Garrison travels often to deal her lanterns at Halloween expos and conventions.

Provided by rachel Garrison

Sometimes, it’s the inability to celebrate a holiday that leads to a lifelong obsession. Entrepreneur Rachel Garrison wasn’t raised with Christmas (or other holidays, for that matter), yet she found herself obsessed with Halloween as an adult. 

“My mom just literally didn’t celebrate holidays,” Garrison, founder of VanDolls Folk Art, recalls. “It’s going to sound really weird, but I didn’t miss not having Christmas or birthdays — the only thing I really wanted to have any part of was Halloween. I’d live in this fantasy world and would see other kids dressing up; I was like, ‘I want to be a Ghostbuster or a witch.’ I wanted to be the character everyone gets to be instead of living it in my mind.”

Raised by a maker mom, the 43-year-old entrepreneur has created and sold crafts since childhood. She started her first adult company, VanDolls, in the late ‘90s, stitching handmade pin-up clothing. By 2016, she pivoted, adding the words “Folk Art” to her brand and focusing on classic Halloween designs drawn from her collection of vintage costumes, die-cuts and lanterns, which she estimates at over 1,000.

Garrison’s lanterns are akin to the papier-mache lanterns of the 1920s.

Provided by Rachel Garrison

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“There’s this Japanese concept where everything that’s made has a life,” she says, referring to her work’s handmade nature. “They infused their soul into these items, and when you purchase things that are older, you get the feeling they carry what the person who was going to receive the item would feel. They’re so well made and made with love; people held onto them.”

Garrison initially decided to concentrate on lanterns, sculpting and painting each one out of papier-mache — a modern twist on a tradition that originated in 17th-century Britain. Back then, they carved faces into turnips to ward off evil spirits.

When Irish immigrants came to the United States, they substituted turnips with pumpkins, giving birth to modern jack-o’-lanterns. By the 20th century, artisans were creating mass-market versions out of paper pulp shaped like pumpkins, witches, skulls and cats. These classics, still found in antique stores and on eBay, became a fertile source of inspiration for Garrison’s business.

“I’ve always loved Halloween and making things, so I decided to go ahead and turn this into a business I could do from home,” Garrison recalls. “I love gloopsy monsters from the ‘40s, and I love 1940s cartoons, so I cobbled all of my favorite things together.”

By reverse-engineering the antique styles she found, she improved the construction using wood pulp for durability. In the past decade, she’s created over 800 original creeps, adding four new styles each year. Garrison still hand-forms each original, though she has since pivoted to using molds of her original sculpt for easier, more consistent reproduction. 

“In the beginning it was one-of-a-kind,” she says. “I did a lot of pumpkins, skeletons; I had a few bats … and then over time, I got hooked up with Johanna Parker, who was looking for makers that wanted to partner with her to make Halloween wares in her style, and that’s what really kicked off my business.” 

Garrison is obsessed with Halloween, and she acts on that obsession by making and selling lanterns using antique techniques and art styles.

Provided by Rachel Garrison

Now, she markets wholesale and retail lines; she sells in antique malls, shops like Curiosities in Dallas, and online. Garrison spends about 18 hours a day in her studio and travels often to trade shows. To keep prices affordable, her sculpted designs range from $45 to $200. This year, she added a line of hand-printed costumes based on 1920s looks, priced from around $165 to $300.

“I think about the person on the other end,” she says of her customers, whose good reviews she prints out and hangs up all over her workshop. “There’s nothing more heartbreaking than loving something and not being able to have it.” 

Currently in the middle of her high season, she’ll be showing her wares Oct. 16 at the Southside Monster Market in Fort Worth, and at the Horror Book Fest in Grapevine on Oct. 17-18, fully reveling in the holiday she once had to ignore. 

“I honestly feel we spend the entirety of our adult lives being trapped in a box, and we have to be someone else’s ideal to make ourselves acceptable,” Garrison says. “There’s no other holiday that allows you to go out and do what you want to do and be who you want to be — it’s very freeing.”