pixxxiepieemporium's Profile

Bio

Birth and Such: Hatched in 1878 in an arid part of California where the hills still have eyes, Madame Van Der Zee was born from the unlikely pairing of a succubus and a renegade time lord.

Formative Years: Tutored by the brightest minds across the 13 realms, the madame quickly found herself proficient in many of the high magical arts. Alchemy, Divination and many others were mastered with ease and the same pattern followed when blades and other weapons found their way into her hands.

Endless study has also lead our lady to become rather skilled in such non-lethal arts as cloth craft (sewing), soap making, jewelry craft, knitting/weaving, painting, collage art, photography & botanical alchemy.

Adult Years: She formed The Shadow Guild while in her twenties and embarked on a adventure filled journey as a bounty hunter/ assassin for many years. She also made her first move into the realms of the merchant class at this time as well, solidifying investments in the trade of spice, magical components, rare books, poisons, textiles & information. Dealings of this sort tend to make a person rather handy to people in positions of power. Quick to take advantage of opportunities, she began to make herself available as a paid advisor & oracle and still offers such services to this day (though she seems to be taking a break from bounty hunting...for the time being). In the year 1999 our lady settled down a bit in Austin, Texas, with her bound consort. The turn of a century is always an exciting time and she found the place to be a suitably bizarre area to reside in despite being situated in the mundane material plane of Earth. Her next choice would have been New Orleans, but her 200 yr. Oracle calender showed that New Orleans would be under 300 feet of water permanently by 2020.

Upon taking a trip to the Underworld in the year 2004, the madame was called to the Goblin Market to visit with an old friend. This friend introduced her to a new kind of Fei. Known simply as “a Dollfie” at the time, our lady was immediately transfixed & the creature went home with her that very day. And over the years she has amassed her coven of wunderkind primarily of such creatures. In bringing together such a coven it was only a matter of time before Raquel realized that was precious little in the way of suitable clothing for her coven. Oh there was plenty of fine things out there...but none of it seemed to work for her. She didn't wish for the young men & women of her coven to look like young children—because they weren't--- so she shied away from those styles. She didn't wish for them to look like stereotypical goth/emo kids either because she really felt that was done into the ground. She didn't wish to dress them in kimonos (though there's nothing wrong with kimonos). She didn't want them to dress all in leather or like the dandy fops from the French Revolution, or like suited business men from the Earth realm's Wall St or like military colonels either. Coming to her wits end she soon set about tailoring garments & making jewelry for them herself. Which eventually lead her to the tailoring of garments for others. Hence, The Pixxxie Pie Emporium was born.

Stylistically: One could say the Madame brews up a magnificent mutation of combined styles that she has fallen in love with over the years. There's a bit of the medieval bubbling in the cauldron, with a few handfuls of the Victorian, a pinch of India, nestled tight with a healthy ladle full of steampunk sensibility, Gypsy passion and vampire's grace. And of course there's a few vials of of battle mage tossed in for good measure too.... let us not forget that.

What the Future Holds: Stay tuned...Though the madame firmly believes that Asian ball jointed dolls are the "unifying field theory" of all her artistic skills & knowledge, its only a matter of time before the Emporium sprouts a few more branches and begins to offer a range of whimsically dark wonders for those of human stature. Most likely you'll soon see steampunk & vintage inspired jewelry, arm gloves & such, cloth voodoo dollies, delightful pin cushion gift sets.....Much is in store.

Other interesting things baking in the ovens of the Pixxxie Pie Emporium:

The Doll House: Detailed profiles and information on all the dreamlette creatures that call the house of Madame Van Der Zee home.
http://www.pixxxiepie.com/thedollhouse/

or check the emporium out on myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/thepixxxiepieemporium

Female, Born on August 12

Favorite Materials

velvets, muslin, vinyl, silks, brocades, beads, buttons, eyelets, pearly snap buttons, skeleton keys, gears, buckles, oh my