Altar Ego: Curious Art & Fashion Design

17/09/2024

t w i n s

Two of my favorite designs, and because they are so lovely and folks really seem to connect with them I have remade them anew with all new colored crystals~ what color? Come & see but I can say that I found some rare colors…

These designs will be available for this weekends events: First event will be Dancing Ghosts this Friday 9/20, so SF & Bay Area locals see you very soon. Be sure to find other upcoming events posted in my stories!

It will be nice to be back. I’ve missed you, strange fam… 🤍

15/09/2024

Join & for Dancing Ghosts at every third Friday!
This months featured artist/maker is The Body Grim. Geoff’s beautiful hand-cast soaps and body washes are focused on high end bath, body and beauty with a dark flair for the morbid and curious. Pamper your future co**se and adorn yourself with unique hand crafted scents, ornate jewelry designs and a fine nightlife experience. Friday 9/20, doors at 9.
We look forward to seeing you there.
~ xoxo

13/09/2024

h a p p y X I I I

Pulling out of my haitus to greet the day with fellow thirteenth friends.

I was born on November 13th, on a Wednesday, and upon a new moon; s**t was meant to be wild from birth:
🌙 November falling into the astrological sign of Scorpio, which is a sign of death, rebirth and associated with the phoenix, snakes and even the eagle with our piercing stare. Also the XIII card in tarot, meaning “Death”, but not in the physical sense, rather in its various forms of the death and rebirth cycle. Relationships, love, incarnations of ourselves and one another.
🌙 Wednesdays being named after Odin, the Norse god of magic, knowledge and wisdom, who turns out I have a lot more in common with than I could have thought. With his trading of an eye for wisdom being a bit of an allegory of loss for the sake of knowledge. Being neurodivergent and chronically ill from birth really made the world around me a challenge, but with those challenges I’ve gained such a capacity for empathy and a diverse experience that I hold dear about my pain and suffering through the dark times. His lust for war very much like the battle I face within societal structures. We ma not always see one eye to eye, but in overcoming I can appreciate my birth day being on his day.
🌙 New moons are a very potent time to conjure, place intentions, plant seeds, come back to a grounded place and watch the spark transform into something new as the waxing moon has nowhere to go but on its path to full. It’s a time I allow myself to be messy, raw, play in the depths and then rise to pick up the pieces to create anew.
🌙 And we have our gal the thirteenth.
A number I’ve felt compelled to incorporate into my artwork and patterns in design such as links of chain, number of strands, gems or crystal beads used, and keeping things.. “odd”.

19/07/2024

Come join Studio Umbralux & Altar Ego Design tonight at Dancing Ghosts Cat Club SF for art, jewelry & fine revelry.
Doors at 9pm, see you there ~

30/06/2024

e v e n t / n e w j e w e l r y

Come one, come all.
I’ve got another tarot inspired work of art; this time, apt and perhaps artfully messy in that I wasn’t sure if the design captured this major arcana, but seeing as it embodies The Fool, what better way to start the journey then by a whim.

The Fool was my favorite tarot card when I first got into astrology, tarot and the Gnosticism of the Thoth deck. I truly felt like I was on the Start of something Grand; about to embark and excited to see where my curiosity would take me. It’s carried me far, and I’ve never lost the sense of wonder that I felt back in those early days.

Three golden pieces lay, signifying Mind, Spirit and Feeling of the Body, which is illustrated as the fourth piece that I’ve designed to be behind the wearer. Radiating outward are black beads of the Unknown; branching out into various possibilities. All reaching the red beads meant to resemble blood droplets of courage, of scratches acquired along the path, of scars left from pitfalls. But still the golden brass at the base of this design remains true and steadfast.

Catch The Fool design and many other tarot inspired designs including The Ace of Swords (swipe to see) Saturday 6/13 at in Oakland. Bring your esoteric best and I’ll see you there ✨

06/04/2024

n e w j e w e l r y
I made and scrapped and then remade this concept so many times until I realized the beauty in the process of what I was doing and froze; a lack of ability to control every inevitable aspect of this design was just part of its charm.
Welcome the Ace of Swords.

This is a prototype design that was meant to encompass the use of tube beads to depict “Sword” energy. The Fool of the Swords, so to speak: A new protagonist on his journey throughout the major arcana, sword in hand!

To me it just seemed to turn out so messy, untidy… unruly. It mentally made me feel so frustrated until I realized a favorite tarot deck, Thoth, placed the Sword suit alongside both the Mental & the element of Air. Inherently the most difficult element to control of the four.

Alright, alright. I’ll love you and your imperfections and I can appreciate your whimsical charm. Quite a Hanged Man moment of changing my perspective by adopting a new view while trusting the design process. Ever make something that shouts to be born? That would be this beauty.

It reminded me of a set of imagery I like to depict in my burlesque persona where I depict the anguish of living in a chronically ill body using imagery found within alchemy, elemental magick and tarot. Sharp angles, spikes among the softness. Included are some of my favorite photos which weave a story of mental anguish and suffering from behind a surrealist horror lens.

28/03/2024

n e w t a s s e l s
I stumbled upon these black to red and black to purple ombré tassel fringe and promptly lost it. So dramatique!
Which do you prefer most?

These new ombré tassel earring options are now up for grabs in my online shop ~link in bio~

27/03/2024

n o w a v a i l a b l e

This was a fun work of art to put together. Like most of my art there is a lot going on within this oval frame. The main theme however is chronic illness and the isolation that naturally comes with it.

A buckeye butterfly specimen sits atop a juvenile chicken skull; bodiless mask atop a flightless bird; this is the peril of being told to overcome the impossible, and a mask that is worn that says “this is fine; I’m okay” when within I’m screaming to be seen and screaming in the agony of chronic pain and the limit break; the two sets of rat bone mandibles.

This all depicted upon a bed of dried red rose petals I once got from an ex from a very archaic Valentine’s Day. The relationship with this ex fueled the already loud and raucous distrust of my own body, my suffering, my worth and I had to “mask” a lot in front of them. Roses can symbolize a lot, but they cannot hold me the way I ask; roses are thorny, and tend to remind me of the sympathy over empathy our society gives far more easily to the ill and struggling.

The only thing I could ever asked for was warmth, affection and the golden healing light of feeling seen and lived wholly for all that I am. Hence the work is framed within a rib cage-esque antique frame depicting a heart starved for love in deep set suffering. It’s a piece that shouts; See me. Feel with me. Don’t leave me alone in this like so many have. It’s a brave stance to ask for visibility, much braver to know one’s worth enough to ask and be let in at all.

It’s a pleasure to share this pieces story. Up now at altaregodesigns.com

14/02/2024

v d a y p o s t
If you’ve been following me for awhile you’d probably already know my take on this holiday… I had a very close and special rel with my mom and in our home v-day was a day for the girls. A day to get that pint of ice cream. Get in that bubble bath. Get the convo hearts and place them in every cherub-lined antique we had. It was a holiday for girlish love, for friends, celebrating the femme within us all. Basically just a very personalized self love/women’s day!
Now that I’m in a romantic relationship that hasn’t changed a bit, and I know my significant love would be proud to hear that. Though my Love has helped me reach new heights I could have never reached without them as my partner, I am grateful to the friends and femmes who have been “lovers” to me over the years. Especially during a holiday with so much societal pressure to perform “love” in such a strange and nuclear family dynamic that I just don’t believe or belong in. We beat it every time we defy it. Trust in what Love means for you and don’t feel shame in grabbing some discounted pink and red candy on your way to Show Love to Yourself in the only Authentic way you know how ✨
Here’s a little carousel of my favorite Love & Femme-inspired art & jewelry that are still available in my online shop (link in bio).
Love Thyselves!

19/01/2024

t h i s f r i d a y 1 / 1 9
I'm vending 9 pm - close
https://www.facebook.com/events/371853512021184

San Francisco's Darkwave Dance Party, since 2007! Third Fridays at Cat Club!

04/01/2024

r e v a m p e d

If you’ve followed me awhile you may remember this one~ this design was a first attempt at true storytelling through the art of jewelry design.
‘The Lovers’ is tarot inspired, though aside from the obvious lovers hands poised to clasp together, this design origins had a hidden meaning.
Originally this piece was going to be a nod to secret or private love. It was around February of last year and I was falling in love at the time. It was like a cute secret we both knew was inevitable; two hands reaching for one another and destined to come together. The hands holding the rings in back of the symmetrical design was a nod to the “clasping” of hands finally coming together. I’d also created it with the same green beads used for my Envy piece, though I decided to omit any color or beadwork in the final piece.
I think it’d be fun to try and recreate this design but with a new bead color… but which? What color would you use to connect this story together?

23/12/2023

n e w j e w e l r y
(s o l d)

This piece is about Light in the Dark, about whimsy and color magick. White is like the quartz crystal of colors as it is an amplifier than can represent any color the caster visualizes. I chose these radiant crystals to represent every color in the spectrum. A fanciful, light piece with the ability to shape shift from say, pink self love and feminine energies to green earth-rooted Magick. To turquoise calming reminiscent of the element of water like the ocean on a sunny day to a brilliant yellow representing the element of air and the twins, Gemini.

Our intent is potent and it is powerful. I dearly wanted to make a fluid piece of light that could radiate the wearers intent and manifest their conjuring of the world around them.

22/12/2023

n e w i e w e l r y

Since making art during moving and the unpacking process has been a struggle I decided there was no better time than ever to do something I’d like to bring into the foreground a bit more; Statement Jewelry with a clear meaning and symbolic significance.
This piece practically leapt from the work bench into life. Demanding to be heard, demanding to be made.
This is a piece about Envy.

A friend and I recently had meaningful discussion about envy that has stuck with me for months. To paraphrase they told me “I don’t get jealous of other people I get jealous of peoples time that I care about”. And that rings true deep within my shadow parts. While I have a healthy, ongoing relationship grieving the aspects of myself that I cannot control that I may not necessarily like, I do struggle with time as a construct, let alone the time with valuable humans I hold dearest to me.

At a very young age I’ve had this irrational fear of being separated from my “people”. Folks who understood me and let me drop the heavy weight of the mask I had to wear while away from them. I see the internal battle with this now that I’m almost forty, and though it has matured, deep down that desire to let my guard down with my closest and dearest is something that I definitely feel on a profound level.

Hands etched with green beadwork reach desperately towards an empty, dull shield, signifying the mask we hold up for protection. Hands below the shield and in back upon the clasp are also reaching out and away from the mask; signifying the the ability to reach out and find those who allow our shields to stay down, for the mask we must wear, the inner darkness to be let out to graze while we can heal from the heaviness of masking at all.

Envy is part of each of us, and craving human connection is probably one of the most important things we are too commonly denied. This is a piece about Hope amongst ugly emotions. About curating spaces that allow us to shine our brightest without fear.

29/09/2023

UPCOMING SHOWS
My Photoshop was on the fritz so apologies this is belated. What a great weekend! Whimsy Market in Rodeo this Saturday 9/30 and the prestigious Mockingbird Lane Market in Alameda Sunday 10/1.
What a lovely start to October… 🤍
The season is upon us
I hope to see you soon ~

11/09/2023

2023 Altar Ego Calendar of Events