This 14th century painting depicts Mary finishing up the neck on a garment that’s been knitted seamlessly. This is my favourite way to knit! Over the last thirteen years, I’ve designed tools and jewellery for knitters. Feral Knitting is all about fluid ease—from adorable stitch marker sets specifically for top down knitting to brooches for cardigans without buttons, I’ve made things for knitters that I use myself and swear by.
I’m a feral knitter. I’ve gone rogue and hardly ever use a pattern—but I got to this point by learning certain concepts ‘by heart’. There are great resources on the internet that teach you seamless knitting, which is my favourite way to go, (and clearly Mary’s, too! It’s literally divine.)
Here are some pattern ideas to get you in the mood to customise and wing it, seamlessly, using a Feral Stitch Marker Set and Brooch with the finished design.
Stacy Perry’s Easy Cardigan is designed to close with one of my brooches. You can find the pattern here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/three-rectangles-two-triangles
Here’s Stacy’s Video showing you how to wear one of my brooches and how to knit her beautiful pattern. (If you’re wondering how these pins work, Staci shows you at around 3 minutes in.)
Knitting a top down raglan is one of my favourite methods to knit on the fly, and there’s websites by amazing knitters out there to help you:
Super Cardigan pattern from Tin Can Knits takes you step by step through the process from planning to blocking. It even has a cute pocket how-to. Instead of a button band, you can always close your cardigan with one of our penannular brooches.
KT’s slow closet takes you through the process with lots of pictures:
Here are some classic books to inspire your seamless knitting: Barbara Walker’s Knitting from the Top and Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Around and Knitting Without Tears–with her conversational style–approach knitting in a fluid narrative way.
For the past couple of decades, I’ve only knit seamlessly. I make it up as I go along, and I call this method the Sweater Story. I’m working on a PDF download that I hope to offer in the future which will be all about Sweater Stories!
What’s on your needles?
Here’s a few photos of Feral Knitting from long ago–though it feels like only yesterday:
At a Feminist Circle full of posh academics, I was once asked what I do. “I have a handmade business,” I said. I was proud of my wee Etsy shop, called Feral Strumpet. I earned more peddling jewellery on the internet than at University lecture gigs in the USA. I had a better quality of life than when I was working the soul-deadening job I had in London processing expense reports for an investment bank in the City. My handmade business meant freedom and autonomy, but this academic with a Mulberry handbag dismissed it as “Victorian Piecework.”
What did she know? I was a self-taught metalsmith with a room in my house devoted to my workshop, yet I was also a joke, my vocation an airhead’s ambition. And yet, I had enough business acumen to support myself for over a decade, allowing my husband to quit his job and join me.
Mike, my partner, manning the Feral Strumpet Table at the SF/F Eastercon in Glasgow.
A lot can happen in fourteen years—that’s how long I have had an Etsy shop. I opened the shop after being unemployed for six years—my visa status allowed me to work, but it was difficult to convince a potential British employer of this. I was too educated, too foreign, too sick to work a regular job in the UK. Eventually my CV looked like something a stranded time traveller might put together.
I had a box of broken vintage jewellery, beads and findings and a table in a rented house. I decided I would make jewellery and peddle it on Etsy. This went so well it sustained me, three cats and a man for over a decade. But it’s over now. I won’t bore you with the details. Etsy fees and draconian surveillance have crippled handmade businesses as the company answers to pressure from investors, and I’m just one of thousands who had to flee.
I knew I’d have to shut the Etsy shop sooner or later, but I was so attached to it, so goddamn sentimental. I thought I could outsmart the Etsy Overlords in a Saul Goodman kind of way. For years, I did—bouncing back after many challenges: the algorithm stranglehold on social media, the loss of my European customers after Brexit (a third of my customer base, gone.) The suppliers I worked with for a decade—independent, ethical and small—went out of business. My chronic pain reached critical mass so I paced the work out and taught my partner to make some of the designs. There was the Royal Mail cyber attack and the pandemic, and still I bounced back. Yet now the only way to survive on Etsy is to churn out repeatable designs at low cost or become a reseller of mass produced goods. This is the business model Etsy rewards.
As a disabled person I rely entirely on the gig economy—making jewellery, teaching online workshops writing on Substack, and selling a next book if I can. All require constant promotion and rejection cycles, the antithesis of creative joy.
The Black Hearted Love - the current iteration of my first Feral Strumpet design.
Fourteen years ago, before the online marketplace went public, Etsy was different. My very first sale on Etsy was an pair of Edwardian filigree chandelier earrings I’d refurbished, sold to a dear friend of mine from High School. I’ve sold pieces to strangers whose names I recognised and whose work I have loved—doom metal rock stars, queer poets, feminist screenwriters and even once to Peaky Blinders’ costume designer. I modelled as a pirate queen for the label of a fellow Etsy seller’s perfume. Sellers shared ideas and knowledge and my success is down to the shared grit and resilience of the community of artists on Etsy in those early days.
I’m lucky though that I have had so much excitement and happiness being an Etsy seller, and this will continue on my independent shop, in new and exciting ways. I’m freed up; I’m mourning. Perhaps these two things are inseparable.
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Nicole Piar’s magical Spirit Cats and Witch Cats oracle decks are now available in gifts sets here at Feralstrumpet.com.
There are gift sets for all magical cat lovers–chose the Witch Cat Set, the Spirit Cat set or a set with both for an All-the-Cats mega deck! Each gift set comes with a custom wooden gold crescent moon card stand for your altar and a beautifully lined, embrodiered magical cat bag that can hold most sizes of tarot and oracle cards, and just happens to be perfect for the witch cat decks–the pouches can hold both decks at the same time.
The moon stand and your choice of sun or moon pouch are also sold separately in my shop.
We are proud to be the UK and European seller of Nicole’s beautiful oracle decks.
Have a look at these videos for a walk through of each deck:
Strumpets, it’s been quite a journey bringing three cats and our studio across the Pentland Firth to settle in Kirkwall.
I’m excited to find out how the wild, ancient landscape of Orkney will inspire future designs.
As I write to you, the Orkney wind is whistling through the laundry line and our wee studio is all set up.
We are truly back! Orders will be shipped out once a week from Kirkwall.
Thank you so much for your patience and being with us on this new adventure.
We are very excited to be the UK seller of Nicole Piar’s newest Oracle deck, The Witch Cats Deck.
We have stocked extremely limited quantities and anticipate selling out quickly. If you would like the Witch Cats to wing their way to you, place your order now!
From Nicole Piar: “The Witch Cats are here to help us merge fully with our Most Magical Selves – to embody our expansive, infinite, cosmic energy and wield it here on earth with the creativity, compassion and skill of a powerful magician.
“60-card deck to awaken your magic. Each card features a magical, lushly-painted cat with an enchanting message on the back. Sister deck to the Spirit Cats Deck, the Witch Cats are here to help us merge fully with our Most Magical Selves – to embody our expansive, infinite, cosmic energy and wield it here on earth with the creativity, compassion and skill of a powerful magician.The Witch Cats are adept in practical magic. They celebrate your authentic, burning desires and help you shake off the shackles of shame and should’s. They meet you lovingly where you are and guide you to where you long to be.Welcome to the enchanted world of the Witch Cats where we playfully weave our dreams into the fabric of nature.”
We also have a few of the beautiful pouches that fit both the Spirit Cats Deck and the Witches Cat Deck. You can even combine them in the pouch, creating the ultimate, mood boosting and inspiring cat oracle deck!
The gold crescent moon card stand fits both the Spirit Cats and Witch Cats cards, and we have a few of these in stock as well.
For the last five years I have been working on this book about those accused as witches in Scotland during the witch hunts. Years of travel and research have gone into the work, and I’m so pleased to be able to talk about it now!
I can now share the gorgeous cover design for Ashes and Stones by Natalie Chen. The illustrator is Iain MacArthur.
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‘It’s summer. I stand where perhaps Ellen stood, in this ground thick with new thistle and long grass. She would have ken this coast in all weathers: in the summer when it was as gentle as a lake and in the winter, with the high winds and stinging salt spray.’
Ashes and Stones is a moving and personal journey, along rugged coasts and through remote villages and modern cities, in search of the traces of those accused of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Scotland. We visit modern memorials, roadside shrines and standing stones, and roam among forests and hedge mazes, folk lore and political fantasies. From fairy hills to forgotten caves, we explore a spellbound landscape.
Preorders are open now, and the book will be published by Sceptre in the UK on 19 January, 2023.
]]>More than 20,000 Etsy sellers are on strike this week, from April 11-18, protesting Etsy’s exploitative polices and the dramatic 30% increase in seller fees. Over the course of the pandemic, Etsy has made a killing in profits for its shareholders by gouging sellers and forcing more experienced sellers into their extortionate "offsite ad" scheme (you can’t opt out if you make more than $10,000 a year on the site.)
2/3 of my sales come from Etsy - the rest are from my own shop, http://www.feralstrumpet.com. I have always thought I needed Etsy to survive financially. It is my ‘day job’ and allows me to do things like eat and heat the house while I write books. (Unless you are celebrity, writing will not earn you enough to live on, even if you have a book deal and terrific agent.) But since 2017, the site has taken an increasing amount of my earnings, and every year I give them thousands of pounds. Can you imagine paying hundreds of pounds a month for something with no actual support from the service? The strike is a way to say, hey, Etsy, you need us. We are the ‘cred’ in your supposedly ‘beloved, trusted brand.’ Without us you are just another marketplace full of cheap, sweatshop made goods and drop-shipping, print-on-demand identikit items.
These fee hikes and exorbitant, non-voluntary add-ins have come during the pandemic – this is plague profiteering, disaster capitalism at its finest. Since Etsy went public, the company has patronised, gouged and ignored the needs of its sellers. Yet it knows who these sellers are, or were before it drove them out of business–the last Etsy census was in 2019. I wrote about that in a previous post where I concluded with false optimism that ‘I hope that this clear picture will enable Etsy to make better decisions supporting its sellers, while I long, quixotically, for a return to the handmade marketplace it once was.’
87% of sellers on Etsy identify as women– Etsy allows a flexible scale for new businesses, allowing women to experiment with possibilities. The census from 2019 also points out that women perform 3/4 of all unpaid care work– meaning that the flexible business model Etsy provides is well suited to women who keep the world turning with their care and kindness.
A significant number of Etsy sellers are also disabled and live in rural, impoverished communities, like myself. This exploitation of our demographic is, well, just plain evil. Seeing thousands of others stand beside me in my outrage has been empowering–and it has also revealed just how many of us are at the mercy of Etsy and this new world of the gig economy.
These are our demands:
1: Cancel the fee increase.
2: Crack down on Resellers.
1: Cancel the fee increase.
2: Crack down on Resellers
3: “Golden” Support Tickets for AI bot driven shop shut-downs.
4: End the Star Seller program
5: Let All sellers opt out of Offsite Ads
How can you help?
I am longing for those images and ideas I found in old Europe.
Here is a selection of vintage and refurbished adornments as well as pieces inspired by Bohemian costume jewellery from the early 20th century. I find myself yearning for flash and decadence tempered by the patina of history. This is the aesthetic that first shaped Feral Strumpet—the glitter of the tart. Ten years on, it’s exiting to revisit these roots.
You’ll find vintage and new art nouveau and deco designs, glittering Bohemian crystals as well as one of a kind treasures from all over the world. Shop the collection here.
Mucha’s source photograph, and the finished poster
My newest collection is inspired by the Glasgow rose, a design motif attributed to Rennie Mackintosh but originated by his wife, Margaret MacDonald and her sister, Francis MacDonald. Both artists worked in metal, gesso panels, illustration and embroidery. The sisters had a studio at 128 Hope Street in Glasgow and were part of the Art Nouveau movement in Glasgow called the Spook School, and they were two of the Glasgow Four. Francis’ use of symbolism, Celtic mythology and her dream-like colour palette have inspired me. Her death at 48 is thought to have been a suicide. After her death, her husband John Herbert MacNair destroyed much of her work.
Margaret MacDonald Macintosh
I have always loved the organic simplicity of the Glasgow rose–it feels both modern and timeless. I have rendered these roses in spiralling lines of sterling silver and copper, combined with stones that echo the original colour-ways used by the MacDonald sisters–hues of mauve, purple, blood red and green. Where possible, I’ve used recycled pearls and stones, salvaged from broken vintage pieces. The collection includes necklaces, earrings, rings and shawl pins featuring variations on the motif which represents Scottish aesthetic innovation and a playful, refined femininity.
Frances Macdonald
]]>Many of my EU customers have been asking me what has changed since the UK has left the EU. Here is a brief summary of what you can expect at my Etsy shop as well as at feralstrumpet.co.uk. We still ship FREE to the EU for all jewellery orders.
Buying from our Etsy shop means you will be charged import tax for your country at checkout, and we will put this information on the package. (A recent order to Germany was charged 19% and Italy 22%—as examples) This means it will not be delayed in customs—you will not have to pay handling fees or import duties at customs and this will speed delivery.
Buying from my independent site means shipping is still free, but your item might be stopped in customs and you will pay import fees.
If you have any questions or see anything you like in my shop, email me and I will be happy to answer all your questions!
We see ourselves as a European shop in a European country even if the UK government has decided otherwise.
]]>The upside of all this is now that these trends have names–Dark Mori, Nu Goth, etc., I’m able to find my style sisters–like-minded souls on Instagram and Pinterest, mutual style inspirations and co-cacklers. Though this subculture has been overly aestheticised and commodified, there is one striking development–community. There are many of us coming out of the broom closet and we are finding each other.
How we adorn ourselves is our most immediate form of self-expression– it can be the most intimate descriptor we have of ourselves. When fashion takes these shapes and ideas and sells them back to us, we have to keep playing and keeping things true to our own identities while supporting other independent, pagan, heathen and witch-friendly businesses.
This is the ninth year we are celebrating the winter holidays with our customers. We are so grateful for your support this season, especially. Find something truly unique for someone you care about in our shop of handmade and carefully curated accessories and altar supplies. Every item comes gift wrapped. We can send your gift to your loved one and include a note on your behalf.
We are offering 20% off shop-wide with coupon code gratitude2020 through 30th November 2020. Only at feralstrumpet.co.uk.
This holiday season, let us help you remember friends and family. All our pieces come gift wrapped, ready for giving. We are currently going to the Post Office several times a week–so you don’t have too! If you are missing someone this holiday, we have a unique gift that will say you are thinking of them. We can include a note as well on your behalf.
I’ve put together some gift guides to help you choose:
]]>With winter holidays quickly approaching, here is an easy guide to Feral Strumpet order deadlines. As always these dates are guidelines not guarantees. If you have your eye on a special gift, we’d encourage you to place orders sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment.
All our pieces come gift wrapped, ready for giving. We are currently going to the Post Office several times a week – so you don’t have too! If you are missing someone this holiday, we have a unique gift that will say you are thinking of them. We can include a note as well on your behalf.
]]>I have long been a fan of Grey Malkin, dating back to his band The Hare and the Moon, which I often listen to while I work in my little maker’s space. Since that time Grey Malkin and I have have been published together in the Rituals and Declarations zine. He is a Renaissance person: a compelling writer, photographer, musician, flaneur and observer of life. I had the pleasure of talking to him about his current projects, favourite adornments.
Ally: Can you tell us a bit about your current projects?
GM: Since the passing of The Hare & The Moon into ghosts around 3 years ago I’ve been working on a few projects that are ongoing or now coming to fruition. One of these will be the début Widow’s Weeds release, which has accumulated a great number of songs and would be, in ye olde parlance, a double album. There are original songs, instrumentals, some traditional ballads; all in a sense ‘folk music‘ but essentially ‘electronic’, although with touches of guitar, flute and violin. Some of these have already been scattered on compilations and a few were the last songs The Hare & The Moon recorded, however these now feel more like the first utterances of Widow’s Weeds rather than the dying gasps of the previous incarnation. The singer Daughters of Grief is my companion on this outing, she also sang latterly with The Hare & The Moon which adds to the sense that this is an entirely new creature indeed. The third member of Widow’s Weeds is an artist who produces work under the name Hidden Velvet and who will be taking care of the visual side of the project. I am very excited for this album to seep out into the ether; it should appear around the winter solstice.
The current Covid situation has proved to be, by turn, a hindrance and mental block to creating at times, to alternately on other occasions allowing a great deal of outpouring and channelling into various musical projects. I suspect we are all having our individual responses to the crisis, all are valid. In the last month there has been a new single with Kitchen Cynics, two ghost stories set to music that came out on 7″ via the Reverb Worship/Future Graves label, and a download album of remixes of songs from an album I released with the Belgian artist Ashtoreth last year, ‘Hermit’. This features mixes from many friends and favourite artists such as Pefkin, Trappist Afterland, Richard Quirk, Pulselovers, Sky High Diamonds, Kitchen Cynics, English Heretic and The Rowan Amber Mill.
Speaking of Trappist Afterland, we have recently recorded a new mini-album together which is due out imminently on vinyl; this was our ‘lockdown’ project and very proud I am of it too. It follows our first album together, ‘The Trappist & The Hare’ which came out in April. I was also fortunate enough to play on the forthcoming Trappist album, ‘Seaside Ghost Tales’, which I have had a sneak preview of and can reliably inform everyone that it is splendid. There should also be a third album with Ashtoreth, ‘Heretic’, on its way which will complete our trilogy of releases, following ‘Pilgrim’ and ‘Hermit’. On the reissue front the album I recorded with David Colohan and Daughters of Grief under the name Embertides (‘Between Trees & Starlike’) is available again on CD from the Cursed Monk label and the Meadowsilver album (with Gayle Brogan and Stephen Stannard) will also soon be out once more in a new edition. Finally, there have been contributions (or possibly desecrations) from myself to the brilliant series of recent EPs by United Bible Studies. Phew!
I’ve also been enjoying writing, an article on ‘The Burryman of South Queensferry’ featured in the second edition of the excellent Rituals & Declarations fanzine and I’ve been contributing reviews and features for the superb Moof Magazine, which focuses on psychedelia and folk music and is available both in print and online. This enables me to write about a lot of the music I love and interview artists whose work has meant a great deal to me, such as folk artists like Alison O’Donnell and Caedmon. Plus, it’s just great that in this day and age that you can pick up a paper copy of the magazine, all beautifully put together by Melanie Xulu.
Ally: Do you have a favourite adornment? Does it have a story?
GM: Whilst musing over my favourite adornment, I decided to choose the first two that instinctively sprung to mind. The first is a recent acquirement; a leather wrist strap from a small shop/workspace in Sleat on the Isle of Skye that sits at the end of the harbour. It is a marker of a very special summer last year, and of visiting a close friend up in the Highlands and of how much this time meant to me. It perhaps feels more poignant with the current pandemic situation and not knowing when I shall be able to travel freely again, see dear friends or revisit some of these unique places. I wear it daily, a tangible and visible connection to some important memories. The other adornment is a tattoo on my right inner arm of an old medieval woodcut of a hare with a tabor or drum. I had this done several years ago as, as well as looking very snazzy, it combined elements of folklore, music, nature and symbolism, all of which I have an interest and passion for. It also marks a period in time and has personal meaning and connotations. I have seen this particular image crop up on a few occasions recently online, it is, as they say, a corker.
Ally: Is there another artist, writer, or maker that you think we should be paying attention to now?
GM: There are many artists I’d like to mention that I would love people to investigate; I’m going to be sneaky and mention a few before expanding upon one individual in particular! In music I’d like to highlight Gayle Brogan’s work as the windswept and otherworldly Pefkin, the songwriting genius and gentleman that is Kitchen Cynics, The Rowan Amber Mill (who are a huge inspiration for me and who have a new album out imminently), Burnt Paw (writer of beautiful songs and painter of beautiful paintings), the esoteric and addictive Trappist Afterland and the intense soundscapes of Ashtoreth. Art wise, I’d like to draw people’s attention to the gorgeous and haunted handmade dolls of Pantovola, every house should have one. However, if I was to currently focus upon one musical artist it would be composer Michael Begg, who also records under the name Human Greed. From his base in East Lothian, Scotland, Michael has conjured a repository of some of the most affecting and accomplished music I have yet come across. Sometimes electronic, oft cinematic, part modern classical and part experimental, indescribable and yet many favourable adjectives apply. He also puts on events and evenings in Edinburgh under the banner ‘Liminal Nights’, a rare and much needed forum for outsider and experimental music; previous happenings have included the likes of spoken word performances by Chris Connelly (Ministry/Finitribe). Michael’s chamber collective ‘The Black Glass Ensemble’ are also an emotive force in performance, as I can personally attest to, and his recent ‘Witness’ sequence of releases during the lockdown period that utilise satellite and astronomical data as a basis for sound have to be heard to be believed. Can satellite data make you cry? Yes it can. ‘Be Mine In Patience”, his amassed and layered collection of a number of artists‘ submissions of a B Minor chord sequence (the key associated with patience) was a genuine reaching out and connective force during the pandemic and I was very fortunate to be asked to contribute. It is a veritable symphony, I urge you to listen. All Michael’s music can be found at www.omnempathy.bandcamp.com.
Alaura of Desnoir is the designer of my distinctive Feral Strumpet logo. She is a brand stylist and aesthetic witch of the highest order. Her dark, lush visions are totally distinct in the design world. A great listener and intuitive designer, she has remained an ally and inspiration even after she nailed my logo on the first version, years ago. I had the pleasure of talking with her about her current projects, her favourite adornments and inspirations.
Ally: Can you tell us a bit about your current projects?
Alaura: At the moment in terms of design, I’m currently amid two brand stylings for two businesses in the spiritual and self-care industry. These are some of my favourite types of businesses to work with because it’s very aligned with my own personal interests. They also always give me the space to let my creativity take over fully and allow me to explore with heavy themery, which is what I love to do and is at the forefront of my branding work. These brand stylings have very deep-rooted inspirations and meanings which I enjoy weaving into the branding.
Hopefully, I should be starting soon on a project with a chandlery who’d like me to design labels for a range of candles that are paranormal themed. We have been chatting about the designs and what we envision them to look like and I’m really excited to get started on these.
I’m also pretty busy behind the scenes of Desnoir working on a new website and a new set of designs for my premade design store. I will be introducing a whole new range of semi-custom logos and business cards, plus I will be introducing semi-custom brands which offer people a little extra at that lower cost. I’m also very excited to say that I am in the process of expanding and integrating my sister into Desnoir. She’s just graduated university and will be offerings brand strategy and social media specialist services. We’re still in the process of figuring that all out but it’s such an exciting time!
Ally: Do you have a favourite adornment? Does it have a story?
Alaura: So this seemed like a really hard question for me at first because I’m actually not at all into jewellery, I don’t like the sensation of it so don’t really wear it or own any other than some tunnels/plugs in my ears and my piercings. But I’ve always said when people have asked about jewellery that I prefer to adorn myself in tattoos, so that counts right? I have a lot of tattoos but I think my favourite two and the two immediately on my hands that I see almost constantly. The placement was purposeful so they would be reminders all the time. I have the alchemical symbol for copper on my right hand and the word ‘sin’ on my left hand.
Sin as a reminder to always embrace whatever it is that I enjoy, live a full, sensual and self-indulgent life to nobody’s rules but my own. Obviously placed on the left for homage to the left-hand path, the focus on the self, centrality, spiritual freedom and rejection of societal convention. A reminder to never let someone or something put me in a box or tell me who to be or how to live.
And the alchemical symbol for copper has resonated with me for a long time due to the characteristics it embodies such as love, balance, feminine beauty and artistic creativity which are basically all elements that are of the highest importance in my life as a woman, creative and lover. I’m also a Libran, through and through, copper is associated with the planet Venus which is the ruling planet of Libra and encompasses love, beauty, passion, harmony, creativity, femininity, aesthetics and imagination. These are all things I value the most in life and this tattoo not only symbolises all of that it reminds me of all that I am, what matters to me, what is important and to never lose that.
Ally: Is there another artist, writer or maker that you think we should be paying attention to now?
Oooo ok, I will try to touch on a few different areas here. Firstly, music-wise, I’m totally obsessed with Heilung at the moment. An experimental folk band who bases their music on texts and runic inscriptions from Germanic peoples of early medieval northern Europe. It’s so good and ancient and really gets my blood, body and spirit flowing. (https://www.instagram.com/amplifiedhistory)
I’m also almost always listening to Cryo Chamber in the studio or at home, in the bath.. going to sleep. I listen to this a lot. They are a dark ambient record label who’s work is described as ‘dark soundtracks for creatives’. Portraying distant worlds, dusty cathedrals, damp forests, they field record in ghost towns, abandoned subway tunnels and on dwindling mountain paths. (https://www.cryochamberlabel.com/)
Shifting tone a little, I’m late to the bandwagon but I’m recently discovered Ghostemane who has been my go-to when I want something a little more, heavy. He offers a fusion of rap and metal. (https://www.ghostemane.com/)
In terms of artists, Kerbcrawlerghost is still leading as my #1 who is an insanely detailed ink illustrator. Dark, erotic and pretty satanic. Lots of nuns, demons and other monsters. But the detail in his work is really amazing.
]]>Nicole Piar is an artist and visionary. Many may be familiar with her delightful Spirit Cats Deck, which I carry in my online shop here. I love her Spirit Cat’s Deck as a beautiful addition to my personal working altar. Nicole’s gentle, uplifting visions of cats and magical beings are not only beautiful, they are authentic, and come from a genuine soul. I talked to Nicole about her upcoming Cosmic Allies Altar Deck and Book, her favourite necklace as well as other artists and makers that inspire her. Read on to learn more.
Ally: Can you tell us about your current projects?
Nicole: My Cosmic Allies Altar Art Deck and Book is on its way to me as we speak and I can’t wait for it to finally arrive. It’s been a long, winding and wild multi-year journey to bring the Cosmic Allies into the world. I learned so much about surrendering, pausing, and making space for Spirit to enter. It definitely challenged my ego who was hoping for a more linear, productive creative process. This was sooo far from linear.
I should have known I was diving deep down the rabbit hole when I decided to completely merge ritual magic and art-making for this deck. I had been practicing planetary magic for a while and was craving genderless visual expressions of the 7 planetary energies in astrology ~ Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. I couldn’t find anything like that so I decided to create it myself.
For each Cosmic Ally, I created an altar, made special offerings, did meditations where I invited the planetary energy to merge with me, and channeled guidance. I wove spells and opened to receiving visions in my dreams and in my waking life. I created each painting on the day of the week that is sacred to the corresponding Cosmic Ally. Venus was painted only on Fridays, Mercury on Wednesdays, Jupiter on Thursdays and so on. I did things in ways that sacrificed practicality, efficiency, and logic for the sake of the magic.
Consequently, each card in the deck is not only a work of art, it is also a powerful planetary talisman. The accompanying book share a plethora of ways to work with the Cosmic Allies so that you can really craft an experience that resonates with you specifically.
I can honestly say that this project worked on me more than I worked on it. I have claimed more of the full spectrum of my power and soul expression. I playfully infused my life with ritual and magic. In fact, I feel like I am living inside the ritual all the time now. I feel more expansive, more free. I can see more of the beauty in the world, both cosmic and earthly.
This next big project simmering up to the surface is my Witch Cats Oracle Deck. Many of the cats have already come through but more are on their way. Not sure when this will be finished but I love all the Witch Cats already. I think they will be good friends with my Spirit Cats Oracle Deck.
Ally: Do you have a favourite adornment? Does it have a story?
Nicole: I have a giant, art nouveau, hand-crafted silver butterfly necklace that I LOVE. It’s not subtle at all. It’s overtly magical and wild and I love that. People always notice it and ask me about it. I love telling them that it was a gift from my Mom. My Mom and I are very close. She is very empathic, loving, and open-minded and I admire that in her.
Whenever she visits me in LA from New Hampshire, we go to the Huntington Botanical Gardens. That place is pure magic! I can wander among the blooms and trees all day and they have the best curated gift shop with lots of items from artists. I fell in love with the butterfly necklace there and my Mom bought for my birthday. It reminds me of her and of nature. It warms my heart as I wear it which is almost every day.
Find more at Nicole’s website: http://www.nicolepiar.com/
Ally: You have been helping me with the shop since I started nine years ago, but we really became business partners about five years ago. A lot has changed over those years. What are the most significant changes?
Michael: Five years ago I wasn’t really thinking about the larger picture – I was just following your lead, mimicking how you did things, honing new skills, pitching in and being helpful – & sometimes messing things up in the process! Consequently I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the changing landscape of the business, which of course was changing rapidly all around us.
While the stylistic markers of handmade have been adopted by large chain stores and corporations, there are fewer spaces that actively support do-it-yourself ethics. Etsy.com, where Feral Strumpet began 9 years ago, was once a supportive online community of buyers and sellers. They now avoid using the term “handmade” entirely. Much of what is often perceived as handmade on Etsy is now made using cheap labour from the developing world. Feral Strumpet actually wakes up each day and says: let’s see what these 4 hands can create! This has become anomalous on Etsy.
Ally: You are often the first point of contact with the shop as you cover customer service. What is your favourite aspect of this job?
Michael: Our customers are the best! I never tire of reading the kind words and wonderful feedback customers have to say about their Feral Strumpet purchases. It’s also incredible to hear from customers about how they’ve quickly forged relationships with their pieces and found kinship with both the designs and their maker. These personal connections are a big part of why some people prefer buying from small, handmade businesses.
Ally: What are your favourite designs in the shop?
Michael: It changes all the time. Since being in charge of inventory, most days I get to see the whole range of items Feral Strumpet sells. Let’s see: I love your classic, rustic wire-wrapped stone bead pieces, like the Seven Wonders Necklace in Bifrost. I have also long been captivated by your range of Fairy Drop Earrings, which as a piercing-less person I can’t wear. But they really catch the light perfectly. Right now though, I am most excited about our new Micro Tesla hoops – I love their tiny simplicity, and they are satisfying to make. If I had any kind of sea legs – and I don’t, I turn green at the sight of a ship – I’d wear a pair of these proudly throughout the world’s oceans.
Ally: You were my first model. Which were your favourite designs that you have modelled?
Michael: I’m too self-conscious to be a good model; I recoil at the sight of a lens. But yes you did steal a few usable shots of me back then. There was that one Vintage rosary medal necklace we sold to a crew member on Peaky Blinders . . . I wonder if that ever ended up around Tommy Shelby’s neck? But seriously I always loved the weight and feel of the Hop Pendant Necklace, and since I was a big craft ale drinker in my younger days, this one immediately resonated with me. And I really like my soft Feral Strumpet t-shirt – I’m actually wearing it as I type this.
Ally: You used to be a mental health social worker. How is working in a small handmade business similar? How is it different?
Michael: Mental health social work is an endlessly fascinating, extremely rewarding profession in the country like the UK that has an honest-to-god system to help and support those experiencing mental health problems. But: in the days of extreme public service austerity, such work comes with an immense toll on one’s own health, be it mental, physical, or spiritual. Starting to work at Feral Strumpet was like starting over, in the best way possible.
Ally: Where do you see our shop going next? What is your vision for the future?
Michael: Our shop continues to grow and in many ways has already outgrown Etsy. Our independent online shop is beautiful and more expressive of our aesthetic, and we now strive to make it a destination online to come look at and read about common interests we have with our customers.
I’m excited about our dreams of eventually moving from Aberdeenshire into the Highlands to a larger house with a workshop. So we’ll see what happens with that.
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Ally: Can you tell us a bit about your current projects?
Helen: I’m working on the next book, which is tentatively called Undine. In it, Cass and Sid lose their father in a tragic diving accident while exploring the wreck of the HMS Undine, and inherit his diving school on the Cornish coast.
Once Cass returns from university, she discovers Sid is now living in their house with Adam, one of the dive shop’s employees who she has promoted to manager. Cass very quickly realises that he is running the shop, the school, and her sister into the ground.
Things get worse after a student finds something incriminating during a wreck dive at the Undine. Cass begins to wonder now whether her father’s death was an accident or murder…
Undine is a challenging book in a number of ways. As part of the research I had to learn to scuba dive. It is fair to say that I was not, ahem, a natural. In fact I had my first ever panic attack in the flooded quarry in Leicestershire where you go to qualify.
However, there is something I learned about scuba diving that I could take into life – and that is that it requires surrender. There is a point underwater where you are simply too far down to think ’Sod this, this is too scary’ and fire yourself back up to the surface. The pressure changes could kill you.
You’re down there in the cold, with the surface world flickering twenty feet above you like a distorted mirror, and that’s that, for now. You’re staying. That surrender was its own revelation.
Ally: Do you have a favourite adornment? Does it have a story?
Helen: it’s so hard to choose! For years I’d bought and been given beautiful jewellery, which I really loved, but it was always costume jewellery which eventually faded, or, if you like, occult jewellery such as crystals and amber which had specific purposes. It never struck me as wise to buy expensive pieces, as I am forever losing single earrings and breaking thin chains.
But when Dear Amy came out, I wanted to celebrate that milestone – I’d been writing for all of my life and this was my first published novel. I was at a writers retreat on the island of Mull and in the silversmiths there I saw this necklace.
The hare just spoke to me. For years I carried a little quartz hare I bought in Avebury around in my handbag, and I have no idea what happened to it. This seemed a fitting replacement. The first hare I ever saw in real life was in a field just outside of Wayland’s Smithy, and I have always associated them with Spring, freshness, and creativity.
I often wear this necklace and the matching earrings whenever I am in public representing my books – when I need to box clever – and it’s always brought me luck.
Ally: Is there another artist, writer, dancer or maker that you think we should be paying attention to now?
Helen: There are so many fantastic artists and writers around. I have read some wonderful books lately, but the two that really spring to mind are Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss and The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy.
Ghost Wall is slender, a novella almost, and is about a young girl, Sylvie, whose father is obsessed with experimental archaeology. He drags his family with him to live in camps reenacting his version of the past in an authoritarian, male-centred way. At the same time, through exposure to university students and villagers, the main character comes into contact with other interpretations of the ancient world and gender roles. I though it was amazingly compact and thoughtful – so much to say in such a short space.
Her latest, Summerwater, is due out in August, and I am counting the days until then.
The Man Who Saw Everything is more difficult to talk about without spoiling the central conceit, but it was just so technically adroit and beautifully imagined, spanning from the 70s to the modern day via Cold War East Germany, and is that wonderful thing – a book that looks vague and bitty initially, but is in fact a precision machine. I also loved Hot Milk and her memoir on writing, Things I Don’t Want To Know is fascinating and thoughtful.
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It seems fitting to launch the Celtic Roots Collection at this Summer Solstice. Things have been rocky, and it’s still eclipse season, but there is rebirth everywhere.
Not far from where I live and work making jewellery is Tap o' Noth, where a major Pictish settlement has just been discovered. These discoveries mean my little corner of Aberdeenshire was once the centre of Pictish life. The Picts were of course Celts. These carvers of mysterious stones were also great jewellery makers. Even to this day, modern silversmiths are unable to replicate some of their powerful and mysteriously made designs.
One of my very first cold forged designs was inspired by the simple Celtic penannular brooch. I have gone on to make many version of this design in myriad metals with stone accents. You will find them in this collection.
There are also many Celtic inspired earrings and necklaces, suitable for a daughter of the Picts. I have also sourced beautiful vintage pieces all decorated with Celtic knotwork. The Picts often depicted the web of wyrd on their cryptic stone carvings—destiny was cyclical and intertwining, knotted together with those that came before and all those who will come after.
Horse brasses are fascinating objects. Historically horse brasses were used to kit out horse harnesses , but they had an alternate use as an apotropaic talisman, something to avert misfortune or bad luck. According to UK folklore, horses were particularly susceptible to being hag-ridden. The term “nightmare” refers to the dreamer being ridden by malevolent forces. Witches were thought to be attracted to horses and the beautiful, shiny horse brasses defected their “evil eye.” This perhaps dates back to a more ancestral memory of the horse as a sacred animal, kin to Epona the Celtic horse goddess.
Objects of beauty, such as horse brasses, were often thought to draw the malignant impulse to itself rather than the wearer, much in the same way a witch ball was thought to protect a house.
I offer a range of carefully sourced vintage horse brasses featuring pagan or occult motifs ready to be repurposed as decor and for creative warding. They are available in the Altar Supplies section of my shop.
]]>I’ve been busy sourcing statement brooches, inspired by the pins worn by powerful women from the characters on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina to Justice Lady Hale. Specifically, I’ve come across a treasure trove of vintage Miracle brooches and pendants. These Miracle pins look wonderful with hand knits. Brooches are also a good way to wear vintage if you have metal sensitivities, pinning them to layered clothing that doesn’t touch the skin.
These Miracle pieces are inspired by heavy Scottish silver pins inset with bold Scottish agate of the type favoured by Queen Victoria. She popularised these pins during her era, starting a fashion for weighty pieces, designed to hold heavier woollen fabrics and offset the deep colours used in tartan plaids. These modern versions by Miracle introduced Celtic elements into the designs and used glass to mimic natural stone. The ones I offer here were made in the 60s-80s. The brand Miracle began as a maker of costume jewellery in the UK in the 1940s and contemporary jewellery marked Miracle is now made by St. Justin in Cornwall.
This is the first of a larger collection of vintage Miracle pieces I’ll be offering in the future. You can find them in the What’s New section of the shop.
]]>Twenty years ago, I was standing on the Sunset Strip with my friend Joey. We’d just been to see the Legendary Pink Dots and someone leaned out of a convertible SUV, screaming, “GOTH HIPPIES DIE.” We laughed and laughed like crones around a cauldron.
This sums up my life as a goth, which began when I was a teen putting ads in the back of Flipside magazine for mix tapes, zine trades and pen pal correspondence. I didn’t know what a goth was exactly, but I was playing Bauhaus, The Birthday Party, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Damned on vinyl I kept in a milk crate. I wore 1950s black cardigans and skirts, vintage slips and fishnets with old rosaries. I guess not much has changed, deep down.
And everything has changed. I’ve constantly departed from High Goth costume, finding it farther and farther from my roots. I still revel in the literature, music and aesthetic of gothness. I have my bragging rights, though— one of the first gigs I ever went to was The Damned in 1986. I’ve danced in a My Dying Bride, and I met most of my forever friends through the clove smoke of a crowded dance floor in some goth club, back in the day. You are and will forever be my people.
All this influences my jewellery designs, and I find my original style inspirations like Helena Bonham Carter, Exene Cervenka, Monica Richards and Texacala Jones still comfort and inspire me.
I miss it—I mean, before this lockdown even happened, I missed it. I made this playlist for you, for us. Let’s dance slow and weird, like the poet-souls we are.
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For this first instalment of the #feralfolk feature on my blog, I had the pleasure of chatting with dancer, instructor and costumer, Dud Muurmand. I first met Dud at Gothla UK in her burlesque fusion workshop, and have been a student of hers ever since. Her Weimar-Berlin cabaret style as well as her skirt fusion and traditional belly dance styles, all with a darker edge is unique in the belly dance world. I’m excited to have talked to her via email.
Ally: Can you tell us a bit about your current projects?
Dud: My biggest projects currently is my Patreon forum and my Ravenwing Design. My Patreon forum is reaching its 2 year anniversary this month. This subscription-based forum where people can study and train dance with me is a very large part of my creative work time nowadays.
They are more like “vignettes” or “moving sculptures” inspired by old tales, mythology and history.
I am very happy to see how the forum keeps growing and the support I get back from my patrons. It is a very fulfilling project for myself also. The technical work behind all my video releases and live stream classes have also given back a lot of experience and inspirations into other artistic ideas in my head of story-telling/dramatic dance videos – but quite unlike the regular choreography-caught on video. They are more like “vignettes” or “moving sculptures” inspired by old tales, mythology and history. The first of this idea came out last year in my little video project “Mørkealf”
My Ravenwing Design (slow fashion and upcycled designs aimed at dancers and other free spirits) is another big project of mine currently – still in its inception, but nevertheless a creative project that has been on it’s way for about … well, ahem 20 years!
I have always been very creative and productive with my hands: sewing, knitting, crocheting, making costumes, making stuff – and very inspired by my own mother who was also a very creative and productive person. For many years she was also encouraging me to expand this side of my creativity and jump into “business” but for some strange reason of insecurity I was stalling. Unfortunately, I lost my mum 5 years ago so I did not have her to push me anymore, but luckily my husband “took over” the pushing part and I started “Ravenwing Design” last January 2019.
Like I said, it is still in its very beginning, I am such a terrible “business person” I completely lack the sense for figures and numbers – but I will try to focus on what I can put into my designs – love for beauty.
Ally: Do you have a favourite adornment? Does it have a story?
Dud: Okay, this question was like opening Pandoras box – because I went straight into my treasure boxes of ….many many …. jewelry and adornment pieces that I have collected over the years – and what to choose?
Some are of course family heirlooms that contains their own history, other pieces are marking different phases of my life, others are special pieces that called out to me at a shop, a flea market, an artisan market. I am a hoarder on that matter, period. As a dancer and physical mover, I am also not really able to wear so much jewelry on daily basis, but when I dress up I fancy putting on more stuff and I am not afraid to mix old and new. But instead of wearing my pieces I like to hang up especially necklaces as adornment in my home studio.
OKAY, I have to choose:
– first is the necklace my husband bought for me as the very first present in our relationship – it was the year 1998 and he gave it to me on the premier night of my dance play “Orientalia 2000”
– Second is a small wooden brooch that my mother actually made herself when she was a young girl. I don’t wear it very often, afraid to loose it – but I love holding it in my hand
– Third: a little variety of earrings – earrings is what I wear the most. Some years ago I found this guy in the Berlin Mauerpark fleamarket. He has a little stall with earrings and jewelry made out of scraps – especially electronic scraps. I have several of his earrings – but one pair is a favourite made out of tiny light bulbs from car lights.
And then I want to point to my newly possessed Nidavellir earrings from Feral Strumpet, they are really growing on me, I just love the form, the beauty and the vintage feel.
Ally: Is there another artist, writer, dancer or maker that you think we should be paying attention to now?
Dud: Again – where to start? I have chosen 3 musicians, that are in my personal perimeter at the moment:
I loooooove music and it is often from music I get inspiration for my dance artistry. These 2 guys you will recognise from a lot of my online training videos because they both make “royalty free music”, which is a treasure in itself, but that is actually not why I keep using their music. They are very different in styles, one is very dark and the other is doing a lot of electronic cross-over and experiments (and also game music, which is where he started I think – but digging into his archive there is sooo much more).
– MYUU www.thedarkpiano.com / YOUTUBE
– TEKNOAXE www.teknoaxe.com /YOUTUBE
The 3rd musician is Danish DANHEIM, www.danheimmusic.com – pure love for “viking style” music, the depth, the stories, the imagery – and he is becoming very popular which is well deserved.
Ally: Dud, thank you so much for talking to me. I especially liked hearing about your mother’s brooch and her influence on Ravenswing. Also thanks for turning me on to Danheim, a new favourite.
You can find Dud Muurmand online in these places
Right now it seems everything is up in the air and situations change every day. My online shop is open, and I wanted to let you know about some adjustments I’ll put in place in the coming weeks. My independent online shop, feralstrumpet.co.uk will remain open and orders will go out once a week.
Many of you know about the recent changes at Etsy, the latest of a series that have put pressure on small makers selling on the site. These have come as the share holders of Etsy stock have demanded deeper profits for themselves. The increase in fees are about to be implemented at a time when all small businesses are struggling to survive.
Etsy’s latest change involves mandatory ad payments “for the lifetime of my shop.” The cost will be steep, and combined with all the other fees and the Value Added Tax charged on these fees, it will amount to at least 25% of each sale that comes through an ad. This will be on top of the free shipping to the USA that Etsy has demanded sellers worldwide must provide if we are to appear in the highly competitive search algorithm on Etsy.
I work with many other small makers and suppliers, trying to keep my sourcing accountable. They are hurting too, and some may go out of business altogether. Right now I’m trying to figure out how best to weather these challenges.
As a customer, I know none of this is your problem. I want to make and source beautiful things that tell a story, and this should be a joy for you to shop on my site. I want people to feel a connection with me as the maker and know that they are supporting a micro business.
Etsy was once a genuine community of makers. In its rush to please share holders, Etsy management has forgotten who built the site and gave the brand its integrity. Etsy wasn’t always like this; it was not always a public company. I have been selling on the site for nine years, but have been a customer since its inception. I was dreaming about what I would do for my ten year Etsy shop anniversary next March, something I fear will not happen. This is not because of the chaos of COVID-19 but Etsy’s corporate greed, which makes it more heartbreaking. For almost a decade I have been connected with customers and other makers and many have become dear friends. In many ways I and sellers like me have been instrumental in building the trust in the Etsy brand, and now we are treated as expendable. There has been so much outcry about this and always Etsy’s answer is the same dismissive, cut and paste response. When Etsy sent out a bulletin saying how they were supporting makers during these challenging times, its number one offer was the “promise to roll out offsite ads”— something many sellers, perhaps the majority, do not want.
I plan to put my Etsy shop in “holiday (vacation) mode” for the foreseeable future. I hold out hope that maybe things will change again at Etsy, making it a good place for small makers like myself. In the meantime, please stick with me through these changes by continuing to come to feralstrumpet.co.uk, my independent shop, even if it is just to browse and look at pretty things. Beauty is useful. As I am always working to make this site the best it can be, I will be unveiling a new and improved shopping experience there very soon! I would love to know the kind of work you like to seeing from me. Let’s go into this new future together.
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These are uncertain times. I hope all my friends, shop supporters and customers are well and safe. I would like to say it’s business as usual at Feral HQ, but of course it isn’t. As we work from home and live in a somewhat remote, rural area, self-isolation is a norm. We have the luxury here to do this without much change, but some of my suppliers have been affected by the Shelter in Place Order in California. I collaborate with many other small makers and businesses and they are all affected. We are in this together.
Like many of you, I am one of the vulnerable with multiple pre-existing, chronic conditions one of which is life-threatening asthma that is triggered by respiratory infections. I’m grateful to everyone who is self-isolating too. I know not everyone can. I think the terms “social distancing” and “self-isolating” might describe the physical reality of these actions but really they are deeply communal behaviours, protecting the weakest and most vulnerable. In the words of one of the many memes on the subject, “The one that stayed away saved the rest.” One of my friends said that it feels like the quietest general strike.
I love that. We are quietly striking for each other, for life. Things are coming up in the quiet, too: kindness and birdsong, the steely warmth of hope, the sun on the daffodils, new nettle shoots. Spring is here.
There are some big changes happening on Etsy where sadly corporate greed has finally taken over completely. Until I know how their new changes will affect sellers, I must put my Etsy shop on indefinite holiday mode, but everything will continue on here at feralstrumpet.co.uk. If you need a pleasant distraction of pretty things to look at, come on by. I’m making orders and photographing a lot of vintage I’ve recently sourced. I plan for regular shop updates to go out also because beauty is useful, always. What would you like to see from me? What can I do to lighten these times a bit for you?
Please keep in touch– my customers and my shop supporters are my community!
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