Graveyard Dirt: Two Worlds and In-between

Oct 24th - Nov 20th

ETA: The fox brooch, Lincoln Imp goblet, Tudor rose brooch, large ceramic goblet and both pieces of horse brass have been sold.

I've had, like, zero effin' time to secondhand shop, so this very well may be the last proper Secondhand Sundays entry for 2011 (excluding the resale shop edition; it's a whopper that'll require some time to piece together). But that's good-fucking-news because I can finally divert some of my energy into taking proper pictures of the items I'll be selling in the near future. In the meantime, if there's anything that catches your fancy right effin' now, please don't be afraid to shoot me over an email (graveyarddirt@gmail.com) to inquire about the piece(s). (<- In this game it's the ballsy folk who get what the effin' want!)

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A mushroom-themed spread to tickle the fancy of any fungus-lovin' witch! All three prints are vintage book plates that I'll be keeping in my personal collection (how fucking terrific are those graffiti-tastic fly agarics?), and Italics - chuffed with the unexpected size of the stonerish mushroom box - has already laid claim to the wooden container.

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I'm head over heels for this effin' nature-themed pitcher, but I don't have a fucking clue what I'd do with it*! Handmade by nuns - oh, honey, yes! - it's an overwhelmingly detailed ceramic piece, featuring acorn, oak leaf and mushroom embellishments while sporting a wood-textured surface that, if you're autistic like me, begs to be groped touched with the utmost respect. If the natural world is your thang, and you're looking for a special libation vessel look no effin' further!

Another fungal treasure for your consideration is a pair of mushroom-shaped salt and pepper pots. These cute little mofos are your classic Bolete edulis (aka penny bun, porcino or cep) with their dark, hardy tops and robust alien pod stalks. If you've been following Graveyard Dirt since Harvest these guys should look pretty effin' familiar since we spent the entire season picking, cooking, photographing and writing about them.

* For the record: I already own three or four other "magic" pitchers, and really can't afford adding another one to my collection.

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As you've probably guessed, my secondhand buyin' ass has a huge motherfucking thing for ceramic. I'm sure part of it comes from my mother having been a potter, but a good chunk of my love for clay comes from how naturally inviting it seems. Metal's awesome - I love copper like you wouldn't believe! - but it can be cold, clinical and distant. Ceramic, for whatever reason (perhaps its handmade nature?), wants to be touched, and there's a comforting sense of familiarity - and a sense of occasion - when I use my earthenware pieces.

Pictured in this sun-dappled image is a handmade ceramic goblet with a mushroom emblem, and a lidded toadstool potpourri container that broke in transit. The broken pot we've decided to keep (we're going to fill it with something significant and bury it in my favorite fly agaric hotspot as an offering to the mycelia whose "fruits" I gather every Harvest), but I'm undecided about the goblet. My first inclination was to save it for ritual use (for the consumption of psychoactive mushrooms), but I find myself wavering - I mean, how many fucking ceramic goblets can one witch own? (<- Don't answer that.)

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This next Secondhand Sundays lot might be of interest to the discerning practitioner: cheeky devils, spinning witches and unorthodox ritual jewelry!

The framed print featured in this spread is Arthur Rackham's Serpentine (Fairies Along the Water) (one of his illustrations to Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens). I semi-recently got word that my oldest friend in the world's already expecting (she managed to conceive on her honeymoon!), so this little treasure will probably get wrapped up and sent off as a baby gift.

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Would you believe me if I told you I've spent over a fucking year trying to get my hands on a copy of that spinning witch horse brass? (100% honest truth!) Spinning so isn't my art, so this lovely little vintage piece is for sale. The stag horse brass - also vintage! - is coming straight outta my personal collection (I'm thinning the herd, so to speak), and would look right at home strung up on your holiday wreath, or secured on your Yule Log for a bit'o'ornamental flash.

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Here in an Asperger's-motivated column is a miniature ceramic goblet featuring the infamous Lincoln Imp, another vintage book illustration, an antique (Edwardian era) brass mourning tie pin and a tiny little antique cow tooth charm set in silver. The goblet and pin are for sale (the pin's needle is a bit wonky and needs slight readjustment), but I'm keeping the image and charm.

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Is sewing, stitching or embroidery your thing? Do you work with, or is your matron known for Her needle-wieldin' ways? Then this effin' goblet is for you (and when I say "you", I actually mean "Her"!) This ceramic chalice is one mother of a vessel that could double for a subtle cauldron (yeah, it IS that fucking big)! Perfect little cross-stitch patterns circle the entire goblet giving you one helluva textured grip on this offering/ritual cup.

Also pictured in this image is a crackin' little flower brooch (don't take my word for it, but I think it's meant to be a rendition of the Tudor Rose), and a vintage enamel Aries keychain. The cardinal fire gem is mine, but the enchanting flower pin is for sale.

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A lovely for you: an antique pin featuring a pair of fox teeth capped in white metal. (Gorgeous or what*?) One of the teeth is just slightly loose in its setting (the band of metal in the middle), but it isn't in danger of falling out. With the exception of the jiggling tooth the brooch is in otherwise awesome handmade condition.

* I considered keeping this sweet little mofo, but I really want to learn how to cap and cast teeth'n'bones from my rescued roadkill and the first step towards that is being able to let go of pieces that I'd otherwise create from scratch.

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A lovely for me: a one-horned Sabbatic Goat waiting to get hauled down to the local blacksmith (situated in an old church; no fucking joke!) to get his shed appendage welded the fuck on. It might not be entirely apparent in this sun-washed photo, but this motherfucker's face ain't nothin' BUT character!

Harvest Nights

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Saturday night: Secondhand Sundays inventory check.

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Sunday night: organization of 2011's wild mushrooms (boletes, chanterelles & toadstools) while Papa enjoys a piece of chilli chocolate espresso cake, a homemade chocolate chip cookie, a cup of coffee, a pair of used panties and a bottle of pain medication.

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Monday night: necro-hooch straining, sweetening and bottling.

Aug 1st - Oct 22nd: Ebay Edition

This laptop's fucked, my desktop's fucked and my car's fucked. (Life, if nothing else, is at least consistent.) I'm soldiering on the best I can, but it's hard to get your grind on when you need both your computer(s) AND car to work. For every job I finish I know there's others I can't do anything about - i.e., finishing off my 2010 toadstool oil, taking fruit clippings from my graveyard garden, working on overdue trades, packages and promises - so there isn't a satisfying closure at the end of my day.

For once shit's getting dealt with in crazy fucking proportions, but it's just not the shit on my to-do list. This edition of Secondhand Sundays is a sterling example of my recent Bizarro productivity: taking pictures of recently acquired Ebay treasures and writing about them wasn't on my to-motherfucking-do list, but it still needed to get done. And when an opportunity for a quick shoot suddenly popped up? I nailed the fucking job without hesitation.

In the past two months we've amassed a stockpile of tremendously awesome things* (all secondhand, most vintage), but there's so much shit to photograph I had to split the items into two different groups (i.e., Ebay purchases and charity shop purchases). I haven't had a chance to snap pictures of the other group, but that job's front'n'center on my OTHER to do list (the non-Harvest one).

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Unless otherwise stated these pre-loved gems are for resale, so if something strikes your fancy you can either wait until I open shop to nab the item, or you can contact me privately (graveyarddirt@gmail.com) about purchasing it immediately.

Pictured above, starting at the top left corner: a vintage silver plated reproduction Georgian wine goblet (MIMB; mint in motherfucking box), an Eastern Orthodox decorated egg-shaped gift box (part of Italics's 2012 Spanking Day present), a vintage pentagram-shaped Scottish brooch, a vintage brass door knocker featuring a bundle of wheat, a stag and a running fox (a gift to myself), a handmade white and blue ceramic goblet (I originally bought it to resell, but I've grown really fucking fond of it), two miniature engraved brass goblets (also vintage, I think), a vintage German doily featuring flowers and a pair of toadstools, a vintage shamrock pin tray (the Queen of Clubs in me is asking if I really wanna let this item go), a vintage miniature ceramic cauldron decked out with a garland of shamrocks (made in Ireland!) and a vintage white porcelain grape'n'vine goblet (for all the bloodthirsty maenads out there).

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The vintage Scottish brooch. If you look closely you can see that the pin's missing five stones (two empty clasps can be seen directly beneath the center cabochon), but I think the loss actually enhances the shape of the pentagram.

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The vintage German doily. Not exactly traditional toadstool colors, but the embroidery's flawless. Pair this up with a transparent glass plate or bowl and it'll make a cute little altar addition.

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The brass door knocker in all of its wheat-stag-fox glory. For obvious reasons (see: wheat, deer & foxes) this biographic piece of vintage tat is staying in my personal collection.

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This'll be quick and easy to ensure minimal suffering by secondhand hopefuls: everything pictured in the photo above? Mine. (<- That was mostly painless, right?)

Pictured above, starting from the left: a snake goddess tile from Crete (I'm thinking about hanging it above my ritual ladder), there's a jumble of vintage jewelry in the center of the image including a small silver and lapis chandelier pendant, a silver Gemini pendant (for Italics), a gold toned goat necklace and a pair of enamel cobra earrings from the 1980s, there's an antique grouse foot brooch sitting on a small pile of woodcut prints (project fodder) and to the right there's a vintage tea towel with a rather bold compass design (a compass altar cloth? instant fucking magic, Darlings), another old paperback (Witchcraft for All) to add to our growing vintage witchcraft collection and the last item pictured - arched across the book - is a vintage necklace studded with crimson-colored glass.

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A quick close-up of my cobra earrings (the last time I wore a pair of serpents? one popped off my ear and joined us in our Hiero Gamos marital bed), the pile of black'n'white woodblock prints and my silver-capped grouse foot.

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Final fucking picture! Half of the items pictured are for sale, and I'm trying really, really hard to keep it that way. (<- I don't really do the peacock thang, but goddamn if that antique trivet isn't a fine ass ritual/altar piece. I mean, the fucking thing glows; just look at it!)

Pictured above, starting at the bottom left corner: a vintage silver plated serving basket (I instantly fell in love with the quasi-Gothic church design), the antique brass peacock trivet I've already mentioned (which is for sale) and two vintage linen tea towels, with the one on top - depicting an illuminated manuscript page from Book of Kells - being the one for sale.

Jul 18th - Jul 30th

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Harvest has been keeping our asses busy. So busy, in-fucking-fact, that I'm condensing two weeks worth of Second Hand Sundays in this mucho belated journal entry. All of these previously loved treasures are Ebay scores; some are for resale and others were added to our personal collection.

Starting from the top left: vintage wooden chalices in dire need of cleaning (I've always wanted to learn wood restoration and this seemed like a good first project), a Gorgon's Head ceramic goblet, a pair of vintage moonstone earrings, vintage suit ashtrays (not for resale; Italics loves these fuckers), a motherfucker of a vintage Taurus pendant (this bull's seriously huge), a blue glass decanter (for my collection; I've got a blue glass thing going on), a blue glass tea-light in stand (another piece added to my glassware collection) and a coppery vintage axe brooch (mine too).

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Spades and clubs dominate this house, so whenever I come across suit paraphernalia I automatically veer towards the blackened weapons. Imagine my super-bummed-outedness when I came across an Ebay auction for an incomplete set of suit ashtrays that listed the pieces as "club, diamond & heart". Now imagine my super-awesome-joyousness when I realized the seller had somehow managed to misidentify a motherfucking spade and listed the item incorrectly.

I know I said it earlier, but goddamn if that Taurus pendant isn't a huge fucking piece of motherfucking bull bling.

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It was only on closer inspection that I realized that someone had painted over the axe's original engraved design. After years of wear the layer of colors had worn thin allowing the copper's warm patina to shine through again.

The axe has ancestral significance to me; one of the traditional implements of my maternal line (the Hutsuls; nomadic mystic-cowboy Ukrainian mountain folk) is/was the topiret (a combination axe'n'cane). It's actually doubly significant since the Cailleach brandishes a neolithic beast of a (stone) axe. (<- The heavy blow of winter, Her divine scepter and strength.)

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Beautiful domed breasts of moonstone. I originally bought these earrings for myself, but they're so goddamn heavy that they don't sit flat against the ear like they should. I'm crazy-reluctant to let them go (I enjoy a nice fucking rack), so I'm going to pocket away these bared bosoms in the hopes that I'll be able to recycle them into something I can wear.

I love the handmade ceramic goblet - aren't the colors perfectly earthy? - but I don't work with Oceanus, gorgons depicted as serpentless males or Celtic sun gods, so this, regrettably, is resale fodder. (I just wish the colors weren't so effing great.)

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My empire of Khokhloma spoons continues to grow.

Jul 11th - Jul 16th

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You'll have to excuse Peck-Man for making this edition of Second Hand Sundays so god-effing-damn late. (We're working at this coexistence-in-our-motherfucking-office thing. Really.)

Starting from the top right: a vintage chest-like strawberry box (a Christmas give for Chippy), a vintage handcarved wooden box (for a project), another duck bowl (I can't decide if I want to keep this fucker and have a pair or offer it for resale), a vintage necklace made from horn (I'll be breaking this down for parts), another vintage wooden box (also for a project), an Edwardian perfume bottle (you guessed it: project fodder), a vintage handkerchief embroidered with the monogram "E" (a gift for a friend) and a little ojime rabbit for Italics.

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A quick close-up of the embroidered handkerchief, ojime rabbit and the Edwardian perfume bottle.

Jul 4th - Jul 9th

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Five more Khokhloma spoons - plus one folksy non-Slavic black sheep - bought off Ebay for a project idea I've been kicking around.

Jun 27th - Jul 2nd

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I'm so on the fucking verge of finally cinching this grossly belated spring cleaning exercise we've been engaged in since fucking February. And how the fuck do I celebrate? By getting this week's edition of Second Hand Sundays over and done with as soon as fucking possible because in 48 hours we'll be out of town and enjoying ourselves at a gig (The Sisters of Mercy), and there's no fucking way I'll want to hack this week's previously loved goods entry just before - or just after - a very short break.

I'm kind've sort've cheating this week by including a handful of items purchased just before I got my second hand lovin' ass in gear with this entire resale thing. (<- Because we've been so goddamn busy I haven't had any effing time to Ebay, and because we're in nocturnal mode we haven't been able to get into town to our favorite charity shops so this week's real edition of Second Hand Sundays would've only been a few items.)

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Starting from the tray's bottom left corner: a horse shoe-shaped piece of vintage horse brass, miniature vintage scissors, a vintage badger figure made by the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory (a Christmas gift for Italics; as some of you already know we've got a thing for badgers), a two piece vintage glass container in the shape of a mushroom (I could be a total cunt and psych y'all out, but I won't - we're keeping this awesome motherfucker for ourselves), a "GOOD LUCK!" horseshoe gift box (with marriage vows) for my oldest friend who very recently got married, a vintage poison bottle with the words "NOT TO BE TAKEN" embossed on one side, a vintage African-themed mother and child wooden ornament, a cobra-topped antique copper temple spoon and a tiny little vintage enamel and sterling silver toadstool charm that's about to be added to our autobiographical charm bracelet.

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A close-up shot of the toadstool charm.

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Starting from the tray's bottom right corner: two more pieces of vintage horse brass (starting to see a project pattern yet?), a handmade Mokosh amulet magnet (bought for myself), a handmade Mokosh amulet whistle (also bought for myself), a vintage wooden box (we're so taken with this one we've decided to keep it), a vintage "modernist" agate cabochon ring (I bought this one for myself, too, but the seller polished the fucking thing just before sending it and I prefer my sterling silver with an aged patina so I may consider offers on this ring) and two handmade ceramic jars with lids - one depicting small birds perched on flowering briars, the other revealing a grassy meadow scene with rabbits and a songbird - neither of which'll be offered for resale since Italics has become smitten with the pair (in a totally masculine, non-cutesy way).

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A close-up shot of the modernist agate ring, and of the Mokosh amulet whistle.

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One last picture with an unobstructed view of the cobra-topped temple spoon.

Jun 20th - Jun 25th

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I TOTALLY have a justified reason why this week's Second Hand Sundays entry is so fucking late - no, no wait! it's seriously legit; just give me a chance! - although it might sound like an artfully disguised excuse. It's because - oh snap! does starting off your justified reason (which is totally not an excuse masterfully obfuscated, BTW) with "it's because" make your ass look automatically guilty? - some of the items I needed to snap pictures of were being used in that hot'n'heavy Ghede-pleasin' altar I posted earlier this week. And because we've been so goddamn busy a simple pussycrafting event that really only should've taken 48 effing hours to complete took more like 120, which meant the altar - and the items on that mothereffin' altar - couldn't be disturbed until I finally flung the finished bottle of homemade hot sauce (made from consecrated chili peppers) into the fridge. (<- Do two totally legit/two totally justified reasons cancel each other out and create an artfully disguised excuse in their wake? FUCK.)

Raise of hands, Internet: who can tell 14.1g of Pot of Gold arrived early this afternoon? Let's just solider on and pretend I didn't actually upload this hot mess of inco-fucking-herency...

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As our sleeping schedule shifts making us more nocturnal it becomes harder to get out once a week for a good charity shop session. Last week we managed to peek into one while running errands in town - for something like five brief minutes - and came out with a small handful of items for resale.

I'm thinking about splitting the miniature brass chalice set to create some sort of libation kit (vintage chalice + a decant from my homemade hedgerow hooch reserves presented in a Ms. Dirty-decorated semi-miniature bottle), the two wooden boxes with brass inlays are being put aside for a project I have in mind and Christ only knows what I'm going to do with a delicate vintage butterfly handkerchief, but it was just too goddamn pretty to pass up (even if there is a teeny tiny hole in the lace).

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Both Satanism and Witchcraft and In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World (a fondly remembered library book from my childhood) are Christmas gifts for Italics, and sitting on the pair of books is a vintage poison/perfume necklace for resale (I personally think this vessel's more suited for dry contents than wet, but that's just me).

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Six Khokhloma spoons bought off Ebay for a project I have in mind (three of which have already been put to use on my Ukrainian-flavored Ghede-pleasin' altar). I suspect you'll be seeing a lot more of these folksy motherfuckers in the near, distant and not-near-yet-not-distant future.

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Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life is something I bought for myself off Amazon marketplace when I was feeling a bit down (I'm more of a solar witch than lunar witch), and the huge ass 1980s faux snake skin'n'leather bag is a charitable Second Hand Sundays donation from my mother-in-law who knows, deep down inside, that Peggy Bundy is my fashion icon.

Jun 13th - Jun 18th

With an exception of a few items (the moonstone ring, antler brooch and mushroom charms) everything featured in this edition of Second Hand Sundays was bought on the single most epic resale shop expedition, ever. In just under four hours we hit nearly ten different charity shops (this was our first attempt doing a heavy duty circuit, normally we only manage one or two stores, duck into our favorite Italian bistro and call it a day), which resulted in bags and bags of previously owned loot (all tagged £5.00 or less). Whatever we couldn't strap to my robust Slavic body (I'm the perfect Ukrainian woman: bitchy, industrious and strong as a motherfucking ox) was collected later by car.

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This is probably the most mundane seeming item out of the lot, but it's had the biggest fucking impact on our lives. Italics spotted the motherfucker as we were thumbing our way through a shop, and it took all the restraint in the effing world to not get excited with the prospect of taking it home (at the time it was being used to showcase a crate of records so we didn't know if it was actually for sale). When we learned it was for sale - and they only wanted a fucking fiver for it - I was ecstatic as fuck.

Our bedroom? The third smallest room in the house (following a closet, and the in-laws' en suite bathroom), so it's been kept deliberately minimal: one bed, two nightstands and a wardrobe. The problem, at least up until finding this particular set'o'drawers, was that our nightstands didn't match (both in color, size and height; mine was light and his was dark), and the mismatched appearance ended up shelving all of my redecorating ideas. (<- Which, okay, really just amounted to changing the handles on the furniture, and painting the three pieces with some sort of stone effect to match our spooky Halloween wallpaper.)

Finding a copy of Italics's nightstand was a gift from motherfucking God (all the best gods are motherfuckers, although I better not hear that Papa's been seeing my dead mom behind my fucking back - I guess I'll know if I ever get a phone call from Maury?), and I am so looking forward to leaving the haunted graveyard forest because I've really missed our proper home: the ossuary dungeon. (<- Yeah, that shit's up 24/7, 365 days a mothereffing year, and it's the reason why I've had to ban high fucking heels in the bedroom because all it takes is a careless fucking scratch during amphetamine-fueled sex to tear through what is, ostensibly, a thin sheet of cheap ass plastic.)

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How sad is it that I still feel excited about this shit just by looking at the picture?

Don't let that ceramic washing bowl fool you; it's a huge son of a bitch. The basin's chipped beneath the rim, but that shouldn't get in the way of use. I see a lot of bathing, dough rising and magic making in its second hand future. The mini-trash can sitting in the bowl is actually an indoor compost bin (a biodegradable bag lines the vessel so you simply throw everything, bag included, straight into your compost heap), but I'm using it to house my phallic resurrection bread - I bake it for Easter/Hieros Gamos and use it for various rituals and practices until I "sacrifice" it at Midwinter - since Italics has a very serious immune issue with wheat. (<- That way the bread stays safe from harm, and Italics, most importantly, stays safe from harm.)

Next to my "new" ceramic ware is a gender neutral jewelry box (the lid flips up, the drawers pull out and the two column-like pillars on either side open to reveal little metallic necklace chain hooks) bought for Italics' desk (more on that later), a pair of engraved chalices, a powdery blue ceramic container (with lid), a vintage moonstone ring and a pile of used-but-beautiful table linens, altar cloths and a loose'n'light machine-embroidered tunic for me to wear when my ass really wants to wander around the house naked, but, thanks to my in-laws, can't. (<- My version of negotiating.)

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The top of Italics's new-but-used jewelry box, a better shot of the engraved chalice set (I think I might turn them into a belated wedding gift for a friend), the vintage moonstone ring (something new for my scorpion stinger collection) and a lidded container for either personal or project use (unavoidable witchcraft truth: you can never have enough offering vessels).

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How spectacularly awesome was our resale run? We found a set of prehistoric cave art table linens for £2.00 (you can't see the matching black napkins which are wedged between the placemats and the embroidered tunic). I mean, who the fuck finds homemade cave art table settings in a fucking charity shop? And, more importantly, where the fuck can I get more material depicting ancient cave art so I can make myself another fucking set? (<- I'd have to learn how to sew, but that's a commitment I'm willing to effing make.)

Beneath the cave art mats, nearly invisible black cloth napkins and my not-naked-but-pretty-goddamn-close summer shift is a Madeira tablecloth (for the communal lounge's coffee table; all the ones currently being used are falling apart, so its time to begin replacing the old with the slightly less old), and a set of natural fiber tea towels (an earthy beige highlighted by pink lace'n'trim) that I'll eventually be selling on.

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Working from the left to the center of the tray: a pair of gigantic brass Lovespoons (the cheeky fuckers tied both together despite pricing them separately; I had no idea until we got home and I noticed we were charged twice for what I thought was an obvious fucking set), an Artemis-themed Greek urn (you can kind've sort've make out Her seated form reaching out towards a deer-like creature), an earthy ceramic bowl (with an almost crescent-shaped cut out beneath the rim), a vintage antler tip brooch and our "HOLY MOTHER OF FUCKING GOD!" discovery: an aged piece of horse brass clearly depicting northeast Scotland's wonder horse extraordinaire, Euan motherfucking Garlogie.

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Working from the center to the right of the tray: a stack of retro side plates (unavoidable witchcraft truth revisited), a totally undamaged ceramic beehive (we're thinking about interring the dead bees we find - and, fuck, you find a lot when you're a motherfucking witch; the humble bee seems to be one of the first critters that acknowledges a person when they begin traveling down a certain path of witchcraft - in the container to keep their fragile bodies safe), a small handful of vintage mushroom charms (just between you and me? I doubt the legitimacy of their "vintage" status, but the small collection only cost me £0.99 so, like, whatever), another Artemis-themed item (the bottom says this lidded pot was handmade in Greece) and a brass goblet-shaped candlestick holder (I'm sorely fucking tempted to keep this piece for myself).

Jun 6th - Jun 11th

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This week's second hand treasures (everything with the exception of the wooden incense burner is vintage): a carved wooden box (for a project I'm currently working on), a lidded incense burner (a replacement for the one that shattered a few months back), "Witches and Their Craft" (a gift for Italics), a green Depression glass bowl (I'm a huge sucker for green glass, especially Depression glass), a bull'n'sword-themed tie clip (another gift for Italics), a metallic grouse foot brooch (future project fodder) and a hand-painted Russian plate (which was originally bought to be resold, but I've grown too damn fond of it to let it go).

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A close-up of this week's second hand jewelry treasures.

The tie clip - much like the hand-painted Russian dish - recently migrated from the resale pile to one of Italics's gift boxes. I thought it'd appeal to folks who are into the entire Sacred Bull/Dionysus thing, and I was totally right - I considered what the black, gold, silver and mother-of-pearl sword-shaped clip would look like against a crisp, black dress shirt and immediately decided to keep it for him. (Sorry would-be-second-hand-treasure buyers, but I do have a goddamn king to dress.)

The thistle-topped foot brooch (if you look really fucking closely you can kind've sort've see the remnants of paint clinging to the thistle's tuft) didn't stir my heart - or bull lovin' loins (just call me Ms. Pasiphaë 2K) - so it safely remains in the resale pile. I haven't decided whether to sell it "as is", or work it into one of my Junkyard projects. It's a nice Scottish piece, and the slightly worn element gives the pin some well-loved character.

The Black Arts

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May 30th - Jun 4th

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This week's second hand treasures: a square-shaped, natural fiber altar cloth, two miniature brandy sniffers (one "warm", one "cool"), a brass owl trivet, a cobalt glass dish cozily sitting in a silver metal stand, a tiny ceramic figure of a toad sitting next to a toadstool (the fly agaric/amanita muscaria mushroom), a vintage wooden box with a leather appearance, the celestial dead bell found recently in a newly discovered graveyard, a mushroom-shaped wooden box (the top twists off revealing the hollowed out stem), a large glass bowl-platter hybrid, a rustic, ethnically decorated wooden duck bowl (Italics' favorite of the bunch) and a handmade ceramic bowl from Greece with moody grey-blues that are reminiscent of our long Scottish winters.