Beasties

Having a fun photoshoot (of aritst proofs) with sticky claws, the smell of sugar, as the tissue and crepe paper whispers in the  ever so slight chill of the September morning air. With photos now done for the store... later today will be the official arrival of the Bindlegrim's 2015 Beasties on the Bindlegoods Shoppe: http://bindlegoods.bindlegrim.com 

What makes a Beastie? These roly-polys use a orange tissue-paper honeycomb re-created to have the smaller spacing and layer count of vintage items circa 1920-1930. The characters have a slot within the basket that allows for Halloween treats or placement of a small battery operated tealight.  Authentically diecut characters are dual-side printed (in a limited-edition run) in rich color of blacks, oranges, and yellows on a thick 34pt matte stock. (with an almost waxy surface) They can be placed in upright positions (with minimal support), tilted (at their randomly natural angle), or as I discovered when a wind came thru the window - in spinning motion across the table.

As night falls, I do hope to get some better photos of their lighting potential. Here are couple of earlier photos using battery-operated tealights...

Halloween Kisses

While I would like to someday say the most popular image on the flickr account is original, it is actually this groovy little piece of vintage Halloween paper. This is the paper seal for the top of what was likely a plastic bag of candy, (and now has well over 500 views based solely on web traffic searches for terms like "original molasses Halloween kiss").

Based on the company info, (of Allan Candy Company in Aldershot), history would place this around 1943-1961. And here is some interesting information about the Canadian molasses kiss candy (which I had no idea until after I started to research the item): www.taddlecreekmag.com/molasses-the-ultimate-treat

I got this from a stack of ephemera at the Craven Farm holiday show, held in November in Snohomish, Washington (near Seattle) -- from the tables of incredible Halloween product designer Hobgoblin. (Check out this fun fall photoshoot with Hobgoblin , and this ghost created by Hobgoblin).  Personally, I was instantly charmed by the simple imagery, (that special character of the witch face), and the classic silhouette color scheme in orange and black.

In retrospect, this was a definite inspiration!