Lighten up, breath deep and think
Imagine baking a cake, gathering all the ingredients together make the batter according to the recipe and then saying “I don’t believe in the power of this baking powder to make the batter rise; I…
Nails, square nails, horseshoe nails and coffin nails
A lot of the nails that you’ll see marketed as coffin nails are simply standard hardware store nails that have been conveniently pre-rusted. They are not the specially cast patented (1769) coffin nails that had to…
Practical tips for candles and candle holders
Birthday candles, tea lights, and chime candles: These are fairly small candles, and burn a relatively short amount of time. Birthday candles burn the shortest length of time. Tea lights can go for between an…
Hoodoo– Animal Curios
Animals have a unique place in folk religion, whether its as a representation to spirit, to deliver omens, to bestow their attributes upon a person, or to serve as our guardians. In Hoodoo animals are…
The Greatest Conjure Book of All
Most people (in the US at least) actually have it in one form or another in their homes, there are free copies of it in hotel rooms, libraries usually have several: the Bible. Particularly important…
War Water
There comes a time for each of us to contemplate whether it’s more magically effective to make our own supplies from gathered materials or whether we should just whip out the credit card and purchase…
Buttons
If you visit my home, or my booth at Keeper’s Corner, it’s obvious I have a little obsession with buttons. I love buttons. Originally, buttons were pretty much jewelry. They weren’t closures for garments, they…
Lodestones
Lodestone is an iron rich naturally magnetic piece of the mineral magnetite. While all lodestones are magnetite, not all magnetite is magnetic; therefore not all magnetite is lodestone. Further, all lodestones are not permanently magnetic…
Beeswax hearts
Early American wax ornaments (without the wick for candle burning) were created by pouring melted beeswax into ornately carved cookie boards (very much like the ones used today for shortbread cookies.) Oftentimes the wax castings…
