Welcome to a world of tarnished sequins. Fields and fireflies at dusk. Midnight rooftop tea parties. Whirling dervish to fiddles and clarinets. Bonfires. Gold bangles. Smoky dark velvet cushioned rooms. Blankets of frost. Stars through the skeleton limbs of trees. Low fog in the morning over the bend of the river. The smell of crackling pine logs and burnt sugar.
Verhext is located somewhere in the clouds & mountains between the Bay Area and Vermont.
I provide handpicked vintage, custom magical garments, & styling for fashion or band photo shoots, catalog shots, special events, or whatever you may have up your sleeve.
I have been selling vintage and handmade couture online since 1996 - under the monikers of The Boneyard (pre-eBay!), Dramatis Personae, Dainty & Dirty, and now Verhext. My work has been featured in ReadyMade magazine, N.E.E.T. magazine, and numerous style blogs. I have a BA in Intermedia Arts with an emphasis in Costume from Mills College.
All photography on this blog is by the author unless otherwise noted, and all rights are reserved. Please do not use without permission.
So yeah, I was in high school in the late 80s, and obsesssedddddd with 10,000 Maniacs. (At least up until “Our Time in Eden.”) Michael’s comment on my last post reminded me of Natalie Merchant & how adorable she was.
Picture this: my high school graduation, I’m in a lilac floral grunge dress, lilac dr martens, & with my giant red curly hair, singing “these are days.” I should try to dig up photos while I’m in Vermont. Ridiculous! Oh dear! That’s how bad the obsession was! Singing songs at graduation!
greta’s cedar hope chest
is full of pamphlets
glass shelves of romantic vignettes
a journal laced with sedimentary prose
norma gathers and collects vintage photoplays
hair combs valentines
lillian allows the animals to scratch
and the leather crack
the mail collect in the box as coatings peel
agnes veiled cathedral dweller
smiles with benevolent pain
it’s katrina’s fair tuesday morning
as she with caution unlatches the flat door
she alone cascades to the basement
careful not to spoil her
calico printed pinafore
composite traits mannerists
all others dissipate
margauritte vigilant dwells upon frigid casements
sarah’s thoughts in the velocity
accusations always pierce and pass
clara abandons her passions for distastes
miss lenora p. sinclair
early for coffee in the pool
“i’m resituating all your words”
capital
space
colon
paragraph
sylvia keeps beasts in jars labeled
kingdom phylum class order family genus species
A stash of goodies added to the Etsy shop!! Take a peek — all sales while in Vermont will go toward working on my tiny cabin retreat (a post with new photos will come soon - I’m about to run out the door to build!) so shop away with love! Below is a tiny selection, check out the link!
I’ve mentioned this before, when I go thrifting I notice that unconsciously I come out with color schemes and combinations - one day I’ll pick up all green and gold objects, the next all lilac and grey. Inspired by the 100 Layer Cake blog moodboards, I’ve decided to start a series of treasure boards whenever I notice this happening, for color references later!
Here’s this weeks so far (click to view full size):
Clockwise from top right: tiny Elizabethan ruff doll, blue painted tray; Agfa camera, dominoes that were my grandfather’s, antique yellow frosted glass bottle with silver top, small leather belt bag; antique carved frame; vintage yellow enamel cups made in Poland; yellow linen sundress, Victorian unfinished bodice with boning, tiny black velvet spangled cap.
The remaining 3 photos are: found vintage, a shot of Wendy Addison’s Theatre of Dreams shop, and an interior from (I think) Skona Hem.
Old barn doors. Cream eyelet and Swiss champagne satin batiste. Mason jars of roses & forget-me-nots. Streamers of bright ribbon clutched by children. Tiny violinists under apple trees. Punched tin can lanterns. Sweet ancient songs sung by schoolchildren. Dancing wildly to a bluegrass band. Sweet sugary white cakes. A tiny wedding night cottage. Tealights floating in the pond where children try to catch frogs. Arbors woven with roses.
Yesterday was Myra’s wedding (my sister in law’s sister), at their family farm. As a wedding present, I designed, patterned, and sewed her dress, did her hair and makeup, the bridal bouquet, and the flowers for the bridal table. Who knew I had a secret one-stop-wedding-shop inside me just waiting to come out?? (And stood in as amateur backup wedding photographer!)
My mother sewed the bridesmaids dresses, as well as the ties & vests for the boys. A very DIY wedding - flowers from the garden gathered into maple sap buckets by the bridesmaids, a potluck meal, a cake made by an aunt, handwritten vows, handbuilt pews (and outhouses!) & a lot of love.
is it well with thee? is it well with the child? and she answered, it is well.
Today was spent in part wandering this very old (for America, of course) graveyard, with graves going back to the 1700s. I was thrifting in a town near where the wedding I’m helping with is happening, so I stopped in the graveyard while waiting to meet up with my brother and his wife at the wedding site. It was so peaceful and quiet, a fine drizzling mist - and then some kids nearby started playing terrible music. So I put on my headphones with Akron/Family and had a totally psychedelic graveyard experience, with many fine conversations with the inhabitants.
That first photo is of the grave of a mother who died in childbirth with her baby. It is heart-stopping.
While I’ve spent my entire life wandering graveyards, the pointing up finger never stood out to me until I got the reproduction the other day. There were so many in this graveyard. Our Annie! So sweet.
Urns and pentagrams.
I laughed outloud at this one, and then apologized to poor Jeremiah. It’s not his fault he di^ed.
