This content originally appeared in the 2024 issue of Spooky Little Halloween—The Magazine. Photos courtesy of Lindsay Keating.
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How do you go from attending Catholic school to running a virtual and in-person Halloween-themed market for fellow artists?
It’s a lot easier than you’d think, and for Lindsay Keating (she/her), the owner of Curious Cabinet of Clay and creator of Darksome Art & Craft Market, it’s been a creative journey worth sharing.
Growing up, Lindsay attended Catholic school, which didn’t have a lot of options for creative electives. While others were enjoying shop or pottery, she jokes she was stuck in religion class. But all that changed when she signed up for the one art class her school did offer.
“I didn’t even know I had artistic talent until I drew something for my high school art class,” she says. “I was sitting on my bedroom floor, and I was looking up at my Nine Inch Nails poster. I sketched Trent Reznor, and I was like, ‘I did a pretty good job.’ For not knowing what the hell I was doing and not understanding materials or anything, I drew a pretty nice pencil drawing of him.”
THE ARTISTIC JOURNEY BEGINS
And thus, her journey as an artist began. Lindsay tried her hand at a number of mediums: poetry, knitting, crocheting, stenciling. Each experience opened her eyes to new ways to create and express herself. But her biggest turning point was performance art by way of two bands.
“My best friend at the time, Sarah, and I were both musicians,” Lindsay says. “She played cello. I played clarinet. We were both feminists and into the Victorian era and literature, so we came up with this band called The Great Confinement. All our songs were about female insanity in Victorian literature.”
They added a drummer to the mix, began playing shows locally, and even recorded an album she is still proud of to this day. Eventually the band dissolved, but Lindsay followed the drummer to a new band that she played with for several years.
They had some incredible opportunities, including Lindsay’s favorite — being invited to perform an original score to “Nosferatu” by a small art house cinema.
When this band broke up, Lindsay knew she was ready for a new creative outlet.
“I realized that I wanted to create art where I didn’t have to rely on other people like that,” she says. “It’s very stressful to feel like your creative outlet depends on three other people to keep it moving forward. I wanted to get back to some of my roots of crafting, and I’d always wanted to try pottery.”
Listen to this full Interview on By Pumpkin’s Light
FOR THE LOVE OF POTTERY
So she found a class at a local rec center just down the street from her apartment and gave it a try.
“I fell in love with it,” she says. “I started going all the time. I was doing it like four or five days a week on top of working two part-time jobs, plus doing an internship. I made a lot of time for it and learned.”
Lindsay kept creating, eventually making items for sale about a year in. Her love of Halloween and all things spooky naturally found their way into her pottery over time.
“It just kind of happened that I started making jack-o-lanterns,” she says. “That’s probably my most popular or well-known work that I do. They’re each created individually, and then I carve different faces on them. I do different glaze treatments, stains, and underglazes in all these different colors. And then I started adding little hanging charms off their stems, and people have really liked that. I try to do unique elements. I’m always coming up with something new.”
POPULAR ON PATREON
Her pottery became so popular online that meeting the demand became difficult. To solve for this, Lindsay turned to a popular platform she saw others using successfully and where she now sells the majority of her pieces: Patreon.
“I struggled to figure out how I can make more,” she says. “I realized people were using Patreon and thought maybe there was a way I could use it to do an exclusive group where people can access my work.”
It’s worked as beautifully as her pottery. Members can join for $5 a month to receive access to her Patreon-only sales occurring four times per year. Those who join at her top tier also receive a free mug each year they’re a member.
“Another benefit of being on my Patreon is I let [members] vote on what they want me to make for the next release,” she says.
Their final pick of 2023 was unique. “They wanted Krampus stuff, so I did a Halloween and Christmas mash-up and came up with a skeleton with a Santa hat that says ‘Merry Krampus.’ I also did Creepmas ornaments with a sculpted face and little charms that were multimedia.”
Spots are limited for both tiers (about 100 people total per year), so it can be tough to get in. Lindsay typically shares on social media when a spot opens. She also offers a $3 tier for those who simply want to support her work.
CREATING A KILLER ART MARKET
As for selling the rest of her work, it’s usually done in occasional public sales online or, more notably, during her quarterly Darksome Art & Craft Market — a project Lindsay calls her baby.
“It was something I always wanted to do,” she says. “Back when I was crafting, I thought it would be so cool to open a store, but I think having an event makes a lot more sense than having a shop. I had some experience with event planning when I lived in Minneapolis, so when I moved to the Philadelphia area, I decided to start my own market.”
After researching other local markets, Lindsay saw an opening for an event that featured only hand-crafted items. Darksome was born and at the time (it was 2019), it was going to stick to being a local in-person event in Pennsylvania.
MARKET, BUT MAKE IT VIRTUAL
Enter 2020.
With the world shutting down, Lindsay watched her fellow artist friends panic about how they were going to survive without in-person events. She also watched as other events made the pivot to becoming virtual out of necessity. She decided to do the same.
“I just kind of ran with the idea,” Lindsay says. “And then I started thinking, ‘Well alright — what else can we do to really make this an event?’ And they’ve been so successful that I didn’t go back to only in-person shows. Now it’s primarily a virtual market.”
The virtual markets occur four times per year: one for Valentine’s Day, one in the spring, one in the summer, and one at the holidays. Lindsay also hosts a single in-person event the first weekend of October at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia.
“I try to get a good variety of people working in different mediums so its not oversaturated with just one type of time,” she says. “That’s something I’ve always been really passionate about — promoting other artists. I love being like, ‘Look at this! My friend made this, you should check out their website.’”
To find participating shops for each, you can visit darksomecraftmarket.com. Participants (approximately 100 each event) are organized by category. Nearly all offer a discount code exclusive for the virtual event.
The virtual market kicks off on Fridays and runs through Sunday afternoon. During that time, participants jump on the Darksome Art & Craft Market Instagram (@darksomecraftmkt) for interviews.
Lindsay also has a charitable component — at each virtual market, she picks an organization and collects donations for them as a way to give back. Many of the shops donate a portion of their proceeds as well. It’s a practice that originally stemmed from the in-person event at Mount Moriah Cemetery.
“The history of Mount Moriah is interesting,” she says. “It was founded in the 1850s or 60s, but by the 1990s, it was completely overgrown and nearly abandoned. You wouldn’t even know it was a cemetery. But some people came together to take care of it and formed Friends of Mount Moriah in 2011. We fundraise for them, and we raised $7,000 in 2023. The year before we raised $8,200.”
