
Filed under: Oddities | Tags: Alfalfa Loves Me, bunny, crow, dark, Darla Jackson, Easter, rabbit, raven, sculpture
What are you afraid of? by Darla Jackson
Two of my very favorite things, ravens and bunnies!
I am absolutely in love with Darla Jackson’s sculptures. She manages to create pieces that are just the right balance of beautiful, creepy, bizarre and wonderful, a very hard combination to master…but really, who doesn’t love a crow in a party hat?!
If you are in Philadelphia, PA in the next few months, be sure to stop in and see her work in person, a listing of her current exhibits can be found on her website and you can follow her creative explorations on her Blog.
Darla’s beautiful pieces are available for sale on her Etsy shop, Alfalfa Loves Me.
Happy Easter all, eat an egg for me!
Filed under: Oddities, Steampunk | Tags: aerial, Alexander Bell, Antique plane, Baddeck Nova Scotia, Canadian aviation, Canadian Centennial of Flight, flight, Silver Dart, Steampunk, Vintage plane
Backed by the passion of Alexander Graham Bell and the funds of his wife Mabel, the Aerial Experiment Association was formed. A year, four months, and many test flights later, Canada saw its first powered engine flight.
On February 23, 1909 a group of volunteers on skates pushed The Silver Dart out onto the ice of Baddeck Bay in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Piloted by Baddeck local, Douglas McCurdy, the plane rose almost 9 meters and flew for almost a kilometer and a half at 65 kph.
To mark the 100th anniversary of this first flight, a replica of the Silver Dart was constructed and flown on February 23, 2009. I wish I could have been there to check it out. The plane took and almost 5 years and a whole lotta cash to construct. Despite a couple of disappointing early test flights, the plane performed beautifully for the Centennial Celebration.
Here is a video of the replica flight last month
For a bit more on the historical flight The Canadian Centennial of Flight has posted an excerpt of their fabulous 9-part documentary On Canadian Wings.
For More information on the Silver Dart Flight, here is the official site.
Filed under: Oddities, Robots | Tags: bizarre, Christmas toy, Father Christmas Robot, old fashioned toy, robot, Santa Claus, tin plate, Toy Post
What young child wouldn’t be thrill to find this charming toy under the tree on Christmas morning? The “Santa-Bearer-of-Doom-and-Destruction” or as it’s listed in the catalogue: “Father Christmas Robot,” can be ordered from Toy Post.
To be fair, this toy is listed for adult collecters only. It was made using traditional methods for tin plating, and does not meet current child safety regulations, sorry kids.
Toy post is actually a very cool UK based shop that specializes in old-fashioned and traditional toys and games. They have a fabulous selection of wooden and old tin plate and metal toys too. But this guy…he definitely tops the freaky list!
