Wunderkammern!

Wunderkammern!

Or Wonder Cabinets if you prefer an English translation (I kinda like the old German).

I’ve always had this fascination with them, either way you say it. Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, a Wunderkammer is an idea started about the time of the Renaissance, when wealthy men of learning would collect art, scientific curiosities, natural phenomenon and other objects of study. It was kind of a way to show off your interests and education.

Oddly, in a way, when you spell it out like that, it’s a bit like the Vanitas paintings that came slightly later, which also took a turn to show off one’s achievements and education while also conveying a sense of modesty, by the admittance of the transience of life and meaningless of the very endeavors that were symbolically being boasted about. But I digress.

Just for an example, I've posted a picture of my sister, Miggipyn's, fabric collage Vanitas she made for a friend. We have his love of beer, gardening, a globe for travel, an apple for being a teacher, stack of books for education, and the traditional skull for mortality and the inevitability of death. Since it is Miggipyn, it is done with a bit more whimsy than your traditional Vanitas, but I enjoy a bit of whimsy.

Now, back to wunderkammmern! (Isn’t that just fun to say?)

Hiberna Curio was actually what kind of got my brain ticking in this direction. The general shop description is pretty accurate! "A Cabinet of Curiosity, A Menagerie of Wonders! A Gallery of Esoterica and Eldritch Delights to Mystify and Enchant." I've always been fascinated by this kind of thing; and when I first started Izile's Oddities, it was kind of an inspiration for where I thought I might want my shop to go; but ah, the best laid plans of mice and men, eh? Still, I enjoy looking at other Etsy-ers who manage to pull it off!

The strange bits of jewelry made from varied materials, polymer clay, recycled metal pieces, are fascinating, but I have to admit, it's the dark sketchy art pieces that I really like, like the pictured "Escape From the Cloisture"