Vampires and Wunderkammer

Work was pretty much dead at the library today, so I hid up in the stacks and found a bunch of awesome-looking books on vampires while hanging around the anthropology section. (Which I was so not doing in order to stalk certain professors that I am so not stalking. Just so you know.)

Why vampires? [Insert some witty anti-Twilight comment]. I just started research for my next wunderkammer, a Prof. Blomberg-style Vampire Killing Kit. I did a couple sketches in my Japanese notes, but I'm not sure how big/intricate I want it to be as of yet. (Either way, more fun than the research I'm supposed to be doing. Paper due Monday about Sailor Moon as an extended metephor for puberty? Ick.)
I'm thinking of constructing a basic killing kit, then making it look as though it was been gradually adapted into a research kit instead. There'll still be the basic protective elements (garlic, rosary, holy water, cemetry earth), but the gun and stakes will have been replaced with notes and maps, phials of blood and stolen coffin keys. Even the traditional Blomberg label will be partially obscured with a tacked up sketch.
It looks like I won't be able to buy materials until at least June, which is a bummer, but I can probably do a lot of the paper aspects without having the box itself.

What is a wunderkammer?
Technically, it refers to a cabinet of curiousities (according to wikipedia), but in this case, it's what I call a decorative box or case full of fake machinery, specimens, research, paraphenalia, etc. Basically a sculpture, in that it serves no practical purpose, but resembling a complex either futuristic, antiquated or impossible utilitarian item. I used to build little steampunk machines in cigar boxes that my dad called "kunst und wunderkammer", German for "art and wonder cabinets", and the term got shortened over time.
I'm not sure what other more legit makers call them, but they've been quite popular recently on the internet. British artist Alex CF makes beautiful cryptozoology displays that are sort of along the same lines (only gorgeous and well-made and expensive and actual art).

Meh. I should go eat something before heading off to class. Whoever invented evening seminars should... I don't know-- bad things should happen to them.

On a happier note, Boston Comic Con this weekend!