A story and a warning to creators
Materials, Complaints Rebecca Tillett Materials, Complaints Rebecca Tillett

A story and a warning to creators

So, I had planned to spend most of January designing and engraving boxes for both the 2024 Oddities expos and our online shop. I deliberately cleared my schedule of everything else. I had only gotten about 5 boxes done when I began getting some strange error messages from our laser engraver. And then it just stopped working entirely.

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Woody Guthrie, Cherokee Bill and Bass Reeves
Grave Hunting, History, Personal Rebecca Tillett Grave Hunting, History, Personal Rebecca Tillett

Woody Guthrie, Cherokee Bill and Bass Reeves

First stop: Highland Cemetery in Okemah, OK to see the cenotaph for Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) (Fun fact: his full name was Woodrow Wilson Guthrie!) as well as the graves of his loved ones. We also went looking for his childhood home before realizing it was torn down in the ‘70s due to the demands of some very vocal locals who were whining that it had become a hangout for teenage hoodlums (when really it was likely they just didn’t believe that “commie” deserved any kind of legacy).

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25 Years Ago
Personal, End of Life Doula Rebecca Tillett Personal, End of Life Doula Rebecca Tillett

25 Years Ago

25 years ago I was angry with my dad and ignored him completely before going to bed. No goodnight, no see you tomorrow. Nothing.

Early the next morning I would be shaken awake by my mom as she said the most surreal words I’ve ever heard:
Your dad is dead. Get up. Your dad is dead.

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Santa’s Happy Pills
greeting cards Rebecca Tillett greeting cards Rebecca Tillett

Santa’s Happy Pills

A holiday card has been added to our new updated Calamity Card set and because of the nature of this set, let’s just say it is not all sunshine and rainbows. Look, I’m sorry ok, but at least it’s real. AT LEAST IT’S HONEST. Is the truth easy to digest? No. But can we find unity—comfort and camaraderie in our fellow citizens to help ease this burden? Also no.

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Death and Feather Plucking
greeting cards, Personal Rebecca Tillett greeting cards, Personal Rebecca Tillett

Death and Feather Plucking

I applied for a scholarship for an end-of-life doula training last month. I was hopeful. Learned yesterday I didn’t get it. I let myself cry and feel deeply sad about it for a while. Self-indulgent but cathartic. When I have the money, I don’t have the time and vice versa. Standard unfair life shit. And then an actual angel in my life appeared and insisted on covering the cost for me. I kindly declined. They insisted. I agreed only on the terms that I either pay them back or pay it forward when I can. They opted for the latter. Many more tears of course. I have had some low, depleted, hopeless days lately. Unsettled in the unknown. This offer was like a hand reaching down toward me, grasping my own.

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Pretty Boy Floyd
Grave Hunting, Personal, History Rebecca Tillett Grave Hunting, Personal, History Rebecca Tillett

Pretty Boy Floyd

“Charles Arthur Floyd (February 3, 1904 – October 22, 1934), nicknamed Pretty Boy Floyd, was an American bank robber. He operated in the West and Central states, and his criminal exploits gained widespread press coverage in the 1930s. He was seen positively by the public because it was believed that during robberies he burned mortgage documents, freeing many people from their debts. He was pursued and killed by a group of Bureau of Investigation (BOI, later renamed to FBI) agents led by Melvin Purvis.”

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Lenticulars
Lenticular Rebecca Tillett Lenticular Rebecca Tillett

Lenticulars

Fun facts: the first commercial lenticulars were patented and marketed in 1906 as “Puzzle Post Cards” or “Photochange Post Cards.” Historically, lenticulars have also been known as "flickers," "winkies," "wiggle pictures," and "tilt cards." I like to refer to them as "real-life GIFS."

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Fire’s Remorse
Art Collage Rebecca Tillett Art Collage Rebecca Tillett

Fire’s Remorse

This is our newest piece and it’s hard to believe but this one sold out within just a couple hours at the Philly Oddities and Curiosities Expo. Both prints and our framed pieces. Sold out even faster than Going Stag No. 1 which has been our best selling piece at every market we’ve vended at since I created it last year.

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Memento Mori
Personal, History Rebecca Tillett Personal, History Rebecca Tillett

Memento Mori

This is one of our mini 4x6 prints. The original painting is titled Pearl of Grief and was created by Mary Jane Peale in 1855. Mary Jane hailed from a prominent family of painters and in fact, another of our pieces, Swarm Wishes, was created using a portrait of her father, Rubens Peale, painted by her uncle, Rembrandt Peale.

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Source cards
Process Rebecca Tillett Process Rebecca Tillett

Source cards

Did you know that —with the exception of our mini-prints—each of our prints comes with a list of the original historical public domain imagery we utilized to create that piece of art? Some of them are short and may only reference one or two sources (either because that’s all of the PD imagery utilized or because we simply couldn’t track down accurate source info for one or more of the elements), and some, like this one, are rife with sources.

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The morbs
Postcard, History Rebecca Tillett Postcard, History Rebecca Tillett

The morbs

“The morbs” is slang of the Victorian Era that indicates that someone is feeling temporarily depressed, melancholy or sad. “The British lexicographer Susie Dent described ‘having the morbs’ as ‘to sit under a cloud of despondency.’

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Touch Grass
Postcard Rebecca Tillett Postcard Rebecca Tillett

Touch Grass

Do you ever stumble on a process video in your feed and you’re like, oh ok, I’m interested, I’ll stop. And so you cash in a few minutes of your time because now you’re invested and curious about what this thing will be and look like in the end, and then you see the final product and think, well shit, meh. Wish I could have previewed this before I wasted a few of my precious minutes watching something being created that I’m not really into.

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Hangry
Postcard, History Rebecca Tillett Postcard, History Rebecca Tillett

Hangry

This was painted around 1820 near Madrid by Francisco Goya and called Saturn Devouring His Son. It was actually painted on one of the walls of his home at the time and later transferred to canvas after his death.

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Childbirth and Puerperal Fever
Jewelry, History Rebecca Tillett Jewelry, History Rebecca Tillett

Childbirth and Puerperal Fever

Hundreds of years ago, when men calling themselves doctors decided to rob childbirth from the midwives and bring it into hospitals, the maternal mortality rate skyrocketed due to something called puerperal (or childbed) fever, a bacterial infection of the female reproductive tract following childbirth.

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