Call Lisa Carter Diemyer a weirdo.
It's OK with her, though she prefers Trixie, a nickname she coined for herself.
Inside her office, which she refers to as her lair, Trixie giggles a lot, cusses a little and enjoys sharing her fascination with handmade weasel dolls scattered throughout her Great Bridge business called Vintage Trixie.
Two eyes aren’t enough to absorb the number of oddities crammed in the sprawling shop — large, loud jewelry; tempting pink jellyfish earrings with tentacles that reach the shoulders.
“Y’all have fun!” her husband, John Carter, told two young shoppers, rummaging through the treasures recently.
Oddity enthusiasts and those who lose themselves in a TJ Maxx can browse for hours and leave with a haul without spending much. A mystery bag of jewelry – three necklaces, two bracelets, a ring and a brooch – rings up for $10. Elvis 8-tracks are even cheaper. Hot Wheels collectors need look no further.
Stuff – miniature animals, salt and pepper shakers, crystals, PEZ dispensers – fills every crevice.
Vintage Trixie is easy to overlook off busy Battlefield Boulevard. Amy Marton drove by several times before becoming a regular. It was only after bringing her family to a Curiosity Faire that she found “my people.”
The annual Curiosity Faire, which will be held on Saturday and Sunday at the Chesapeake Conference Center, is a curated market of the strange and quirky with psychic readings, puppeteers, piercers, herbalists and maverick vendors.
It’s a place to make your own snake-vertebrae earrings and investigate an owl pellet, the regurgitated indigestibles of what the bird can't swallow. Apothecary, scented oils and live music, including psychobilly band Mr. Fang and the Dark Tones, will perform.
“There’s a vibe to it,” said Marton, who has become Vintage Trixie’s resident medium today. “Crystals, people dressed up in costume, music. My kids had a good time. We had a good time. I left thinking, ‘I want to hang out with these people all the time.’ ”
Buffalo-born, Trixie moved from New York to Hampton Roads 30 years ago for a job as a zookeeper for primates at The Virginia Zoo. While she grew up planning to work with animals, “You can only hose the same floor a certain amount of times before you go insane,” she said.
After earning a master’s in biology from Old Dominion University, Trixie worked in the environmental field and taught at Tidewater Community College, where she remained for 23 years before retiring in May.
Along the way, she met her husband, who shares her passion for the unusual.
“I get it from my mother,” Trixie said. “She was weird.”
Many moons ago, after cleaning out Carter's mother’s Newport News home, the two were inspired to make a business out of collectibles.
“We started out as antique and vintage,” Trixie said. “Then it slowly became oddities and science-y and weirdness. I art as well.”
Her signature craft, weasel dolls, started with Trixie holding a broken cat statue and a damaged figurine, exchanging the similar-sized heads.
“I called it Freaky Friday. We sold it.”
Then one day, Trixie eyed a mink stole that had been lying around. She soft-sculpted it with a needle and thread and stuck the head on the body of a headless doll. Sold. She made another.
“Within a week, they were both gone,” Carter said.
Trixie likes to say she cackles every time she makes a new one. The larger ones, which retail for $100 or more, are dressed in elegant gowns and wear glittery jewels. She names each and adds a personality, including a favorite she’s reluctant to part with – Goddess Ernestine, the Protector and Bringer of Cheese.
Trixie also preserves dolls, some excavated from Germany in the 19th century, and kept in reliquaries, in which she tucks unique adornments.
Ten years ago, Vintage Trixie opened in what’s now dubbed the "Witch Shack," a former bait store. They outgrew that small building and expanded when a larger building next door became available to rent. The extra room led to classes, including taxidermy, insect pinning and make-a-craft. Vendors were invited in, too, to sell their wares in a gallery section.
It also allowed for the opening of an Odditorium, a former garage that hosts tarot tea parties and other festive events. Nothing is for sale inside, though a sign at the door states that changes for anyone willing to spend at least a million dollars on any item.
“We just need to sell one!” Trixie said gleefully.
The high-ceilinged Odditorium reflects Trixie’s appreciation of Victorian times with some sections set up as vignettes.
The parlor, for example, includes mourning jewelry, a tradition under Queen Victoria. A cabinet of collectibles from Carter's mother’s home, dozens of weathered horse ribbons from a local champion and a hand-colored print from a book published in 1550 are a few of the hundreds of displayed items.
The Odditorium is only open at certain times, “unless I’m feeling randy that day,” Trixie said, laughing.
Carter is eager to show off one of his cherished finds in the parking lot but pauses to say hello to two more fixtures of Vintage Trixie, Standard poodles Romeo and Earl, asleep behind the counter.
Once outside, it’s impossible to miss Hellon Wheels, a 1988 Cadillac Brougham that was a hearse. Without AC, it’s not driven much in the summer. But the car that Carter first spotted in a nearby driveway is a conversation starter.
“I sat there for a minute just drooling over it,” he recalled.
Both of them poke around town in it, forever “going picking,” he said, for what’s weird. What’s different. What’s offbeat. They’re intentional about offering a safe space so everyone feels welcome inside the shop where they spend so much time that they sleep there if it’s getting late.
“We’re building a community,” Trixie said. “We’re part of the community, but we don’t look like the community. Our coven likes to eat, drink wine and maybe make things every now and then.”
Trixie was sitting in on one of the tarot tea parties when she first met Marton.
“We became friends in that class together,” Marton said. “I remember I burped.”
“And I knew she was mine!” Trixie said.
Visit Vintage Trixie for more information on the Curiosity Faire.