Natural Curiosity: Inside Esoterica's World of Specimens & Storytelling
Esoterica founder Sofia reflects on how a childhood spent collecting the natural world became a lifelong devotion to preserving its beauty
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
It starts earlier than we think. Perhaps it's a feather discovered on a morning walk or a mushroom tucked beneath fallen leaves. Or, maybe it's a smooth stone slipped into a coat pocket simply because it was too interesting to leave behind. Long before those moments become collections, career paths or carefully curated spaces, they begin as simple curiosity.
For Esoterica co-founder Sofia, that curiosity first took shape alongside her grandmother in the forests of Russia, where afternoons were spent outside in nature, learning about flora, fauna and the personality of places. Years later, those early lessons found a new home in New Hope, Pennsylvania where Esoterica invites visitors to rediscover the same sense of wonder that first inspired its founders to begin collecting.
In our conversation, Sofia reflects on how childhood curiosity became a shop devoted to preserving the natural world.
Another Chapter: Soul Perchers on the Care Behind Every Creation
Some artists work with canvas. Others work with marble, clay or paint. The Soul Perchers team works with legacy. Every stitch is sewn by hand. Every garment is designed with the care of a historical costumer. Most importantly, every animal is treated with profound dignity, preserving a life that deserves to be remembered.
There is a palpable tenderness at the heart of this shop. Before the velvet, antique lace and jewelled crowns, there is an unwavering belief that every animal, every soul, deserves compassion. That philosophy guides each decision the team makes, from sourcing only ethical specimens to allowing each creature to inspire its character.
Inspired by Victorian dress, the visual language of Guillermo del Toro and Tim Burton, art history, fashion and fairy tales, their anthropomorphic taxidermy transforms each specimen into a character with a story of its own. Each finished piece grants an animal's story another chapter.
We sat down with the team to find out more.
Shelf (After)Life: 11 Gothic Cookbooks to Collect
From witchcraft and herbalism to haunted baking and literary cocktails, these beautifully curated cookbooks deserve a permanent place in your kitchen
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
An exceptional cookbook does more than tell you what to make for dinner. It teaches, inspires and occasionally sends you down an internet rabbit hole over an unfamiliar ingredient or centuries-old tradition. These are the gorgeous gothic titles we'd happily read from cover to cover—even if we never turned on the oven.
Laura May's Recipe for Kitchen Magic
Inside the pages of Kitchen Magic: Over 65 Enchanting Recipes and Rituals for a Cozy, Witchy Kitchen and the stories that inspired them
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
It's easy to forget where our food comes from when most of us move through at least one meal each day on autopilot. Breakfast between emails. Lunch at our desks. Dinner in front of the television. Laura May, cookbook author and creator of @lauramayritualkitchen invites us to slow down, reconnecting with seasonality (and the harvests seasons yield) and rediscovering the folklore hidden in the ingredients we enjoy every day.
Laura shares her favourite summer kitchen witch ingredients for everything from allergy remedies and herbal teas to midsummer menus, seasonal rituals and the meals that carry us from breakfast through supper, along with the meanings behind the ingredients.
In the Garden After Dusk with @briannas_planttok
Dark foliage, medicinal botanicals, poison garden lore and the passion behind Brianna’s homestead practice
By: The Lace Ledger Staff
All day, the garden blooms in broad, sun-filled strokes, standing proud and tall, admired by passers by and onlooking neighbours.
As the sunsets, and the air cools, the noise of the day drops away until only small sounds remain; leaves dancing in the wind, something distant calling from the trees. This is the call of the garden that resounds most authentically with Brianna. Not at daybreak, but in the hours when the garden feels most like itself: a mythical, meditative place for grounding, cultivation and self-reflection.
Here, we step into her world after dusk, where the world slows, the rhythm steadies and the garden reveals what it’s been doing all along.