FYI :)

I have made a decision! I have decided not to make any FAUXtails anymore. I am in no way saying that I regret selling the few I did, as I had no intention when making them of glorifying the use of real fox tails. And I also got to donate $20 or so to the Anti-Fur Association. But I have always been a little bit unsure of them so have decided it is just easier not to make them :) I will still be using faux fur though as I strongly believe that it has been around for so long, that showing you can buy beautiful fake fur can only be a good thing in telling people you don't need real fur. In the meantime I will try think of other ways to raise money via Santa Macabre for animal welfare organisations :)

Faery Dreads: Customer Gallery

Meet the Macabre Models! #2: RavenEmber

(Photos by the awesome Grahame Steven Ritchie)

Hey folks!

My name is RavenEmber - Jodie if you know me - Big Red if you know me well. I've been modelling for 13 years now (ouch! that makes me sound so old!!) and I love it more nowadays than I ever have! I pride myself in being very versatile, willing and able to cover a high range of styles from the alternative, to high couture fashion, to horror, to edgey street fashion to beauty and more. I always work my tooshie off on a shoot to give the photographer/stylist/designer the images they are after. You have heard of method actors? Well I'm a method model! I become the character you want me to portray.

I had a hard time growing up losing a lot of very close love ones in a small amount of time for different reasons - tragic accidents, suicides, drugs, illness....but through this, I have become the woman I am today. I am very in touch with my emotions and use this everytime I take part in a shoot. I'm not afraid to express myself through my body and my facial expressions, even to the extend of creating "ugly beauty" - screaming faces, tear-y eyes, fearful gazes or happy lies! I love to create beauty of all sorts.

Modelling for me is a way of expressing myself and creating inspiring and beautiful imagery in a world that is sometimes not so nice. Beauty, inspiration, love and kindness can be found in the strangest places if you just open up your eyes and look through the filth and the cruelty and the harshness of the world. There is always someone/something there ready to give you back your faith in the goodness and the beauty of humanity when all else seems to point to darkness. If my work gives rise to one smile, one laugh, one sigh, one new thought, even one tear, then my work is done!

Hate(ful) mail

Today I received an email that made me feel very sad. All I can really say is that as vegans all we can do is try our best not to use animal tested and derived products. Unfortunately there will always be a rotten apple who feels the need to be unkind and judgmental.


> Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 16:43:47 -0400
> From: Carla_simp@hotmail.com
> To: creepcake@hotmail.co.uk
> Subject: [Santa Macabre] Vegan?
>
> I just wanted to send you a message to let you know my discussed with your website! You claim to be a vegan site and yet you sell cameos that are made using polymer clay! although it does not contain any animal biproducts, this material was tested on animals where they were fed this material to see what amount would be concidered toxic. As a vegan i am absolutely appauled by your complete lack of education on this subject. Just google it its the 4th link down, really not that complicated. I actually dont believe your a true vegan. You are selling items to people under the pretence that it is vegan friendly, thats like giving a diabetic Sugar. I find you a terrible representative of the vegan community and i will be contacting all your previous press to notify them that they need to make a full retraction on your 'vegan' advertisement. Next time a little research would do you the world of good.

My reply:

Hi Carla, firstly I was unaware that polymer clay was not vegan, which obviously is an error, but not a purposeful one on my part. I will msot definitely look into it now. However, I really don't understand your aggression and hateful attitude. It is great that you feel the need to educate vegans that are unaware of certain things, but I found your message to be abusive, spiteful and upsetting.
I am not going to explain myself to you except as to reiterate that I was unfortunately unaware of this error on my part. You can feel free to contact people about my apparently appalling vegan lifestyle, but to be honest would you not be better placed to spend your time doing something to help the cause and not hinder it?
I am also wondering how you manage to get by on a daily basis, if you 100% never use anything that may have unfortunately at some point been tested on animals? Unfortunately all we can do as vegans is try our hardest. Research is brilliant, and a helping hand toward this is always appreciated but not in the abusive manner you have done so.
I am going to post this correspondence on my blog as I have nothing to hide, and if you truly believe your appalling manner is helping the vegan cause, then I really am disappointed and saddened.

*EDIT*

As advised, I decided to do a little research on polymer clay:

"5). Does that mean polymer clay is vegan?

Short anwer is that yes, according to my e-mails with the manufacturers, Sculpey, Fimo and Kato clay don't contain animal products or by-products, and aren't tested on animals. Long answer, as all you vegans out there know, is that we can never be 100% sure because of reliance on information from suppliers. There's a certain amount of trust needed, because unless one lives in a self-built house with nothing made by anyone else, no-one can be certain that a non-vegan element hasn't snuck in."

Custom pieces!

Today I finished a couple of custom necklaces, and wanted to share them with you! I am always very eager to take on your custom ideas, whether it be a simple cameo necklace, or a very detailed faux fur collar (or anything else you can think of that may not be listed!) So keep your eye on the 'Custom' section on the right hand side menu, or simply email me if you would like to make an order!

The wonderful world of custom collars!

Lately, I have had the awesome pleasure of being commissioned to do a lot of custom faux fur collars. What started off as me buying some scrap faux fur from a trip to Brighton ended up with me having a lot of lovely ladies requesting their own custom piece!

I have just now gotten down to the bottom of my custom order list so thought I would share the photos I have collected of the little project!

I have some awesome ideas for different versions of the collars, such as a button up style for the Autumn and Winter months, where practicality is also a factor!

I am stoked to hear some more of your ideas and would love to make something special for anyone that has a few ideas and a spare few pennies! There is an option on the site where you can order your own collar, with a list of options that you can totally make your own, or you can simply email or Facebook me!

Anyway, here are some of the pieces I was lucky enough to be asked to make!

A little bit about Santa Macabre being vegan!

Santa Macabre is an animal friendly company. I strive to create items without using any animal derived materials such as feathers etc. Though I do love the look of faux fur, and I find it fun making artificial animal skulls, I love and respect animals more. I have specific views on animal related issues, which I am sure I will touch on again! I am a lot more relaxed than I used to be though, in that I can see aggression can hinder rather than help the cause. Anyway, for now I just felt like sharing some awesome music that inspires me every time I listen to it. And I've also popped in a couple of other videos at the bottom of this post that I think most people would find interesting, not just vegetarians and vegans :)

Rise Against - Ready To Fall

Propagandhi - Purina Hall of Fame

Conflict - This is the ALF

Icons of Filth - Show Us You Care

The documentary Earthlings (narrated by one of my favourite actors, Joaquin Phoenix) is one of the most amazing pieces of film I have ever seen. I would suggest anyone and everyone should watch this, if even just to get a better view of what animals are used for on this planet.

Gary Yourofsky is an amazing vegan speaker. It's brilliant to be able to hear the facts in such a down to earth manner, and he makes it so easy to relate.

This provides some answers on the whole "But humans need to eat meat" argument.

And lastly, this man was the single most reason I decided to finally take the step to go vegan. After reading his book (From Dusk Til Dawn) on his life as an animal rights activist, I knew that there was nothing that could possibly be better (for myself, the planet and of course, the animals) than being vegan.

Santa Macabre radio (listening to lately)

Dead Man's Bones. Everything about them is amazing.

A bit creepy, love them a lot at the moment.

Loved Nine Inch Nails so much when I was a teenage goth, and they're still pretty phenomenal (well, their older stuff anyway).

The Used have a very special place in my heart <3

Meet the Macabre Models! #1: Carly Zombiie

I have a lot of love and affection for the amazing models that have done Santa Macabre proud by wearing my designs and working with some awesome photographers! So I have decided to do a little feature on each model that has so far modelled for Santa Macabre, just so you get to know a little about the person behind the beautiful face!


First up is the wonderful Carly, who recently shot with one of my favourite photographers Matthew Bud Cole-Jones (aka. Fienderella), who you can find here.

Carly Zombiie


Known as Zombiie to my friends, Im obsessed with dead things, death, corpses, being undead, guts, gore horror, art and modifications. I truly am a living dead girl and my love for zombies goes completely past just the films. Im a model, Japanese fan dancer, belly dancer and down right sleaze performer and have been performing in one way or another since i was 4 years old. After a bit of a break from the limelight Im now back and better than ever.

That little something special

I had an order from a lovely regular customer called Amy. She wanted two custom cameos, containing photos dear to her. It was really nice to do something with so much meaning, and I hope she likes them!

A little about me.

It seems almost big headed to do a post about myself, but as I've said, I know I always like to see the person behind things I like (and thank you so much for liking Santa Macabre!), so here I go :)


My name is Maria Junko and I am a lot nearer to 30 than I am near to 20. This is an odd feeling, but I'm cool with it :) I'm a total homebody and my biggest passion is animals, hence my being vegan. I love nothing more than being creative, which is how I ended up making things under the name of Santa Macabre.


I first sold my handmade items at the Wolverhampton Vegan Festival in 2009, which was amazing! After that awesome experience I began to sell at other South Wales based fairs and eventually ran my own monthly fair (Vintage Pretty) for just over a year. I made some lovely friends from the crafter/artist crowd and had a wonderful time. 


Currently I am mainly working on custom pieces, which I absolutely love. There's nothing more exciting than being asked to create something unique for someone. I am very lucky to have some wonderful customers and I am so very grateful!


Santa Macabre takes up a lot of my time, but I will try and take the time out to update this regularly. Hopefully you will get to see just some of my influences, aswell as getting the chance to look at all the wonderful models who have helped me out by modelling my jewellery/accessories.


xoxo

Hello and Welcome

First of all, thank you for taking the time to take a look at this little blog! I have never really liked 'faceless' designers or companies or whatever you would count Santa Macabre as, so I decided to try add a little personality to all of this!


This blog will also be a cool place to show you all the latest Santa Macabre makes (jewellery and other stuff), aswell as the latest photoshoots. Oh, and also things that I like.