Ah..., as Saint Nicholas might say, naughty children are just that, pains, and fortunately in the alpine regions of Europe he has a helper Krampus (exactly 12 of them on the panes of this vintage-style collapsible paper lantern) to assist with disciplinary difficulties.
Last night, Bindlegrim posted a super short 3-day only auction (ending Dec 20, 2012
19:47:55 PST) for a new lantern, and the last Bindlegrim lantern of 2012. GRUSS von KRAMPUS vintage style HALLOWEEN-CHRISTMAS lantern BINDLEGRIM: 3rd of 3. This lantern (of which only 3 were produced) features 12 scenes of Krampus shenanigans, with a look inspired by vintage postcards of this strange Christmas character.
It's a little hard to photograph all the scenes in a single image when the lantern is set up for lighting, so here are some working files for the panes. This shows Krampus doing what Saint Nicholas hired him to do --- capture particularly naughty children in his sack and carry them away... (wikipedia entry on Krampus).
Fortunately most children must be good here in America, for I have never seen Krampus set foot on this soil. However, with his underground popularity increasing, I wonder if he might finally make it across the water some day, as did one dear friend of ours, the Jack O'Lantern...? Until then, for more images of this lantern check out Bindlegrim on flickr and Happy Holidays and by all means, be good!!!
A quick entry just reminding everyone to be good tonight, Krampusnacht. Here's a little 3 panel comic as a cautionary tale... (for some works in progress for a possible lantern release by Bindlegrim for December 2012). In the meantime here are just a tiny few of the many fun Krampus links out there: wikipedia, or krampus.com, and there are at least 2 books with vintage Krampus imagery collected by Monte Beauchamp.
The Pumpkin Patch (Bindlegrim Lantern released 6-2012): Who or what creeps restlessly through the brambles of the
pumpkin patch at midnight...? Take a peek through an autumnal sky tinged in orange, red, or yellow.
Bindlegrim returns to the studio - and though the
bindle-by-bindle move may not have brought all the usual supplies - it has lent itself to experimentation through discovery of the materials on hand. In this case, a new lantern with an offering of six total created in pairs of orange, yellow, and red.
This newest limited edition was created with silhouettes of vine and leaf motifs merging together with the leaf and Jack O'Lantern design of the black frame. There are 12 separate panes with an overall scene that takes you deep among the brambles of the pumpkin patch, encountering celestial
entities, plentiful mice, a bevy of bats, a black widow, a prowling cat, a witch, a
skeleton, and of course a few pumpkins characters such as a jol-headed scrarecrow, and a JOL-headed ghost. And in the middle of
all this one very scared little cottage!
As with other editions each lantern is signed,
numbered, and packaged with label information. They are currently
only available from the artist, and one has been listed this past Sunday on ebay - ending on June 17, 201220:59:01 PDT.
For more images of this lantern (in post and pre-production) - see the following flickr gallery:
Note about construction: The
frame is created with acid-free museum board. The pieces were Made in
the USA and hand assembled by the artist. Each work is packaged in a
cellophane bag and also labeled with its number in the edition. The images are laser-prints on vellum for durability. A
3 watt flicker bulb is recommended - and it should be noted a white
bulb might be best on these to keep the color hue of the paper most
accurately. Small
holes in the top piece are present for hanging the lantern with soft
wire or strong thread if you prefer a battery operated candle.
I've been rediscovering my love for a certain vintage palette while perusing the vintage Christmas cards on flickr, loving any graphics and/or illustrations that are in the high contrast combination of red, black, and white. (Below is a vintage card that I had found recently at an antique store that re-sparked this interest).
I started checking out many more vintage images in this palette that others have found and posted on flickr. Here are just a handful that I have spotted over the last days that I really love and, beneath them are now four links to galleries created to house eighteen images in each.
There were also a couple more that I couldn't get into a gallery that I thought were really wonderful - and I had to include at least one of those too:
