From the Moss and Fog Shop
A Little Bit Strange
Every October the shop gets a little stranger, and we mean that as a compliment. Not costumes, not cobwebs on a string. The kind of strange that turns up in an old anatomy plate, a fortune teller booth at the end of a pier, a deck of cards that takes the woods seriously enough to draw them a mythology. The rule here is the rule everywhere else on the shelf: it has to be genuinely good first.
This year that means four candles that refuse to stay the shape you bought them, a deck built around a wilderness that does not exist, a four inch fortune teller who gives better advice than our group chat, two very small blades, and one pin that has nothing to do with Halloween and everything to do with looking twice.
The kind of strange that only wakes up in October.
Cinemagraph by Daria Khoroshavina, used with permission
Just landed
Something loud, for once
Most of what follows is black, or close to it. This is the exception, and it arrived late enough that it nearly missed the piece.
Pinwheel Tray
$48
A ten inch round tray with black and chartreuse rays running out from the centre, which does something faintly unsettling to your eyes if you stare at it for long. That is most of the appeal.
Made by Hatchback from plant-based bioplastic. It carries drinks at a party in October and then goes on earning its place on a shelf in March, which is the only real test we apply to seasonal things.
Plates I to V
The candles keep a secret
Three of these four candles carry the same designer, Thorunn Arnadottir, whose PyroPet animals are designed in Iceland around a metal skeleton hidden in the wax. You light an ordinary shape and you are left with a different one. The fourth is a sphere that answers questions. The fifth plate is the pair of tools that keep all of them burning properly.
PyroPet Kisa, Black Cat Candle
$40
A faceted black cat that burns down over an aluminum skeleton, so the sculpture you light is not the one you are left with. Unscented, which we appreciate in a room that already has a lot going on.
Designed in Iceland by Thorunn Arnadottir, and boxed with the skeleton printed on the back in case anyone needs convincing. It stands 6.7 inches, burns about twenty hours, and drips on purpose, so give it a wide flameproof plate.
PyroPet Blaka, Black Bat Candle
$40
Same idea, wings instead of ears. Blaka is Icelandic for bat, and she is the only bat candle we have seen with a skeleton waiting inside her.
Six and a half inches tall, about twenty hours of burn, unscented. Unlit she reads as a geometric object you would keep out in June. Lit in October she quietly upstages the pumpkin.
Every good night this month smells a little like something burning.
Cinemagraph by Daria Khoroshavina, used with permission
Tarot Candle, Death
$39
Tobacco flower, orange peel and leather, named for the card that almost never means what people think it means. Death in a tarot deck is change rather than an ending, and the candle leans that way: warm, a little worn in, built for the start of something.
The label is a linocut by Sophy Hollington, which is why it reads as an artifact rather than a novelty. Six inches tall, soy wax, about sixty hours, hand poured in the United States.
Classic 8-Ball Candle
$34
No skeleton in this one. Just a four inch sphere, glossy black with the eight in its white circle, which you are welcome to ask a question out loud before lighting.
It is Thorunn Arnadottir’s design as well, hand poured in Java from RSPO certified plant wax, and it holds about fifty hours. That is more October than most of us need.
Candle Care Set
$29
A bell snuffer and a wick trimmer in black steel, which between them solve the two things that go wrong with a candle. Trim the wick back to a quarter inch before every lighting and it burns clean. Snuff the flame instead of blowing it out and the wax stays where you put it.
On a candle whose whole point is the shape it leaves behind, that matters more than it usually would. Two pieces in a gift box, and the box is Thorunn Arnadottir’s design as well, which by now will not surprise you.
Sweet, and a little grim. That is the whole month.
Cinemagraph by Daria Khoroshavina, used with permission
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Plates VI to VIII
Small, sharp, and hard to explain
Three things from Real Sic, a shop that makes the sort of object you put on a keyring and then cannot stop showing people. One of them is anatomy. The other two have edges.
Anatomical Heart Enamel Pin
$9.96
A realistic heart drawn the way old scientific illustrations rendered anatomy, in hard enamel with real gold plating. About 1.3 inches, smooth finish, good on denim, a jacket or a bag.
It has nothing to do with Halloween on its own. We just like it, and we like it more in October.
Mini Cleaver Keychain
$7.98
A cleaver the size of a house key. Five and a half centimeters of stainless steel with a red handle, and a small leather sheath so it rides on a keyring without eating your pocket.
It opens boxes and handles small prep on the trail. It is also very hard to take out in company without someone asking about it, which is most of the appeal.
Pocket Fish Knife Keychain
$12.99
A folding knife shaped like a fish, three and a half inches closed, in black or brass, on a keyring clip. The scales are pressed into the handle and the blade comes out of the tail.
Built for cleaning a catch on the bank, though we suspect most of them will live quieter lives opening mail. Sharp enough to earn the keyring either way.
Plates IX and X
Fortune, told loosely
Two objects that pretend to know something. One plugs the gap with sixteen printed cards and a light up booth. The other builds an entire wilderness and then hands you a die.
Mini Zoltar
$14.95
A four inch Zoltar in his own booth, printed on clear plastic, who lights up and speaks when you press the button. Sixteen fortune cards ride along in the box, so a guest can carry one home the way you would at the pier.
Officially licensed, and the voice is exactly as gravelly as it needs to be. Two AAA batteries, not included. Published by RP Minis.
The Outdoors Oracle
$29.95
Eighty four hand illustrated cards built around a wilderness that does not exist, the Blight Wilderness Region, sorted into six outdoor archetypes with a merit die and a topo map to guide the draw.
A Nature Unknown wrote a two hundred and twenty page journal to go with it, so every card ties back to a longer story. Equal parts tarot deck and a place to get lost.
None of this is a costume. It is a handful of things we would keep on a shelf in any month, that happen to make more sense in this one.
Everything here is from our own shop, shop.mossandfog.com. We picked each one ourselves, and we would buy any of it with our own money. The three cinemagraphs are by Daria Khoroshavina, used with her permission.
Edited by Ben VanderVeen · About Moss & Fog
