Winter 2025: End of the year dispatch
Mystic Multiples is taking a brief pause before spinning back up for 2026. In fact, we shut down operations a wee bit early this year to go on a special research trip to London! We'll cover that trip, plus a few other odds and ends in this final newsletter for 2025. Here's the outline:
- Highlight: Visit to Kew Gardens
- Highlight: Visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum
- Black Water, Green Fruit Exhibition closing event January 10th
- Ten 2026 Calendars, bobo edition, are available in the store
- Things to come in 2026
Thanks for being a subscriber, and happy new year!
Visit to Kew Gardens
Sarah here. I can’t remember when or where I first heard about The Royal Botanical Gardens/ Kew Gardens, but it’s been on my bucket list for many years. Kew is an enormous UNESCO heritage site, they do scientific research, they manage seed banks, they have art galleries, and of course, they boast the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world."
Truthfully I was apprehensive about going to the garden in the winter and thought we might be trudging around in a lot of dead brown murk in the freezing London cold. On the other hand, I knew they had those spectacular Victorian glass houses, so maybe it was worth a shot? The temperatures turned out to be way more mild than expected in during our early December trip--40s and 50s--and the grounds at Kew were surprisingly still green.
We did two visits to Kew during our trip and still didn’t manage to see everything. The glass houses were a special highlight, especially the historic Palm House and the Princess of Wales Conservatory (opened in late 1980s). The conservatory houses multiple climates and includes a fern room, an orchid room, and cycads scattered throughout. Just beautiful and mysterious creatures at every turn. Not sure how to explain what it meant to me to be in this space with all these plants, but basically a spiritual experience.
For me, seeing all the living, breathing specimens in the glass houses from all over the planet was very emotional. I saw many old friends, but also plants which I’ve spent time drawing from reference, but have never spent time with in person. I am thinking specifically about some of the small carnivorous plants that don’t reside in North America. They had a whole room dedicated to these beauts….
If you are dying for more nerdy plant history, there’s a good lecture about history of Kew and similar institutions available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBunB3lit5g
Visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum
James here. Next up, we want to tell you a bit about our visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum! This visit was a major reason for our trip to London, but I was not fully prepared for the sheer size of their holdings. You could easily spend three days in the museum, and wonder if you gave everything enough time and attention...
Back to our reason for the trip: we've fallen in love with paper peepshows! The souvenir / toy objects were produced as keepsakes through the 19th century, beginning in the 1820s. They typically are constructed with multiples cut 'windows', attached by folding bellows, and when you expand the peep and look through the viewing hole, you can see a layered scene come to life!
We were able to secure a time slot to view the collection during our visit, and were absolutely delighted and amazed by these objects! Big thanks to the National Art Library for allowing us to view the special collection. You might be surprised to learn that many art libraries offer free appointments to view special collections, so if there's a type of art you've always wanted to see in person, consider asking a library or archive near you!
Closing at Basket Books on 1/10/2026!
S: We have an exhibition up NOW at our beloved Houston bookstore, Basket Books & Art. This one is a collaboration with my friend and mentor, the talented artist, Natasha Bowdoin. We met about eight-ish years ago and have been talking about making a zine together since day one. I am so pleased this has finally come to pass!
Press Release and details are here!
We are hoping to do a workshop and closing event for Black Water, Green Fruit on Saturday January, 10, 2026 at the Basket Books. We will update when details come together!
If you have time around the holidays or into New Year go check it out. It’s a double feature visit: Not only great art upstairs, but fun book pursuing downstairs :)
10 Night Bloom 2026 Calendars, BoBo Edition
Thank you so much to everyone who supported our 2026 calendar! The main edition has since sold out, and we're looking forward to sharing the months as we progress through the year. But as with all things riso, we sometimes have some prints that are a little more wonky than we prefer. Rather than recycle those calendars, we're offering them at a discount! You can order a 'bobo edition' calendar for $25 through our online store. We have 10 available, so be sure to get yours before they sell out!
Looking ahead to 2026
There's a lot planned for next year, and so after a good period of rest and contemplation now, we're excited to get started on a few things. Around March, we should have an exhibition of work by Sarah going up here in Houston. By May or June, you might see the first rumblings of the Gulf Coast Tarot Deck. And in the Fall, should you have ordered one, you might get a tarot deck in the mail! Along the way we have some other bits and bobs, including some musings about specific things we saw in our time in London. I hope you've enjoyed this dispatch, and we wish you a very happy new year!
