Crypto Hobbies and Interests

[Arking]

Figured this might be a good place to put this topic, if I'm wrong my apologies feel free to move it!

Any who it's no surprise that we all have different passions and interests that influence us and drive us forward. I've always been interested in Mermaids and the culture but I've also had an eye for Fae, and cryptozoological things as well. I'm rather fond of the histories, stories and folk lore, and the communities that help to influence and craft these worlds. Growing up I had so many books on these topics, and now that I'm older I am making my own works and still collecting information and archives as a sort of hobby.

All of my stuff focuses on cryptozoological studies or the occult so I'm either making my own maps or prints, or restoring old works. I'm wondering whether there are others that take their craft and skills and explore different media and interests? Is the greater world of myth and legend something people look at or is the mercommunity fairly self reliant? Does anyone else enjoy the study of it in an academic sense?

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[Keiris]

I have always found ancient Mythology and folklore fascinating. I love the backstories on Medusa or Narcissus and any of the Greek/Roman myths. I have always loved the lineage of witches or legends of vampires or the djinn. It all fuels my artwork in one way or another.

[Arking]

Oh yes it's hard to not recall any of that from my childhood. I used to have so many books on mythology. Arachne, Medusa, the golden apples. Takes me back. You know now that I'm older its hard to meet people into those sorts of stories in-person.

[Keiris]

Like it is to meet other guys interested in wearing a fishtail?

[lotusauriel]

I love all kinds of mythology and history. ☺

[Arking]

Like it is to meet other guys interested in wearing a fishtail?

Touche! Though I never put much thought into it now that I think of it. I just figured there were less fish in the sea as it were.

Finding ones passions again is surprisingly life giving and exciting though. It keeps me feeling young the moisture does all the physical labor though.

[Arking]

Do you find that you look for more or read into much? Most of my studies of late have been of a western mythology and folk lore sort. I just spent my entire day digging through newspaper archives for copies of the first sightings of the Loch Ness Monster, the Point Pleasant Mothman, and the Jersey Devil. I actually went on a road trip these past two weeks to Roswell, Area 51, and Willow Creek on the sort of side hunt for stories about Aliens and Bigfoot. I take it lightly but to some I must seem a bit odd. Though I fall on the side of bookish librarian than actual fanatic so I don't put off too many folks.

[SteampunkMermaid01]

I'm a Science Fiction/Fantasy writer- so I definitely look up these sorts of things for my writing projects. I've always loved the "Supernatural" stories of creatures and the mythologies behind them.

[Arking]

I'm always surprised at the lengths writers will go to get information and inspiration for their work. I've seen friends disappear for months, sometimes a year trying to get themselves in the right space to produce a piece. Once knew a guy that rented a cabin so he could get the feeling of isolation down for a werewolf novel he was writing.

I imagine every process is different but still, writers are the best.

[SteampunkMermaid01]

Every writer has a different process- that's definitely true. I can't even remember the number of articles I've read on different creatures and the stories that go with them. Always more to find about them too.

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[Arking]

Oh true. On that note I do think I find myself drawn more to older works (pre 1980's) something about modern era works hasn't captured my imagination quite the same as articles and stories that predate that time frame. But even still there's more to find, I'm currently restoring ( very very slowly) some 800+ hardcover books on witchcraft, telepathy, spirits published from the 1930's and before and those are just full of tidbits of information and surprise.

[SteampunkMermaid01]

Yeah the older the accounts the better!

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[Keiris]

So Arking, I am curious what you mean by "restoring" some 800 or so books? Holy crossed eyes Batman!

[Arking]

Oh that's actually really easy to answer. The Library of Congress actually has many many many Archives of books that have been published throughout the years since the sixteenth Century maybe even 17th century anyway these scans of these books are all in the public domain. Which means anybody can download them and sell them if you look them up so if you go on Etsy or Ebay you will find people selling these CDs of these books. I happen to purchase a few and looked up the copyright rules but if you were to take these books and rewrite them verbatim you could actually sell them and publish them through your own means and make a profit. What I'm doing though is taking the digital scans of all of these books which are in various states of disrepair. some of them are missing pages some of them have pretty obvious water marks some of them have distortions in the text because of water or mold. What I'm doing is going through and individually repairing each page via Adobe PDF or photoshop or illustrator whatever is necessary to restore the books back to a semi original condition and I'm removing the mildewy old yellow pages from the backgrounds and restoring them all to white print so that I can reprint them. What I do then is I take the PDFs once they've been formatted and corrected and restored and I put them through a book printing processing app that I managed to to get a hold of and it reorganizes the pages into leafs. then i print out the Leafs fold them over stitch them in and basically press them into a book press and I've got basically a paperback book which I can then hardcover.

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[Arking]

The number 800 is a bit absurd I know but some of these are only 30 pages or less. I was doing about 3 weeks when I first started but I slow down once I started working on the tail again.

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[Keiris]

Wow! Impressive!! So much for the rest of your summer! Guess that blows any chance of netting a Vancouver merman in the waters off BC.

[Arking]

Finishing my tail today, so I'd better be in the drink soon my finned flirt. :P My voice to text commands were a little distorted but what I was trying to say was that I had stopped working on the restorations for the time being. Truthfully they are really made-to-order but it does make for a nice hobby on the side. I've been struggling with what to stock my shelves with for my Etsy store though I've never been short stock as it were. The books are a nice little thing I wanted to start up and get published again if I had the time but they are far from original works, simply restored and reprinted public domain projects.

For the most part I bounce between making posters, cartographic maps of cryptid sightings (Bigfoot/Ogopogo/Mothman/Mermaids of Florida etc), bubbles for toils and troubles (handmade soaps), every witch wand (custom lathed wands), and embroidery for the everyday occultist (seance table cloths, ritual summoning circles, altar cloths).

[Arking]

Back on topic though, I've just had a heck of a time sorting what finds I did manage to make on cryptid sightings in the early 20th century. Trying to get my printer to work out some full size recreations on newsprint is going to be fun.

[Keiris]

I think that's fascinating that you create/replicate all of those items! The recreations, the wands, embroidered cloths all sound very intriguing. The last "occult" item I made was a replica of the witch's spell book from Hocus Pocus complete with sewn on skin (silicone)and glass eye. It's disgusting in a fabulous way! Would love to see your stuff. And I'm going to bite my tongue there.

[Arking]

Haha yeah best be careful what you wish for :P. I have a few things on my desktop I can share these are all props more for halloween than commercial production but you get a sense of the scales I can work in from them. I need to photograph more of the embroidery that I have, and the book press.

On that note I did manage to get full sized reproductions of articles on many cryptid's from my printer. The images at the top on linen are also from my printer, measuring 13" x 30" long.

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