Morbitorium

30/05/2026

I've planted climbing nasturtiums at the base of the wicker man this year. They've still got a ways to go yet (2m tall according to the seed packet) but they've already started clambering up the legs and I've got my first flower!

I can't wait to see him "lit up" with red yellow and orange flowers over the next few months

28/05/2026

I've just announced a new After Dark event for June and this one is medical themed.

You'll encounter the barbaric practices of lobotomy and bloodletting, and a hand-cranked Victorian vi****or which claimed miraculous cures for all manner of ailments

27/05/2026

It's been so busy over the bank holiday weekend that I totally forgot to say the tintype photos are now available! Each one is a unique piece of art that can never be reproduced, and comes with a wooden easel stand and certificate of authenticity

26/05/2026

I've been spending a lot of time in the garden recently getting everything looking nice for the summer... so naturally a load of moles have decided to rock up and assist with the digging 😫. Now my newly seeded grass is covered in mounds of earth, with new ones popping up overnight or existing ones getting larger.

I don't really mind though. I have no ambitions of ever having a bowling-green style lawn so I'm happy to have yet another animal who calls the Morbitorium their home, and as an extra bonus the dirt dug up by the moles is naturally tilled, aerated, and nutrient rich, which makes it ideal for use around the garden

It can also be used in traditional magic. Mole dirt is prized for its connection to the unseen and it links to the subconscious, the underworld, and everything that moves quietly beneath the surface.

It can be used for...
• Protection through invisibility
• Breaking stagnant energy
• Shadow work & intuition
• Uncovering hidden truths
• Prosperity charms

Moles move in darkness, unnoticed, and their earth has a deep connection to the unseen energies beneath the surface. Harnessing mole hill dirt in your spell work invites the magic of the hidden protective forces that dwell just beneath the surface.

• Protection Spells: Add a pinch of mole dirt to protection jars, amulets, or boundary spells to invoke the moles ability to stay naturally hidden and shielded from harm.

• Shadow and Banishing Work: Use mole dirt in rituals aimed at breaking curses, banishing negativity, or clearing stagnant energy. Its natural association with disruption and movement helps shift blockages.

• Divination and Intuition: Incorporate mole dirt on altars or in dream pillows to enhance psychic insight, intuition, and connection to subconscious messages beneath the surface

• Prosperity and Opportunity: Carry a small pouch of mole dirt as a charm to attract hidden opportunities and prosperity, mirroring the mole's ability to bring what is buried to light.

23/05/2026

The beach is overrated and we'll be open on Monday from 11 till 5. Do the maths 😎😁

There are two bank holidays coming up in May and the Morbitorium will be open as usual on both of them

22/05/2026

ℌ𝔞𝔭𝔭𝔶 𝔴𝔬𝔯𝔩𝔡 𝔤𝔬𝔱𝔥 𝔡𝔞𝔶
There's a sunny week ahead so make sure you slap on a load of SPF1000000 before heading outside

20/05/2026

Thank you anonymous stranger but I'm absolutely fine as I am. These will be going straight into the recycling as they'll do more good there 😁

For the record, I've got no problem with Christianity... just with the sort of person who uses it as a megaphone to tell everyone else they're wrong. Big difference. Huge.

19/05/2026

We've got another collaboration to announce - and this one will definitely excite collectors of old and beautiful things. We've teamed up with Martin at Tintype & Ambrotype - Old Soul Photography to pair our unique collection of oddities with his incredible tintype photography.

We'll have a limited number of these photographs available to buy from the Morbitorium soon but read on if you'd like to know more about this amazing process and how it works.

Tintypes are unique, one-of-a-kind handcrafted photographs with no reproducible negative, created by capturing an image directly onto a light-sensitive metal plate. They use the same wet-plate method developed in the 1800s: the plate is coated, chemically sensitised, exposed, and developed in a darkroom - all while still wet. It's slow, expensive, and a bit complicated, but the results have a magic that modern cameras simply can't match.

Digital and modern film photography allow for infinite copies to be made from a single negative. A tintype, however, *is* the photograph - there are no negatives and no way to make prints. If you want more than one, you must photograph the subject again.

𝗠𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼
I spent a fascinating day at Martin's home studio last week and got to see the entire process from start to finish. I brought a small selection of items from the museum, and together we created a few different compositions to see what worked best. Darker backgrounds gave much better contrast against the bones, while wet specimens proved a bit too reflective.

Martin's camera was a beautiful 1960s wooden FKD 13×18 from Ukraine, adapted for wet-plate photography and when setting up a shot, you can see exactly what the camera sees because the image is projected - upside down and back to front - onto a frosted glass screen at the back. This allows the camera to be moved, angled, and focused until everything is perfect.

When it's time to take the photograph, the glass screen is removed and replaced with the sensitised plate. Any movement during this swap can cause blur, which is one reason the process was so well-suited to Victorian post-mortem photography.

• A piece of glass or metal is coated with collodion, creating a sticky surface that allows silver nitrate to adhere.
• The plate is placed into a bath of silver nitrate, then loaded into a light-tight plate holder and transferred to the camera.
• The lens cap is removed and the image is exposed onto the silver. Wet-plate materials require either a lot of light or a long exposure, so Martin uses an incredibly powerful flash to speed things up.
• The exposed plate is taken back to the darkroom to be developed and fixed, just like a modern film negative
• The plate is washed to remove chemical residue and left to dry.
• Ambrotypes need an opaque backing applied to the glass to make the image visible; tintypes don't require this step.
• Finally, both are sealed with a protective varnish to preserve the photograph.