Packaging Problems

This message from Creadores a Sueldo is one of many similar posts that popped up on my Instagram feed over the last 72 hours:

 

 

They go on to explain the situation: 

Starting this very week the European Union will start enforcing its new Packaging act. Its objective is to control waste across the union's states, and force companies to compensate recycling costs for the waste they create.

While I agree with the original point of the law, it has been designed with no regards of small businesses, and the derived compliance costs (of time and money) makes it impossible for most creative businesses to keep shipping within the Union.

This law in its current state jeopardizes the livelihoods and businesses we have worked so hard to build, and sets a worrying precedent where small businesses are not even considered when legislation is being drafted.

There are ongoing petitions for the parliament to change this law and help us small businesses to comply in a logical way. I will add the link to the petition on my bio.

Please sign and share this link as widely as possible; the injustice being inflicted upon small international businesses is virtually unprecedented, and it further endangers a sector that already operates under constant risk.

Thank you. 

As I'm sure you're aware, this isn't the kind of thing I normally feature here on Propnomicon.  Unfortunately, it appears the new packaging law is going to absolutely savage small businesses in the European Union.  That covers a huge number of the boutique artists that produce the Mythos sculptures and artworks that are our bread and butter.  Many of them are genuinely worried that compliance costs will effectively drive them out of business.  I would hate to see that happen. 

 

 

The Book of the Third Eye

 Mille Cuirs brings us another impressive example of tomecraft with the Book of the Third Eye.  Featuring a hand-tooled leather cover with custom made inset eye.

 

 

You Gotta Have Heart

A centuries-old heart...

Silent for generations...

Begins to beat once more.

Long before modern medicine understood the heart's function, it was believed to be far more than a simple organ. Across Europe, it was regarded as the vessel of the soul, the seat of emotion, memory and life itself. In folklore, the preserved hearts of witches, saints and executed criminals were said to retain a fragment of the owner's essence long after death. Such relics were hidden away, sealed beneath glass, or entombed with iron to prevent whatever remained within from stirring once more.

The Tell-Tale Heart places one of these forbidden relics into your audience's hands.

Beneath an aged Victorian display dome rests the genuine mummified witch's heart, pierced with iron nails and preserved for centuries. It is introduced as an object steeped in folklore, a vessel that has lain dormant for generations, waiting for another living heart with which to resonate.

Dan Baines of Lebanon Circle Magic is no stranger to these pages. His latest illusion features a mummified heart that actually starts to beat while a spectator is holding it.  The Tell-Tale Heart isn't just a cool gaff and magic item, but would be an absolutely killer prop to roll out for a tabletop game. 

 

Impossible Landscapes

"Impossible Landscapes" is widely considered one of the definitive Delta Green tabletop scenarios.  One of the reasons for that is the sheer number of props and handouts, both official and otherwise.  Dump Stat Adventures brings us a selection of items from their run. 

 

Faking It

Perry Daniels has posted a great video on YouTube featuring an in-depth look at creating and weathering prop documents.  He starts off with one of the cheap Chinese copies of the grail diary from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and proceeds to upgrade the whole thing into something far more impressive.  Given the price point, it should come as no surprise that most the of the original inserts are printed on standard printer paper.  Mr. Daniels goes through and replaces them with more realistic alternatives.  That includes hand-drawing the Petra map, using actual newsprint for the clipped newspaper articles, using real photographs, and then weathering the entire book with an airbrush wash.  

There's a lot of information packed into the video.  That includes something I've never seen before- recreating the smell of an old book using a spray from a commercial scent library.  That's next level. 

Up From the Depths

We wrap up the week with a cool idol of Dagon from from Black Shawarma Shop over on Etsy.   

 

Mi-Go Specimen

I go, you go, we all go, for Mi-Go!  Jason McKittrick of the Cryptocurium brings us this "Mi-Go Pupa" specimen, the final release in his "The Doom That Came to July" series.