Welcome to instalment four of my Shopping In The Dark series. I’ve decided to dedicate this post to some of the strangest, finest shops that I’ve found on Etsy that sell exquisite pins and patches.
I hope that you enjoy my selection (click on the pictures to be taken straight to the product you want to check out further!). Please support these small businesses and help them to flourish in the dark!
Feel free to get in touch at katiemariemetcalfe@hotmail.co.uk or in the comment box below if you know of an Etsy shop that needs a mention. I’m also available for reviews if you have a product that you would like to see given the Wyrd Words & Effigies treatment.
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Follow The Black Rabbit – I have to say, hands down, that this is one of the very finest Etsy shop names that I’ve seen. The imagery it conjures of Watership Down brings me right back to my strange and wonderfully morbid childhood.
Print maker and illustrator Dana Glover is the woman behind this dark endeavour. Everything you see in the store have been drawn, designed, printed, and shipped from her Brooklyn apartment.
To create her art, she combines her background in art history with her fascinations for death, nature, and the occult. I’m particularly attracted to this stunning digitally embroidered Krampus patch.
As well as pins and patches, Dana offers prints and greeting cards featuring her meticulous art. I highly recommend checking out her website, Facebook and blog when you’re done here.
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If I had money, I would a lot of it to Bird Ov Prey. This New York based ready-to-wear label has been making esoteric accessories since 2001. Fronted by Jorden Haley, Bird Ov Prey offers an extensive range of not only pins and patches, but shirts and jewelry too.
I’m a picky bastard when it comes to pins and patches, but I have to say that it was difficult making choices as to my favourites, though one which I couldn’t leave alone was this sublimely evil Order Of The Revenant pin. Not only is is fucking glorious but it also has some extra special features too – white glow ink on the moon, teeth and eyes and double rubber backings for extra security.
The Bird Ov Prey website isn’t to be missed. It’s high quality display is a true reflection of the product range. Basically you know you can’t go wrong with this label. Oh, and Jordan’s Instagtam is a thing of beauty. Keep scrolling to see my four favourite items from the Etsy store.
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It’s so good to know that England has it’s fair share of creepy creatures making sinister art. I feel proud whenever I find an Etsy shop run by an English creative wyrdo. Urbanmancy is run by Jemma Watts, and features a range of prints, patches, jewellery, greeting cards and stickers, all inspired the occult and uncanny.
I love her description on Etsy : Insaitiably curious artist who has fallen into a theme of occult urbanism. Me and my partner share a studio on edge of Norwich, right next to some city woodland. We have all the sticks we could ever want, and I want a lot of sticks. She sounds like the kind of person I want to drink tea with and talk about all things wyrd.
As I mentioned before, I’m picky when it comes to what I’ll adorn myself with, but the magick creations Jemma Watts puts out into the world speak to my strange soul, especially this Vegvisir patch. (I have Vegvisir tattooed on my chest.) Choosing just four products was terribly difficult, but after bloody ages I managed it. Here you go…
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What kind of wyrdo would not be immediately attracted to an Etsy shop with a name like Devil’s Kitchen Curios? Lee Morgan is the man behind the project, and he has a mission, a mission to resurrect folk magic practices that nourish the pre-rational parts of ourselves and to bring to life the services and aesthetic of old world cunning folk here in the New World.
At the Australian based Devil’s Kitchen Curios, everything is handcrafted with soul, from their gorgeously peculiar Witchcraft Bunting Prayer Flag (which I would kill for as it’s one of the best thing I’ve ever seen on Etsy) to their exquisite Cunning Folk Patch. All of the products are created to satisfy the souls lust for the uncanny. Novena candles, hand-made incense, prints, bunting and charms can all be found there.
I made life a little bit easier for myself by making this post about pins and patches, else I think I would have been lingering over my choices for months. But here are my final four picks.
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 