MEET THE MAKER Macabre masters at The Blackened Teeth

MACABRE MASTERS

A fascination for the morbid and bizarre led a local couple to create The Blackened Teeth, which started in a garden shed and has been outgrowing workspaces ever since

By Lisa Evans Rebecca McDonald’s exploration into the world of death-orientated décor began because her grandmother was an avid collector of urns, and she remembers seeing these beautiful objects housing entities now passed, and appreciating them. The mission of Rebecca’s business, The Blackened Teeth, which she set up two years ago and runs with her partner Lee Arnett, is to replicate that notion and shed a beautiful light on objects and subject matter often deemed as ‘morbid’. In 2018 Rebecca’s grandmother gave her a cheque and told her to spend it on something ‘practical’, so she bought a shed – what’s more practical than a shed? From there, Rebecca “I admired how the precious remnants were and Lee began experimenting with materials rehoused in a symbolic beauteous ornament,” and it became a small hub for the messy things says Cardiff-born-and-raised ebecca. that couldn’t be made in their house.

“Death’s remains had been adorned in these “The idea hub soon became too small (and urns and served a powerful, reminiscent sight cold), so we moved in to a small unit,” says while embellishing my grandmother’s mantle. Rebecca. “Within the next year we upscaled to

An exquisite reminder that death can have a a workshop six times the size. During lockdown resplendent, halcyon presence in one’s home.” we outgrew our Cardiff-based workshop and

CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: Owners Rebecca and Lee; teeth trinket holders in the making; dolls’ head candles BELOW: Lee creates these skeleton lamps from start to finish

“Our products are handmade by the quirky, for the quirky”

had to move the business to an even bigger premises in Mountain Ash.”

They attribute the business’s success to the bringing together of Lee’s knowledge of materials with Rebecca’s creative thinking, combined with the love for all things unusual and unique.

Our products are handmade by the quirky, for the quirky, she says. e make our products in-house. e’re a team of three and we work a lot of hours e’re very fortunate that our team has a very broad skillset that allows us to take our products through the whole process from design to production and has the passion and stamina to keep up with the pace).

“We start at the ideas board with hand drawings and computer-aided design. rom

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Hand-poured candles; ring holder; bookends; handmade skull and serpant lamp

there, our initial concepts are sculpted by hand in clay or printed with the 3D printer or CNC machine. Once we are happy with the concept, we start the moulding process and then we do the production and dispatching.”

Their candles which range in styles from dolls’ heads to ink-bleed pillars are handpoured in house by Rebecca using soy wax blends, and Lee makes all of the statement piece lamps such as a resin life-size skeleton replica with a lampshade in place of a head from start to nish.

Although The lackened Teeth is an online business, they wholesale to retailers around the world in both the virtual space and bricks-and-mortar stores, and they attend several UK trade shows each year to showcase their products.

“We’ve always been curious about what people choose to display in their homes, the home being a true reflection of the individual that inhabits it, says ebecca. e’re off the beaten path when it comes to the products we make, and that’s down to my love for the macabre and bizarre. The majority of our lamp ideas stemmed from not being able to nd high-quality lamps on the market that catered to the darker, alternative individuals of this world. ones and skulls have such beautiful form and intricacy and that often gets overlooked, maybe because we don’t get to spend that long looking at them… until they’re made in to décor.” n

For more: www.theblackenedteeth.com