betty_rocker's Recommendations

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Recommendations by betty_rocker

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"Silent Sunlit Stair." Photo Art by Glenn-Patrick Ferguson - RedBubble

Updated May 6, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

From the artist: "This image was taken at an abandonded state hospital for the developmentally disabled. I came across this staircase and as I climbed it I was struck by how worn the stone treads were. Worn down a full inch in places. How many steps would that take? How many feet? How many times? This place was a home to many--probably all some knew as home. I felt honored to be able to photograph it."

At first I just thought this was cool and creepy, but now, having read the artist's own description, I am even more drawn to this photograph. Check out redbubble.com for more. Really a great site.

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Motoart DC-6 Cowling Desk

Updated Apr 25, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

MotoArt urges you to "Own a piece of aviation history," and this desk, made from the cowling of a DC-6, is a pretty awesome place to start. Ruude Leeuw says the Douglas DC-6 was "considered to be the best in her class, in the 1950s. Of course, in those days, only the Upper Class travelled by air. So their means of transport had to have class as well!"

The piece is from a later date than that toward which I normally gravitate, but the lines and the original purpose of it were irresistible to me.

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River Island Ankle Boots

Updated Apr 7, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

Unexpected find thanks to flying saucer!

The shop carries a variety of ankle boots, including some with peep toes. The ones in the main image are very Napoleon, while the peep-toe buckle detail boots are more ladylike. Natch, I'm jonesing for the Napoleon ones.

I think I'll be listing a few other items from this store, too.

specs from site: 8.5cm heel, leather upper, plastic sole.

100% pretty darned cool. (via Flying Saucer)

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Cowboy Cuffs - Dixie Gun Works

Updated Jan 30, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

Dixie Gun Works is a paradise of re-enactment attire and accessories. While most of their products are intended, as the name suggests, for Civil War period replication, there's at least one gem on every page that can be repurposed to a later and more fluid surreality with a little macabre imagination.

These corset-style lace-up cowboy cuffs just plain ring my bell. Ow!

Specs from the seller: "Handmade, the cuffs are cut from 9-10 oz. oak tanned, tip grain cowhide and decorated in an assortment of styles. Two heavy duty snaps and adjustable lacing close the cuff at the wrist. Stamped w/DGW logo. Russet only."

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Doctor Scops Doll Series - Strangedolls by Beth Robinson

Updated Apr 7, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

Beth Robinson of strangedolls.net custom makes a number of strange dolls but I believe the series featuring the good doc here is my favorite. Besides the freaky balance between suggestion of and direct attention to detail, I also like that her dolls look like they've just stepped out of a penny dreadful illustration and are now considering eating your face.

This particular Doctor Scops, now creeping out the hot little hands of a lucky gent in San Diego, is my especial favorite due to the fact that he reminds me of the figure of Death-in-the-guise-of-a-doctor in one of my favorite films, Terry Gilliam's Baron Munchausen. Or some kind of Edward Gorey dreamt-of Victorian serial killer hiding out in an Old West sideshow.

The extraordinarily, unbelievably talented and not a little frightening Ms. Robinson also has dolls available for immediate sale. For the Wednesday Addams in your life, from 8 to 80!

Product specs: 24 inches tall . Wood . 2 Part Resin . Resin Skull

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"The Séance at Hobs Lane" - COIL aka Mount Vernon Arts Lab, dist. Ghost Box

Updated Jan 30, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey. No, not over at the Frankenfurter Place. Silly you. This audio CD would actually be an even STRANGER journey.

Click through to the strangeattractor product listing and listen free to three sample tracks in mp3 format. This is the perfect background track for, well, anything. Anything dark and sinister with oversized exposed clockworks and clouds of steam coming out of grates and curling around ladies' ankle boots.

The organ and the persistent percussive strings kind of make it sound like if a resurrected Bernard Herrman or not-bored Danny Elfman scored a new Sherlock movie, set in Sing Sing on the night of a failed electrocution. I can also hear it being played through a Victrola at Arkham in an Elseworld's Gotham by Gaslight.

The retailer calls it: "...psychogeographic investigation into a world of abandoned Underground stations, Quatermass, seventeenth century secret societies and the footsore reveries of a modern Flâneur. ... The booklet features liner notes by the author Lawrence Norfolk (Lemprière's Dictionary, The Pope's Rhinoceros) and incredible centre spread artwork by Julian House."

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Mechanical Bird Brooch

Updated Jan 30, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

From the seller: "Dead pocket watches are given new life through these brooches. I have mounted old pocket watch parts on painted wooden plates (1 inch diameter) as a statement, that today’s stressing through life if not saving you any time, it is stealing it. The key is not to try and save time with stressing it is to live every day to the fullest.

This brooch is one of a kind and it is almost impossible for me to another one just like this again, it fastens with a butterfly clutch and the parts comes from non working watches only."

If I ever stop digging hard on clunky whimsy, shoot me with a blowgun! Click through to check out her other awesome one-of-a-kind designs.

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Armand Marie Leroi's Mutants

Updated Jan 24, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

From Penguin's site: "Stepping effortlessly from myth to cutting-edge science, Mutants gives a brilliant narrative account of our genetic code and the captivating people whose bodies have revealed it—a French convent girl who found herself changing sex at puberty; children who, echoing Homer’s Cyclops, are born with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads; a village of long-lived Croatian dwarves; one family, whose bodies were entirely covered with hair, was kept at the Burmese royal court for four generations and gave Darwin one of his keenest insights into heredity. This elegant, humane, and engaging book “captures what we know of the development of what makes us human” (Nature).

I read this for a book club last year, the meetings of which I somehow always skipped, even though I read the books (they caught on and kicked me out via email. dumped by lit geeks--what next?). This is an extraordinary book, vascillating from science to almost science fiction as it tracks "freaks" in the scope of evolution. I can't recommend it highly enough for people with an active interest in our human race, both its history and its future. Also, my daughter likes to flip through and look at the pictures. So there's that, too.

Leroi has a site of his own, http://armandleroi.com/index.html.

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Victorian Stained Glass Case Mod

Updated Jan 30, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

"Custom PC case made from Canery wood, copper, lead, and stained glass."

And why shouldn't the blood and guts of your universe's center be housed within a cathedral-like case mod like the holy of holies that it is? My computer is sacred to me. If you're so conversant that you're using ThisNext and saw Victorian case-mod and actually wanted to know more, then so is yours to you. Truly awesome case mod, yes? I have seen other Victorian and steampunk examples that are also extraordinary, but the stained glass sets this one in a category all its own, where artistry, techgeek-ness, and replica-worship intersect. Glorious! (via Skip.Jenkins)

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From Hell Jack The Ripper Charm Bracelet by Hoolala DeLuxe

Updated Jan 30, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

Crazy gorgeous one of a kind bracelet chockful of references to a film starring Johnny Depp based on an Alan Moore graphic novel reimagining of the most famous Victorian serial killer of all time? Yeah, I can't touch that kind of rockingness.

From the seller's description on etsy: "I have handmade the following charms they include the following: A charm that says La Fee Absinthe; Lots of quality faux pearls from a vintage bracelet; A small Hoolala Poison charm; An anatomical cross section of a woman's torso in a charm; A tiny locket with an eye from an Absinthe bottle; A tiny 10mm charm with the word LUST inside; A charm with the devil jumping out on a Victorian lady; A charm with a picture of Sir William Gull inside; A 10mm charm with the fragment of an Absinthe label inside; A charm with a picture of Prince Eddy inside; A silver locket with the words JACK THE RIPPER written in red letters; A small 10mm silver heart charm; A larger silver tone heart charm; A clear quartz cross.

If you would like me to add some genuine Victorian porcelain teeth and a vial of faux blood - do let me know - I can do this for no extra charge."

Wow. I think I'm in love.

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Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Perfume Oils: Rappaccini's Garden

Updated Jan 23, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

The Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is pretty much where it's at for offbeat, custom, and rare scented oils and perfumes. The best part of browsing the site is reading the titles of all their alchemical masterpieces, names awash with glamour, good taste and more literary, sci-fi, and comic references than you can shake a swizzlestick at. A few other collection titles you might like? Neil Gaiman, The Mad Tea Party, Ars Draconis, Picnic In Arkham, and Carnival Diabolique. Yes, they are awesome.

Why did I choose the Rappaccini's Garden collection of scents as my standout favorite, when in fact I have yet to purchase an item from it? I recommend it based on the store's reputation, the care to form and function they pay in their art, the fact that all the scents in the collection are named for poisons, and because the short story it's aptly named for, "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is freaking hot. Don't believe me? Read it, seriously. Hot.

PS? This is where the people you've envied on the street and at dorky gatherings who wear union style shirts that say "Alchemists' Local" are buying those. Just to let you know. That's right, I say it loud, the genius team behind the BPAL truly rules.

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Rejuvenation's King's Hill: Late Victorian Gas-Style Chandelier

Updated Jan 23, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

The Rejuvenation catalogs live in my bathroom, the basket under my end table, and the end of the dining room table. This wonderful store is a never-ending source of inspiration and art. I am fortunate enough, thanks to my husband, to live within a short drive of one of their two stores, but if you are not so lucky, you can still shop their full inventory from their impeccable website. You are in the capable, professional, skilled hands of artisan dreamers when you shop from Rejuvenation.

This light fixture, which I picture adorning Ozma's palace, lighting up the Magisterium, or maybe in the captain's cabin of a fin-de-ciecle luxury liner, pretty much tops my fantasy list of things I'll buy when the world starts throwing money at my feet for being wonderful. Or, alternately, I'll find work.

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Pair of Machine Age Style Wall Mirrors

Updated Jan 22, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

First of all, how great of an idea is it to call this genre of collectible and vintage style of antiques "mantiques"?! Adding that word to my vocabulary was the thrill of the day for me.

Looking at yourself in these stainless steel and copper mirrors will be the thrill of your day, every day. I imagine it would be like you've caught sight of an alternate you in an alternate timeline, gazing out a porthole at yourself in your workaday existence.

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Allyn Scura Sunglasses

Updated Jan 22, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

In addition to selling hundreds upon hundreds of fabulous authentic vintage eyeglass frames for both ladies and gents, Allyn Scura creates striking new designs inspired by the same bold lines and high art concepts of their originals.

These here are clear frame sunglasses in the "F. Scott" design from the "Voyage" line.

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Sword Cane - Deluxe Grey Hound

Updated Jan 22, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

Why would someone NOT love this? True Swords, a site which also specializes in replica weapons from fantasy and sci-fi, has a gorgeous selection of classic gentleman's sword canes. If you can think of something better than looking dapper AND ready to defend your honor, then you are no son of mine.

While True Swords has a wide range of animal cane toppers, I'm particularly fond of this greyhound. I love the sleek lines.

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Victorian woven hair brooch

Updated Jan 22, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

Morning Glory Antiques and Jewelry has a truly stunning--albeit slightly baffling--array of hair jewelry. Some of the jewelry was apparently constructed and intended as specific memento mori from the hair of a dead loved one. Other pieces it seems were made "just cause." This was a kind of offbeat but very real art-form, and it's intriguing to examine the tradition and techniques of jewelry made from hair.

This Victorian basket weave brooch is a fine example of the craft and of the wide selection at Morning Glory. You can browse through more on the Victorian Hair Jewelry page of the Morning Glory Antiques and Jewelry website, http://www.morninggloryjewelry.com/victorian-hair-jewlery-c-77.html.

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Victoria Arduino Venus Espresso Machine

Updated Jan 22, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

Since 1905, the Victoria Arduino company has been crafting extraordinary machines that elevate coffee to an art form. This beautiful domed model, available in three different finishes, is the Venus. Looks to me like she would be right at home on board the Nautilus!

The Victoria Arduino website has dozens of models and also documents the history of their lines of machines. A fantastic example of craftsmanship and endurance coupled with elegant design and attention to detail. (via Appliancist)

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Crimson Red Floral Tags

Updated Jan 22, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

These beautiful tags work for Christmas, Valentine's, or any time you want to make a splash. My philosophy of life has always been, "Why would I look at that in some other color when I could be looking at it IN RED?" so these tags are right up my ally. They would also make crackerjack calling cards!

I particularly admire the artist's understanding of the antiquity of her work and her dedication to her art; this is from her profile page: "I use only archival inks and acid-free, lignin-free paper for all my scrapbooking products. The inks will last between 100-200 years! Be sure you're protecting your families memories for years to come by choosing products with archival quality." Beat that! Loves it, me. (via Poppytalk Handmade)

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Blackstock's Collections

Updated Jan 22, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

From the Princeton Architectural Press description of Blackstock's Collections: The Drawings of An Artistic Savant, by Gregory L. Blackstock:

"Gregory L. Blackstock, a retired Seattle pot washer, draws order out of all the chaos with a pencil, a black marker, and some crayons.

Blackstock is autistic and an artistic savant. He creates visual lists of everything from wasps to hats to emergency vehicles to noisemakers. In the spirit of the Outsider art of Henry Darger and Howard Finster, Blackstock makes art that is stirring in its profusion and detail and inspiring in its simple beauty."

(http://www.papress.com/bookpage.tpl?isbn=1568985797)


I can't improve on that! This is a prize for your curio cabinet, truly. An unmissable gem.

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Ach Ach Liebling // Autre Monde pendant

Updated Jan 22, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

You walk in the beauty of another world. Why not advertise your allegiance to the autre monde with this beautiful, unique necklace from Ach Ach, Liebling?

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Dr Grordbort's - Victorious Mongoose 1902a - concealable ray pistol

Updated Jan 21, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

Only the good doctor Grordbort, already reknowned for his quality line of infallible aether oscillators could produce such a useful marvel as the Victorious Mongoose. Deadly accurate and just light enough to suit a lady's hand, "the world’s first concealable ray pistol" will be available soon! (via Brass Goggles)

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ActeDECO - Créez votre stickers - Dirigible

Updated Jan 21, 2008

1st to recommend

Description

Perfect removeable wall art for the corner of your study, water closet above the toilet, or even emerging along the wall from behind your wardrobe. Drift off into the clouds with Baron Munchausen in the airship of the future!

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1903's World of the Future!
Updated May 6, 2008
Yesterday's home decor, accoutrements, and inspired attire for the modern ladies and gentlemen of Tomorrow. Culled from the filamented ether of the internet by betty_rocker, stationed in sunny Ruritania.
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