Swooping in with metaphysical, paranormal wings to the South Bay from their base operations in Clayton, the Menagerie Oddities Market landed in 2023 with six subsequent Saturdays at the Winchester Mystery House.
The historic landmark property in San Jose was the personal residence of Sarah Lockwood Pardee Winchester, who, from 1886 to 1922 designed and oversaw the construction that transformed an eight-room farmhouse into a mansion. Tragedy had befallen Winchester but she was gifted with brilliance and after she moved from the East Coast to California, rooms were built from her sketches that she believed would provide peace to restless spirits. Then, after having accomplished their purpose, the rooms would be torn down.
One hundred years later, Winchester House’s price tag of $5 million dollars in 1923 is equivalent to roughly $71 million in today’s dollars.
The vibe and location are a magnificent setting for the highly curated art that oddities and curiosities are bringing to the mansion by the Market’s co-founders, Connstance and Michael Garcia.
“My grandmother handmade dolls when I was young. I started making assemblage art with doll parts,” said Connstance Garcia. “I’d take a doll head with vintage jewelry and hair and add other pieces like buttons, trims, crowns. I learned how to assemble the electrical components for lamps and then I’d add doll heads to them so they’d light up.”
With her business partner and husband, Garcia launched the Menagerie Oddities Market in 2019. The couple had attended a popular market in Los Angeles the year before and wondered if there might be viable interest in the Bay Area.
Their first show held in Alameda featured 35 vendors with everything from fine art to photography to assemblage art. “There was a line and a two hour wait to get in,” she recalled, “so there was definitely a market. The business grew and took off so much last year that I had to choose between creating art and producing shows.”
During the six 2023 events, the themed shows bring a mix of local and out of town artists. Tincture-, doll- and tea-making workshops, tarot readers, candle magic, dancers, healers with sound baths and aura-cleansings, food trucks, access to the venue’s extensive gardens, free photos with the Ghosts of Christmas and other entertainment are featured on the schedule.
The market on Dec. 23 bears the appropriate title, The Procrastinators Bazaar. “It’s stocking stuffers and gifts for everyone on your list. It’s for that frenzied buyer who needs something unique. We’ll have things from Gashly Tentacles: an artist who takes little stuffed animals and creates molded teeth made of resin and sets them in the animals. We’ll have an artist called Silver Moon Curiosities, with butterflies in domes that have beautiful, ornate landscapes. Jeremy Rathbone, an artist who makes prints, will have original paintings of Victorianesque skeletons that represent different times in his life. And there’s always highly curated jewelry,” said Garcia.
Special features on this date include the Mestizo Taco Truck, a visit from the Renegade Circus and the Misfit Toys, the return of Stilt Boy, and a surprise give-away for ticket holders (drawings for a $50 gift certificate to spend that day at the vendor display of their choice).
The Dec. 30 Soul Spa Re-Enchantment Metaphysical Faire, Garcia said, is “the perfect re-set for starting the new year.” In addition to the standard fare, one-time offerings include commemorative Wheel of Fortune tarot card give-aways—as long as supplies last—bone throwing divinations, sigils- and talisman-making, seers and mystics.
The Garcias limit the vendors to 50 highly curated artists and arrange them in 10 categories. Meanwhile, they keep their ears to the ground—and the netherworld—for new interests and artists.
“With the pandemic changing the way people died, our fascination with death is more prevalent. Which leads into the paranormal,” says Garcia. “With more time on our hands, people investigated that spiritual world. There was also increased interest in history and pandemics and death in the past. During the Victorian period, people had taxidermy on their walls and took photos of people who had died. Because of high mortality rates for infants, death photos of them were the only way to keep images of the family’s loved ones. Death photos are now collectable and highly sought. For some people, there’s great beauty in those things.”
Dec. 23 and 30
Optional guided tours, 12-4pm
Self-guided candlelight tours, 5-9pm
