What I Make, Why I Make It, and Why I Always End Up in Cemeteries
Elegy & Ivy (often shortened to E&I) is where my love of history, research, and making things by hand all end up in the same place, whether they meant to or not. This is the intersection of those interests, which accounts for most of my free time and a good portion of my available surface space.
I make gravestone props, cemetery artifacts, and custom pieces inspired by real historical markers and funerary design. Some are built for film sets or haunts. Others are for collectors, displays, or people who stop for cemeteries while traveling and feel seen by this sentence. Everything is grounded in documented historical reference and hands-on research.
This isn’t about shock value or fake aging for the sake of looking spooky. I care about whether something could have existed, even if it didn’t.
Browse the Props
I’m a Taphophile (It’s Not as Weird as It Sounds)
Taphophilia is an interest in cemeteries, gravestones, burial practices, and funerary symbolism. It sounds unsettling until you realize cemeteries are just very organized outdoor history books. Names, dates, symbols, and design choices tell you how people lived, what they believed, and what mattered enough to carve into stone.
I’ve always been drawn to that. If I’m traveling somewhere new, I will absolutely make time to stop at a local cemetery. Old, small, famous, forgotten — I don’t discriminate. You can learn a lot by looking at what people chose to leave behind when they knew they wouldn’t be around to explain it.
Research Is the Whole Point
Everything at Elegy & Ivy starts with research. Fonts, epitaph phrasing, iconography, stone shapes, proportions, and even weathering patterns all changed over time and by region. A willow and urn doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere. Neither does ivy, a lamb, clasped hands, or an obelisk.
This blog exists so I can document the things I find interesting while researching and wandering: unusual gravestones, recurring symbols, regional styles, odd inscriptions, and the occasional bit of cemetery lore. Some of it will directly influence future E&I designs. Some of it just deserves to be written down.
What This Blog Will Be
This is for people who slow down in cemeteries, read the stones, and wonder about the stories attached to them. If you like history, symbolism, funerary art, or just taking detours to strange, quiet places, you’ll probably feel at home here.
See the Work