Oracle’s Crystal Guide

Happy to announce the release of a new zine collaboration with Melissa Chepren for Oracle Natural Science: “Oracle’s Crystal Guide!” A crystal-clear guide to a few of the world’s classic rocks! Includes: information on more than 30 crystals, mineral composition of each crystal, metaphysical associations, facts and tips! A great guide for the crystal curious and a perfect pocket reference for the seasoned rock hound!

I dedicated this zine to “all of the rock hounds and gem nerds… for the magpies who love a ‘good sparkly’ and the history buffs who adore dusty fossils, for all of Earth’s children who cling to our planet’s rocky body and find magic in the dirt.”

Melissa and I had a blast putting this one together. She did a great job bringing some of my text into her illustrations. Here are some of my favorites:

It is always so much fun to work on these zines for Oracle Natural Science. I learn so much in the process of researching and putting them together.

“Rocks are records of events that took place at the time they formed. They are books. They have a different vocabulary, a different alphabet, but you learn how to read them.” - John McPhee

Persephone’s Broom Closet

My latest zine project is officially ready! “Persephone’s Broom Closet: Magical Tips to Clear + Renew Your Space” is available through Oracle Natural Science.

Writer, Laura Pensar (left) and illustrator, Melissa Chepren (right) holding the first copies of Persephone’s Broom Closet in Oracle Natural Science, KC.

The Story: At Oracle Natural Science, one of the most common questions we get is, “What can I do to cleanse my room/home/apartment/office?” So we decided to put together a zine with some simple ideas for ways to refresh and set your space with intention.

The Zine: Spring Cleaning is such a universal term for major cleaning and clearing endeavors that tying in the Greek Goddess of Spring and renewal seemed like a natural fit. So “Persephone’s Broom Closet” was my working title from the beginning… but it wasn’t until we brought illustrator, Melissa Chepren onto the team that the format for the zine really took shape.

Melissa sketched out some quick character ideas for Persephone (which we nicknamed Per-Swiffer-nee) and we all fell in love! From that point on the zine took on an advice-column style with various figures from Greek mythology writing in to ask Persephone for tips and suggestions.

The zine is a 36-page booklet filled with ideas to Spring Clean for any season! Persephone offers cheerful and helpful tips for setting your space with intention.

What, When, Where: “Persephone’s Broom Closet” is the latest publication in Oracle’s line of zines. You can find it (as well as Oracle’s other publications) at oraclekc.com - Special thanks to Alessandra Dzuba for being a fantastic team leader and the owner of Oracle Natural Science.

Inner Fire Tapers for Sideshow Gallery

Inner Fire tapers made exclusively for Sideshow Gallery in Chicago! These tapers have been dressed with Yerba Santa, a fox rib bone, and garnet crystal.

Sideshow Gallery is a fun and unique shop in the heart of Chicago. They carry unique one of a kind finds, curiosities, handmade jewelry,  oddities, vintage treasures, candles, herbs and tools to perform magic,  and lots of ART!  They always have something going on with classes, art shows, pop ups, and events to keep the community learning.  Owners Cheri Basak and Anne Elliott have been best friends for 25 years created Sideshow Gallery was created to “continually inspire people and live FREE!” The whole crew at Sideshow are super fun and creative and a blast to hang out with. I always look forward to trips up to Chicago for pop-ups and classes in their space!

When Anne and Cheri said they wanted a unique candle style for Sideshow I knew I wanted to capture their wild and creative spirit in the dressing. Yerba Santa to aid in bolstering inner strength. Garnet crystal for strength and finding joy in the physical world. And a fox rib bone* symbolizing transformation, cleverness, and resourcefulness. All together this combination is about tapping into your power and finding joyful expression.

I love the way these tapers turned out, with the fox rib wrapping around the candle and the deep dark red of the Garnet. These candles will also make great divination tapers as the way the crystal and bone fall onto the candle dish may be interpreted intuitively. These tapers definitely feel very lively and energetic… just like SSG!

The SSG Inner Fire tapers are available exclusively in the Sideshow Gallery shop. So if you find yourself in the Chicago area, stop in and take in the wild experience that is SSG!

*The bones I use are sustainably sourced from OracleKC who work with abatement programs, conservation, and small farms with parts that would otherwise go to waste.

For Strange Women Collaboration

This month For Strange Women has released our collaboration tapers! The FSW Botanical tapers have been hand-dipped 20 times into vats of filtered beeswax perfumed with roasted seashell and myrrh, then lightly gilded with 24k gold and carefully embedded with preserved calamint botanicals.

©2022 Moth and Candle LLC

For Strange Women is an all-female indie perfume house in the Midwest. They source plant-derived aromatics from around the world and value sustainable practices. As I am chemically-sensitive, FSW has been the only perfume I can wear for many years. (While many companies claim to be “all-natural” or “allergy friendly” they often still contain the phthalates and propellants which trigger my immune system. FSW does not use these toxic chemicals and they extensively research all of their ingredients.) So when FSW approached me about a scented taper collaboration I jumped at the chance!

We sat down to discuss the logistics. Typically beeswax does not hold onto fragrances like many other waxes, so this scent would need to be thicker to begin with. FSW chose to try their roasted seashell and myrrh scent. I would need to monitor my double boiler very carefully to keep the temperature as low as possible while still keeping the wax melted during the dipping process so as not to evaporate the perfume before it was sealed into the layers of the tapers.

Then came the next challenge… my mother had given me a limited supply of the calamintha nepeta from her garden, which I pressed and dried in my studio. But as these particular dried flowers are so delicate… when it came time to embed them into the candles they would crumble and fall apart! The flowers needed to be slightly rehydrated just moments prior to being added to the candles.

This dipping session was a carefully timed and monitored process of maintaining the proper wax temperature, adding the fragrance as close to dipping time as possible, rehydrating the flowers for a few minutes just before embedding them into the candles. Rinse, repeat.

I am so happy with the way these tapers turned out. The roasted seashell and myrrh fragrance just lightly permeates the air as they burn. The gold flake shimmers gently off the details of the embedded flowers as the flame makes its way down the taper. One of the reasons I love making candles is for the experience that happens during the burning of the candle. The atmosphere it will create. These tapers definitely emanate an atmosphere of luxury and magic.

The FSW Botanical tapers are available exclusively through their website: forstrangewomen.com

©2022 Moth and Candle LLC

Sunset Tapers

I love making special commission candles! I work with the customer to develop a unique candle dressing just for them. Sometimes it’s a particular herb, flower, or crystal they want me to include. Other times there’s a general theme or intention and I develop the candle style around that.

In July, Oracle asked me to make a special candle for the first edition of their Witch Club subscription box which is relaunching in September. The subscription is released quarterly and centered around seasonal rituals, which means I would be making a candle for Autumn. We brainstormed some ideas for the candle dressing and decided on carnelian crystals and yarrow.

I pressed a book’s-worth of yarrow leaves and a few select bloom heads. I let them dry and press for a few weeks before the dipping session. Then, with the moon in Taurus, I dipped and dressed 16 custom 6″ tapers.

©2022 Moth and Candle LLC

Each taper has carefully arranged Yarrow leaves and blooms wrapped up and around the taper. Yarrow represents healing, love and protection. It is also said to be the “flower of death” making it an appropriate choice for Oracle’s Autumn candles. I sprinkled powdered Frankincense resin as an overall light dressing representing spirituality and the sacred. The powdered incense will also release a very, very light scent as the taper burns. Finally, each taper is crowned with a single reddish-orange Carnelian crystal representing warmth, courage, and the sunset.

I am so happy with the way these Sunset tapers turned out. I secretly wish I could make more of them!

But the dressings I develop for custom clients are exclusive to them… so maybe Oracle will ask me to make more? (Fingers crossed.) But until that happens, these Sunset beauties can only be found in Oracle’s September Witch Club.

If you’re interested in commissioning a unique candle style… send me a message!

Lulu’s 2nd Edition Card Back

Over the past 2 years I worked on the illustrations for the second edition of Little Lulu’s Lucky Lenormand. The last image I had to make was the card back. There’s a lot of pressure on that image… it gets repeated 36 times. It’s the image you see when the deck is just sitting on the table. The card back sets the tone for the whole deck.

I worked up a couple drafts of my first idea for the card back… and I liked the image. But not as the back design. What I ended up with was a bonus card for the deck! (More on that image/card later.)

The final illustration is done! Because Lenormand decks originated in the Victorian era, I turned to inspiration from playing cards of the time. I looked at playing-card-back designs from the De La Rue company of the early 1800’s and in particular the works by Owen Jones which featured floral and ornamental designs.

The “L” of Lulu’s Lucky Lenormand leant itself nicely to ornamentation. Since Lenormand cards are not read differently when reversed (upside down) it was not necessary to have a mirror-image for the design. However, the cursive L can be read in either direction. This gives the card a more fluid look which is not jarring when viewed “upside down.” When the cards are shuffled and spread out on a table the card backs will not compete with each other for attention between the upright or inverted images.

The proof deck has been ordered! And the next steps will be finalizing box and guide book designs. I’m so happy to be able to begin sharing this project that has been two years in the making so far!

Fundraiser for Bat Conservation

Last year I was asked to start working on a special fundraising project: a zine about bats to help raise awareness about the plight of bats worldwide.

The Story: Oracle Natural Science was given a box of old-stock bat skulls. Bat populations are endangered and there is no way to ethically or sustainably source bat parts (no matter what a given retailer or website may try to indicate, you can read more about why this is the case in this article). So Oracle has decided to redirect all proceeds from the sales of these skulls to bat conservation and use this event to educate their customers about bats and how to help.

The Zine: I began working on writing and illustrating a zine for Oracle to accompany the fundraiser. I immersed myself in books, websites, podcasts, YouTube videos and social media feeds of various biologists, conservationists, and bat rehabilitation centers. And in the process I fell in love with bats! I truly did not expect to be completely converted into a bat lover. They are awe inspiring. And weird. And adorable. And intelligent. And just fascinating. There’s so much to learn about bats that I had trouble narrowing down what I wanted to include in the zine!

The zine is a 22-page booklet filled with facts, trivia, tips for what you can do to help protect bats, and 12 original black and white watercolor illustrations. I also included instructions for two practices to tap into the bat spirit. (Since Oracle’s motto is: Science is magic!) $2 from the sale of every zine will be donated to The Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center.

Why Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center: UBRC is located in Kharkiv, Ukraine and is the largest bat rehabilitation center in Europe. All of the bats in Ukraine are on the red-list endangered species. This organization of professional scientists have continued to work under extremely dangerous and heartbreaking circumstances of the war to continue their work in protecting bats. We chose this organization to donate to because funding will not only help conserve endangered bats (who are now also facing the dangers of living in a war zone disturbing their roosting spots and safety) but the humans caring for them who are working in extreme and serious risk. We felt that donating to this organization would have the most impact at this time.

What, When, Where: Oracle’s Bat Fundraiser will “go live” July 5th, 2022 at noon Kansas City time. There will be 12 fruit-bat skulls mounted in glass cylinders, 11 horse-shoe-bat skulls mounted in mini glass domes, and the “Magic of Bats” zine available for purchase. I suggest setting a reminder alert for the 5th if you are interested in purchasing any of the skulls… there aren’t many and Oracle will not be carrying them ongoing, this was an unusual circumstance of receiving old-stock. (Like I mentioned above… bat products CANNOT be sourced sustainably and harvesting bats has already led to population decline and extinction of some species.) On Tuesday, July 5th you can find the Bat Fundraiser listings under the New Additions section of Oracle’s online shop.

Elegy Candles

Alessandra Dzuba of Oracle Natural Science specializes in skeletal articulation and does memorial work for clients. Finding ways of honoring memories and soothing grief become a major theme. She has certain rituals such as setting an intentional space, burning incense, and lighting a candle while working on a memorial. She asked me if I would create a special candle specifically with grief in mind.

I started with an herbal blend: Hawthorn for love. Nettle for strength. Lavender for peace.

Although she had not specified, I chose to make this candle a joined pair. So one candle is dressed with an Obsidian crystal for courage and grounding; and the other has a Rainbow Moonstone for soothing sorrow.

There is a long tradition of burning candles during times of loss, grief, and sorrow. We light candles to remember those who are no longer near. Both prayer and homage, a lit candle is a universal offering. The candle’s flame burns bright and flickers with life until the wax has been spent and there is no more wick. Candles are temporary, something we experience, and then it is gone; a ritual for the senses and a small gift of light to the world.

It was an honor to develop these Elegy candles. They are made exclusively for and available at Oracle Natural Science.

Oracle KC’s Raffle for Ukraine

Oracle Natural Science is currently hosting a fundraiser for Ukraine. Ukraine is in desperate need of aid – including medical supplies, food and water, funds for repairing infrastructure and supporting the frontlines. Nine artists have gathered to participate in this grand giveaway; which means nine winners!

For this fundraiser I made a special boxed-set of 6 hand-dipped candles. The Prayer for Ukraine candles are 100% organic beeswax, each adorned with:

• Aquamarine crystals associated with clear communication – releasing old patterns – soothing grief.

• Marigold petals associated with inner strength – power – protection – remembrance.

• Salvia petals associated with healing – long life – safe – secure.

Tickets are $5, and there is no limit on individual ticket purchases.

Check out all of the beautiful possible prizes. Get more info about the organization Oracle will be donating the funds to: Razom for Ukraine. And purchase as many tickets as you can/like by this Friday, May 13th!

The more tickets you purchase the better your chances of winning!