It started with a question that appeared curious enough: Name three heroines who I resonate with the most. Oh, and the statement: Don't ask why.
The outcome was an Arcanifact, the one-off objets meticulously and wittily rendered by Scot D. Ryersson. By day, this gentle man is an award-winning graphics designer for major films, here and abroad. After those official hours, he's an essayist, illustrator, interviewer (Tim Burton and Ann Rice, among his subjects) poet (published in the New Yorker, no less), playwright and, with his equally talented other half, writer Michael Orlando Yaccarino, gatekeeper of the legacy of the Marchesa Luisa Casati (turn the sound up when you visit. It's a riot.)
As you fashion buffs and aesthetes know, alive or dead, the Marchesa has been perennial muse. A notorious, charismatic eccentric, her tale is beautifully recounted in Infinite Variety: The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati, a well-reviewed and -received book Scot and Micahel released nearly a decade ago. Get it.
Definitive as that book is in stories, however, the duo are releasing a much more visually rich tome this October, The Marchesa Casati: Portraits of a Muse.
Then there is Arcanifacts. Literally, things conceived based on Scot's fascination for the phantasmagorical and arcane. Mine ranks as one of the most imaginative gifts I've ever received (and, dear Readers, I've been uber fortunate to receive many inspired and creative gifts in my lifetime, including the moustachioed portrait you see partially here that my sister, Blanca Apodaca, painted for me this last birthday! Both reside in my dressing room, which is in another period zone altogether in contrast to the modern style of the rest of the house...it's my own den of arcanifact+fiction.)

The gifts just keep on keeping on. Scot is, thankfully, documenting his work now online, and my bottle is the latest feature. The posting includes the clever wrapping and narrative surrounding it all.
Gracias dear Scot and Michael for making the world a more beautiful place.