North American Rough Skinned Newts

These are North American Rough Skinned Newts in pure olive oil, brought to you by The Happy Medium.  The inside label states, “Loaded full of tetrodotoxin our newts are sure to cause paralysis and even death if used properly.  A must have for any Zombification ritual. “

Rough Skinned Newts are not only adorable, they are highly toxic.  Tetrodotoxin can indeed cause paralysis and death.  Whether or not you can use it to make zombies hasn’t been proven, but luckily my potions don’t fall under FDA regulations. 

I imagine The Happy Medium is just that, a cheery sort that prefers tea leaves and tarot cards, but she has a crystal ball on display, because clients like to see that sort of thing.  This potions bit is just something she does on the side out of her kitchen, which works out quite well except for that unfortunate incident with the ingredients mix-up while making tea cakes for the church bake sale. 

I also imagine she has a penchant for decorating with doilies, which probably explains the label.  It’s all pink and purple with swirly flowers and starry fonts, which by the way is 101! Star Lit Nght by Nght’s Place. 

I like to repurpose cereal boxes for folded labels.  They are just the right thickness and they already have nice straight folds along the sides.  I used a 1/8” hole punch, with some raffia to attach it to the bottle.

For newts I used soft plastic fishing bait. They reacted with the floral water gel and infused it with their beautiful green hue, but they also curled up, shrunk and sunk to the bottom.