Spooky Season is Officially Here!

Greetings, ghouls and goblins!

It's October 1st which means Halloween is right around the corner. Put your jack-o-lanterns out and your pound-shop vampire teeth in because I've got a list of small businesses who you're gonna love. Expect the macabre, the mystical and eeeeerily magical!

Without further ado, and in no particular order...

1. Hallowed Glass is a gorgeous stained glass small business run by the lovely Abbie! Definitely go check out her work for spooky shit of all kinds; she got bats, she's got ghosts and she looks like she's ramping up the halloween themed stuff for October so go go go!
2. Ghosts by Sarah. I think I found Sarah on instagram on a rare occurrence when the algorithm was doing something right. She takes innocuous, nostalgic, old photographs and illustrates cute ghosts into them and I fell right in love and bought one for myself. I think you're gonna love them too!
3. The Nottingham Horror Collective duo have featured on my blog before, as they're local to Nottingham, but it's like this particular blog is made for them so it would be criminal to miss them out. Ruth and Emily make gorgeous, quality, indie zines specifically for you creepy lot.
4. Bone Mandalas. It's exactly what it says on the tin but waaay better than you can imagine! Jodie Yeung spends painstakingly long hours cleaning and selecting tiny bones from owl pellets (no animals were harmed for this art!) and meticulously placing them in stunningly dizzying patterns in box frames. I've been following her work for years and I'm seriously impressed.
5. Sonia Tyrna is a talented ceramicist who specialises in spectacularly textured, hand sculpted rodents and critters. They all capture such natural movement and have lovely, creepy, shiny beady eyes. Be sure to follow her on Instagram @soniatyrna to find which markets you can find her at next!
6. Myth & Lore Zine is created by the wonderful Mark, who, this shouldn't come as a surprise, has a passion for Art and Mythology! These amazing zines come in issues with a particular topic as its focus, such as cryptids, mushrooms, hauntings, etc. Prints and pins are also available!
7. Rebecca Edelmann is a Danish ceramicist who now resides in lovely Bristol. Expect trinket dishes, mugs, planters and pendants with all sorts of creepy skull and ghostly designs but also my latest obsession...TEETHIES! The cutest, weirdest little creatures I've ever seen with lovable goofy toothy grins. I treated myself to a Teethie Planter this year and everyone who sees it loves it too!
8. Minifi's Oddities is run by artist and maker Fi, who is inspired by folklore, mythology and all that wonderful weird stuff. She makes prints, minatures and and accessories and honestly I could eat that up for breakfast. Perfect for any other paranormal obsessives like me.
9. Nifldreki, or Emily, is a very talented embroidery and mixed media artist who is inspired by folklore, magic and religion. You'll find lots of richly coloured Sacred Hearts and Santa Muerte figurines amongst her work - absolutely gorgeous!
10. Kintsugilt is an incredible oddity and jewellery brand, where bones, teeth, claws and more are gilded in 24ct gold leaf for display or for wearing. It's clear that quality is extremely important to Kintsugilt - I may have even bought myself a little gilt crab. I'm a cancerian, it would be wrong not to!
11. Print is Dead. Elyssa is a graphic designer and illustrator making absolutely gorgeous, gothic and occult themed art, prints and accessories. Her art is so detailed and beautiful - her passion for her work really shows through!

I acknowledge that 11 is a weird number to finish this list on, but you know I'm not one to strive for being normal!

Happy Halloween!

~ Riley x