M’era Luna has always been about the people for me, and this year was no exception. Echoing the sentiment I hear over and over again from each festival goer I encounter: we are here to see old friends, make new ones and strengthen connections made over time and tide. But what makes this festival different from others is that this sentiment is not just shared amongst those on the ground but through the bands that play and into the festival organisation.

I look daily at the pictures we took together. Even though it hurts, I can’t live a day without looking at them, looking at your face and your smile. The world was at our feet back then and nothing could have stopped us. At least that’s what we thought.

You hated crowds so we always spent the evenings in beautiful and deserted places. We’d light a candle, put some music, dance and just dream, though our dream had already come true. We found each other.

A recent enquiry from a ‘friend of Alchemy’ based in Australia, referred to an item he’d bought some 30 years ago from a Metal For Melbourne fest in Australia. The image above accompanied the message. His query was its identity and, in particular regarding the branding stamp on the reverse which simply said ‘POKER’.

The early branding of Alchemy jewellery was different to today’s markings. The company’s origins were, as is the case with many nascent companies, not straightforward and its identity evolved over time.

The very first products which launched the venture, around 1976, were a small collection of punk ‘anti-jewellery’, irreverent pins and pendants such as a toilet seat, a graffitied padlock and a bent screw, all made one at a time, hand cast from scrap lead and designed to shock! These were branded as ‘Poker’, with the name hand carved into the back of each model. Then, in 1977, we rented a small shop with a little room for a workshop behind. We named the shop Rieder’s Axe and the company, Rieder Design, after one of our heroes; a revered late 15th century Austrian armourer Kaspar Rieder, from Muhlau, Innsbruck who was a master metalsmith in magnificent gothic style, by appointment to Emperor Maximilian I.

Alchemy will help you play a good trick on someone who does not know much about the dark world. All you have to do is stay as cold and serious as Morticia Addams.

The Book of Revelation – the final book of the Bible – describes the coming end of the world. Written in the 1st Century AD, the author appeared to expect the Apocalypse to occur in their lifetime. Happily, they were disappointed, but Christians have remained fascinated by the subject ever since, with doomsayers keeping it alive by reinterpreting Revelation to refer to their own age, or creating their own version of the imminent End Times. During eras like the Middle Ages, when few people could read, such warnings needed to be communicated visually.

This year Alchemy will help you celebrate an amazing Valentine.
When you come home in the evening just follow these Alchemy steps and success is guaranteed!

We would like to wish a happy new year to all of our friends in the east. We hope the year of the pig will be a prosperous one for you all.

To learn more about the Luna New Year you can read our blog from last year here.

The 2018 Abertoir Horror Festival

Every November, Alchemy’s resident horror fiend GAVIN BADDELEY makes his annual pilgrimage to the Abertoir festival in Wales. And every year he comes back to report on the best new horror movies previewed at the event. Take it away Gavin…

Ghent has always been one of my favourite European cities. I do love beautiful historical inspired balls in beautiful venues. I would never miss a chance to mix with the beautifully dark and elite of the neo-romantic goth scene. So when all of these pieces fall into place, you know it’s going to be a great night.

Yesterday…it seems such a long time ago. I think about it and don’t understand why today can’t be like yesterday. The sun is rising just like yesterday, people are going to work, the world goes on just like yesterday but to me the world has stopped moving. The world is gone, it’s missing. I feel like I’m gone, like I don’t belong, as though I am a mistake. And I only have myself to blame.

Mary Shelley’s timeless masterwork FRANKENSTEIN was first published 200 years ago. Mary began writing the book when she was still a teenager, and it is now recognised as not only a landmark work of Gothic literature, but also arguably the first true science fiction novel. It is through cinema, though, that most have come to know her immortal creation, beginning in 1910 with the first film adaptation, a silent movie generally known as the Edison FRANKENSTEIN (it was produced by the famous inventor Thomas Edison). The film’s director deliberately downplayed the story’s horrific elements, and the resulting 14 minute film is more of an amusing, pioneering oddity than a horror classic.

The hit Brit horror film GHOST STORIES has just become available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray. Andy Nyman, the film’s writer, director and star, originally hails from Alchemy’s hometown of Leicester. So we despatched our resident horror fiend, Gavin Baddeley, to talk to Andy, and get the inside story on this homegrown chiller. Andy co-created GHOST STORIES with Jeremy Dyson, who together initially wrote it as a stage play. In that form GHOST STORIES attracted rave reviews, running for over 1,000 terrifying performances between 2010 and 2015, concluding with an Australian tour the following year.

I’m still revelling in the memories of yet another merry Mera Luna, paging through the photos that keep popping up on Instagram and Facebook and making exchanges with new friends and old. This year was particularly special, not only did I get to meet the utterly exquisite Obsidian Kerttu and Valentin van Porcelaine whose photos I’ve admired from afar, but was also great to meet Elisanth for the first time and see La Esmeralda again (which makes a pretty full compliment of the lovely faces which grace your Alchemy catalogue). It’s always so touching when the people behind the beautiful imagery seem just as beautiful on the inside.

The full collection of over 80 Alchemy England Apparel T-shirts, girl’s tops, dresses and gym-wear is now available to the trade, directly from the manufacturer.