Etsy is a great place to sell vintage and handmade items, and many collectors and creatives have found a way to make a living selling their wares on the site.
There, you can find everything from antique furniture to handcrafted jewelry, and it's the perfect place to shop for gifts for your crafty or vintage-obsessed loved ones, or unique home decor items. But while mostly everything on Etsy is unique, not everything on Etsy is normal — in fact, some shops are downright weird.
Here are 10 strange Etsy shops you likely didn't know existed.
Ramshackle Rascals
If you've ever wanted to decorate with (or even wear) broken-down doll parts, this is the Etsy shop for you. Ramshackle Rascals sells handmade art and decor pieces using "old, forgotten dolls" according to its Etsy page. The shop sells planters made out of doll heads, brooches featuring Barbie doll faces, and a series of art pieces called "Pickled People in a Jar" — sculptures made from dolls and wax pickles inside mason jars, each featuring a short poem in the item description — among other unique items. Shop prices range from around $15 to $75 depending on the item.
Flavored Toothpicks
On the surface, this Etsy shop seems like a perfectly normal (and yet interesting) business idea. People use toothpicks all the time, so why not give them a little flavor? While it's true that cinnamon, grape, wintergreen and even bacon toothpicks are intriguing, there are some other, stranger flavors that will leave you wondering, "Huh?" Under Flavored Toothpicks' "Weird & Unique Flavors" tab you'll find toothpicks that taste like fireworks, baby formula and more. Overall, there are more than 70 different toothpick flavors to choose from. The toothpicks sell for $5.95 and come in a small, sliding metal tin.
Anna's Uncanny Creatures
This shop definitely does "weird" well. From faux-zombie parts to strange stuffed animals, Anna's Uncanny Creatures has it all. The shop, which has been open since 2011, features eerie-looking, yet somehow endearing, teddy bears and stuffed animals with piercing acrylic eyes, faux fur and oddly humanlike mouths, complete with teeth, all handmade to order. Anna's Uncanny Creatures also offers a custom message-in-a-bottle letter service and sells zombie finger keychains and bookmarks along with "bodily candles," incredibly realistic vegan wax candles shaped like parts of human heads and faces. The teddy bears sell for around $55 each, while other prices vary.
Cappy Sue Creations
You know the old saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure?" Cappy Sue Creations is a unique Etsy shop that takes that mantra to a whole new level. Along with random paintings, jewelry and art pieces that range from strange and unusual to traditional and beautiful, Cappy Sue Creations will also take your random, unwanted junk, turn it into something new and more interesting, and send it back to you for a fee — now you know what to do with all those white elephant gifts! And in addition to these custom projects, you can also find some not-so-safe-for-work items in the form of pendants, ornaments and more. Prices vary by item.
Leaves of 3
This jewelry shop actually doesn't seem so strange, and in fact, many of the pieces for sale are quite beautiful. Leaves of 3 turns nature into jewelry, with things like moss, butterflies, flowers, seashells and four-leaf clovers preserved in clear resin and turned into pendants, earrings, rings and more. But what makes Leaves of 3 even more unique is the fact that the shop offers an entire selection of jewelry made with real poison ivy — yes, the plant that's best-known for giving people painful rashes. But don't worry, these pieces are beautiful and definitely won't make you itch. Prices vary, but most items range from $20 to $50.
aKNITomy
Like dissecting things? Appreciate knitting? This shop combines the best of both worlds. According to its Etsy page, aKNITomy is an "icky and cuddly world of knitted anatomy." The shop sells framed, knit versions of human anatomy and dissected creatures (like frogs, rats, bats and aliens) that are both strange, and oddly, kind of cute. There's even a dissected Easter bunny full of colorful grass and knit dyed eggs. And if you're interested in knitting your own science projects, aKNITomy also sells patterns and DIY kits for a small fee, too. Finished projects sell for anywhere from $75 to close to $200.
Funereal Ephemera
If you've always been fascinated by death, you'll love this Etsy shop. Funereal Ephemerea is a shop that specializes in "vintage cemetery, funeral and postmortem photography" according to its Etsy page. There, you can find old photographs — some haunting, some beautiful — of everything from flower-covered cemeteries and bodies in coffins to religious and medical paraphernalia and even taxidermy. Prices vary, but most of the photographs fall between $10 and $40.
The Curiositeer
Do skeletons and all things creepy and crawly fascinate you? What if you could wear a bat's skull around your neck or wear a spider like a ring? The Curiositeer makes it possible, with jewelry and other items made with materials like human teeth, insects, animal skeletons and more. Items like frog hearts, scorpions and bird skulls are preserved in resin and mounted to pendants or rings. And for the faint of heart, there's also a selection of jewelry made with flowers and rocks. Items vary in price, but most of the jewelry falls between $20 and $50.
DigitalSoaps
What do you do when you can't put down your video games long enough to take a shower? You take them with you … at least, in the form of soap, thanks to this Etsy shop. DigitalSoaps makes handcrafted soaps in the form of gaming accessories, like Nintendo game cartridges and PlayStation and Xbox controllers. The shop also sells shampoos and body washes in soda bottles (popular brands like Dr Pepper and Mountain Dew) and soap inspired by cartoons and anime.
Terrible Origami
According to its Etsy page, this shop "puts the OMG in origami." Some people are talented at origami, the art of paper folding, but others, not so much. The sellers behind Terrible Origami are of the latter category — instead of making beautiful, intricate swans, this shop sells what looks more like crumpled paper. These terrible origami items are listed for outrageous prices, many of which are over $100, and it's clear that the shop is more of a joke than anything. However, the shop also sells Terrible Origami-branded T-shirts for fans to purchase, and has even somehow sold a few origami pieces as well.
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