I always get suspicious when anything is described as ‘commemorative’. By definition, to ‘commemorate’ is to ‘preserve the memory of something’, further implying that said ‘thing’ has passed and is no more. You wistfully sigh, wipe away a singular tear and remember that ‘thing’. So, when McFarlane brings forth this cumbersomely-named ‘Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride Commemorative 2-Pack For DVD Release’, I’m forced to revisit my emotional entanglement with the release of the Corpse Bride DVD. I can safely say that I have no psychological entrenchment in it.

For the record, I’m also suspicious when anything is described as ‘collectors’ edition’. Don’t you tell ME what to collect. I know where it’s at and you don’t need to remind me.

McFarlane brought forth the first wave of Corpse Bride figures in November of 2005, shortly after the movie was released in theaters. This set came across as an array of extremely accurate, but sometimes eclectic, collection of characters. While the main characters were there, other characters that barely had any screen time were also included. Still, Corpse Bride isn’t the first movie to plumb the shadowy depths of a movie in order to pull some action figures out of the background. The Star Wars cantina scene, which had about three prominent aliens, has had a plethora of figures extracted from it, from the mantis at the bar that you probably didn’t notice, to the eel woman that you’d rather not even remember. She’s dating the wolfman anyhow - you’d never have a chance.

So, while the second-tier characters are on the clearance rack at your local Suncoast, the main characters have likely fast sold out. Something about the skeletal remains of a pair of children and a couple of army generals just doesn’t seem to be appealing to the average collector. The Bride herself, being the titular character, was the first figure to be snatched up by most collectors, myself included, while the rest of the figures remained behind, so there’s a real demand for her on the aftermarket. People who have her are hanging onto her and latecomers are Brideless. Well, most toy collectors are brideless, but that’s a different social phenomenon entirely. This is where the excellence of this box set comes in.

The Bride packaged here is, in almost all respects, identical to the original Bride figure. The sole difference is that her eyes are looking to the right, instead of straight ahead. The same thing is happening with Victor, in order to emulate the cover of the DVD and movie poster. It’s a rare second chance to pick up those things which were hard to get ahold of on the first go-round. Who doesn’t want to vicariously experience a small helping of necrophilia? People who are already dead inside. Or not dead enough.

The DVD 2-Pack retails for about 20 bucks and can be found at various online and specialty shops. It’s packaged in a handsome window box with a 5th panel to reveal the scene inside. Here’s your chance if you missed their first release, and get ready for the second wave of figures coming in July.

Cloisonné is a type of enameling on metal commonly practiced in Asian countries. While cloisonné has been around for thousands of years, the art became popular in Asia in the early 1400s and today most cloisonné originates in China or Japan.

Some people like to collect modern cloisonné objects such as small boxes and group them together for an eye-catching display, while others prefer to search out examples of antique cloisonné from the Victorian era up to the 1950s. The pieces often carry makers marks that help the buyer identify the age and origin of the piece. Still others prefer to wear their cloisonné in the form of colorful jewelry.

To create cloisonné objects, the artisan begins by drawing a design on a base. While metals like copper and brass are commonly used for bases, porcelain is sometimes used as well. Wires are attached to the base to outline the design, creating many cells. The cells are then filled with colorful enamel paste and fired to harden the enamel. The wires prevent the different colors from mixing together. More enamel is added, and the object is fired again until the enamel extends above the top of the wires. The enamel is then ground down until it is level with the top of the wires and polished until it shines.

The cloisonné technique is used to create numerous functional and decorative objects. It is a popular design for chopsticks, ceremonial objects, vases, ornaments and snuff boxes. Beads are also made using cloisonné techniques, then turned into colorful earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Larger objects such as screens and tables can be found as well. While cloisonné is perfect when displayed in homes decorated with an Asian flair, a pretty cloisonné vase can add a bright spot of color to just about any room.

Artist Kelly Butler creates unique lighting for your home. Her Tramp Lamps, made from vintage lingerie, cast a seductive spell on me the minute I found her website, so I just had to talk with her about these cool lamps.

What inspired these lamps? I wanted to make something that obviously no one had done before, and I researched the idea well in advance so I would not step on anyone’s toes. I was delighted to find no other product like this in existence and in September, 2003, I began making and selling the Tramp Lamps. If you see any copies of my lamps on the market today, in 2006, be sure that either the manufacturer intentionally copied my creation or that they have never been on the world wide web.

Without giving away any secrets, tell us the process of making a Tramp Lamp. Messy. First, I clip off any details that I can apply later, such as small ribbons, beads, and bows. Then I dip each garment in a vat of handmade-water-based-goo. While they marinate in my mixture I may have another batch lined up awaiting to be cured as well. I produce anywhere from 12 to 20 lamps at a time this way. Then, once they are saturated, I hang them up and sculpt them to look like the female form. Then they dry. This takes anywhere from 5 days to a week and a half depending on how many coats of the solution they require. The solution gets sprayed on to each lamp several times after the initial dipping. It’s a long process and it cannot be rushed.

Where do you find your vintage lingerie? I shop for garments at vintage stores, thrift stores and online, then I bring them back to my studio and arrange them the way they must be to go into my bath of solution. Vintage underwear is a mixed blessing to search for. Sometimes, its easy to find in stores because people are reluctant to purchase it for personal wearing… perhaps they find it too weird to go on that part of the body? Or, it’s too difficult to find, because retailers of vintage shops know it doesn’t sell well, and therefore they don’t bother carrying it.

What, if any, considerations do you have when selecting lingerie to transform? Will it hold my solution well? Will it repel it? Will it filter light well? Will it look great “stiff?” Will it make a killer lamp? New garments tend to be less “curvy” than say a bustier someone wore all the time, thereby giving the garment their own body’s pressure-treatment and shape. Those hard wires bend over time and follow the natural curve of the waist in repose. These used garments naturally become ideal lamps with very little coaxing from my hands.

I am sure you’ve heard some vintage lingerie collectors complain that you’re ‘ruining’ rare items… how do you respond? I actually haven’t had any complaints from lingerie purists that I am desecrating the fabric; in fact, they are glad to see it used in such a creative way, rather than getting rot from sitting in someone’s drawer. Too old to wear, too beautiful to chuck, this is a good compromise. Light it up and it’s almost pure in its preservation. I don’t dare claim that it is an archival process, but I do think it will last longer this way than stuffed in a drawer or an attic chest.

What were you doing before the lamps? I was the lead painter at a small shoe company located here in Nashville, called Kiss My Feet, where we produced hand painted sandals for high-end boutiques near and far.

Is this a full time venture now? I did quit my job with the shoe company to pursue Tramp Lamps full time in January of 2004. However, I have not found it to be lucrative enough to be my sole source of income and I have had to take on odd jobs to pay my bills. I would love for it to be my one and only money source, but I haven’t found whatever the secret is to make this happen. (If someone out there has any leads for me, now is the time to let me know!)

Is this a solo project, or do others work for/with you? It’s all me. My friends and family encourage me, but I man the operation from building the lamps, shipping, web site, and press.

What is your favorite part of the work? I love finishing a lamp. And lighting it up. I love naming the new lamps as I put them up on the web site.

Least favorite? When a lamp I have been working on just doesn’t come out right or look good. I hate the hours of lost time that went in to making a lamp that fails to cure properly.

Were you a lingerie collector before you began these lamps? No. Frankly, I could never wear something so constrictive. But I love the look of the garment and I love the image of a woman in a corset. I’m just not the body type, myself, to wear one… comfortably.

Is there anything you do collect, Kelly? I was obsessed with bugs bunny when I was in high school… I guess I have quite a bit of Bugs toys and hours of Cartoons I dubbed form my Betamax onto VHS when I was a teenager. I love toys from thrift stores and the idea of altering them and making art pieces from them appeals to me lately.

Kelly’s studio is located in her basement in Nashville, Tennessee. Tramp Lamps are available on her web site, TrampLamps.com, and are sold at number of small boutiques around the country. Visit her website for an updated list of boutiques.

All images © Kelly Butler & Tramp Lamps.

I’ve enjoyed collecting records for a long time. I’ve probably been accumulating them since before I even started collecting toys, if you can believe it. With a turntable / 8-track from my mom’s youth, some enormous speakers that doubled as endtables and whose uninsulated wire tips needed to be wrapped around the connections in the back of the turntable, I was set. Add to that a record collection from the collective family, including some DEVO and Jethro Tull, and there you have my formative years in the mid-90’s. I was casting spells in the forest and wearing energy domes before I could drive.

One of the many jobs I perform on a regular basis, besides painting robots and charming young ladies, concerns working at a library. As a small library in a very old town, we get donations from nearly every attic and basement nearby, and when these donations aren’t yellowed Ernest Hemingway first editions, they’re records of all sorts. Mostly, they’re hippie rock fare, but occasionally, we get the odd jazz classic or unusual collection. It was last summer that someone came in bearing armloads of 45s and 78s, and a mysterious metal case. Since we usually are unable to sell these items, and the particular library that I work at isn’t of the ‘treasure classic items’ mindset due to the limited amount of space that we have, I brought the box home, as well as many of the other records. I’d just bought a new turntable and it needed a workout.

When I got home, I opened the box to find that it was full of square-dancing 78s. I can’t say that I’m a square-dancing aficionado, but they were just strange and obscure enough to enchant me. I spent the evening listening to the whole box, flipping the records every few minutes between the ‘instrumental’ side and the ‘with calls’ side, which included specific instructions about how to dance to each record. Many of them also included carefully hand-typed instructions to enforce the dancing instructions, or with slight variations and interpretations by the caller. There’s no such thing as a sad square-dancing song.

It’s not recommended that one play 78s on a modern record player, as the shape and size of the grooves are different than those grooves on a 33 or a 45, and your average turntable needle isn’t designed for the high speed of the rotation on a 78, nor is it shaped properly to make full contact with the groove. You’ll get a fair sound out of it, but it’ll wear down your needle and adversely effect the record. Still, I have a set of replacement needles and I planned on converting these to MP3 after only one or two runs anyhow. Click here to listen to an MP3 of ‘Virginia Reel (with calls)’, and stay tuned for a future article where I detail the process of digitizing your old LPs.
As I was going through these, I came to the previous owner’s name on the top of one of these sheets. And realized that I knew him, and that he was dead.

I looked up his name and tried to see if there was anything else that I could find out about him. I found his obituary online, on a page of random obituaries. He was always an exceptionally pleasant, smiling man, and he’d lived a long life, but the line that struck me was the following :

“He was laid to rest in his favorite corduroy pants, square-dance shirt and bolo tie.”

It takes an interesting guy to be buried in his square-dancing clothes, and here I was with his square-dancing records. These were clearly an important part of his life, right up until the end. This wasn’t some other derelict, forgotten item that I’d acquired - these were once VERY important to someone. And that’s another aspect of collecting that I think might not be easy to understand from the outside.

A lot of these things that we collect aren’t gathered out of materialism or avarice, and more often than not, it’s not about ‘who has more’. And while I can’t honestly say that I’ll appreciate these records as much as Mr. Levenson did, I’ll certainly keep them safe until someone comes along who can. I’m happy to act as a temporary custodian.

Beautiful pocket watches have such a sense of history. With their superior craftsmanship and quality, it’s no wonder they are so popular with collectors in general and watch collectors in particular.

Since there are so many types of watches available, most collectors opt to focus the collection. Some choose to put together a collection of watches from a particular time period – from 1900 to 1920, for example. Other collectors go after different watches made by one company. There are collectors who build a collection of railroad watches, which were used to keep trains running on time. Railroad watches were especially high quality, since a malfunction of the watch could cause trains to run off schedule, which could lead to deadly accidents.

There are a number of things to check for when considering a watch. Look on the watch for the name of the manufacturer. The age of the watch can sometimes be determined from the serial number, often found on the movement, or inner mechanisms of the watch. The number can then be checked against lists of the manufacturer’s serial numbers to learn when the watch was made. A good reference guide will contain lists for several different pocket watch manufacturers.

Another feature to look for is the quality of the materials the watch is made from. Many antique watches are made from gold or silver. Some were decorated with diamonds or other gemstones. Look at the movement. Does the watch still work? A working watch is much more valuable than one that no longer operates.

Is the pocket watch in good physical shape? Is the case dented? Is the crystal scratched or cracked? Take a good look at the movement, which should not seem worn or appear to have been modified at any time.

These are a few things to look for, but before making your first purchase it’s best to educate yourself as much as possible about collectible watches. You’ll want to become familiar with the terms used to describe collectible watches. A couple of good sites to visit are Pocket Watch Collection and As Time Goes By.