I've gotten myself into the habit of wearing most of my Halloween brooches all year long, except obviously Christmas time when I cut sick with the festive themed brooches. So this year I designed a Halloween range that could be worn whenever you want and don't have to be put away for 11 months of the year.
This was a really exciting range of brooches to design and I surrounded myself with lots of scary books & music and threw myself into a early Halloween to get as much inspiration for my brooches.
One of my favourites was researching the history behind the Victorian Tear Catcher. I knew the Victorian Era had something of an obsession maybe acceptance or curiosity surrounding death - like the death pictures they would take of family members that had passed, but I had never heard of some of the other traditions.
I can't know for sure whether it's just myth but I created the Victorian Tear Catcher around the idea that when your beloved passed away, you would use an old perfume bottle to collect your tears. Once the bottle was full you would seal it with a lid that would allow for the tears to evaporate and then once the tears were gone, the mourning period would end.
A beautiful story however I'm really not sure if it's true or not! Let's pretend it's true and this brooch has tears that will never dry out. Mourn your Loves forever.
Next favourite was my 'Future is Witch' brooch. I have created two versions of this brooch, one (the dark one!) is only available from Martinis & Slippers. Initially I had the idea of a Tasseography - also known as Tea Leaf Reading brooch. I had illustrated an idea but the time between when I drew my concept and came to start the vector art another Maker beat me to it. So back to my sketch book and I figured it would be cool to actually do the tea cup with some tea leaves! I predict Witches will fly.
Another favourite is the Voodoo Doll. I was told many many stories of African magic and superstition when I was growing up and I knew and understood the concept of a Voodool Dolls, I always remember the one in the Witches of Eastwick. So a Voodoo Doll was born. All the coloured button eyes on random on each brooch.
All these Halloween brooches and many more will be available from the Martinis and Slippers store on the very scary Friday 13th September at 7pm AEST (Melbourne, Australia). I plan on shipping from the following Monday so your Halloween goodies will definitely be with you before Halloween.
Cheers
Alex