Lindsay Kaye is woman of many talents, and I say this with the utmost confidence.

I first met Lindsay through her photography. I’m not sure how I even landed on her Instagram page originally, but I was struck by the hauntingly beautiful, yet surprisingly simple, imagery that she posted. We exchanged a few words here and there, and I often looked forward to seeing what she posted next.

Flash forward about a year, to Midsummer Scream’s Dark Holiday pop-up event at Sweet! Hollywood. I was working the event, wandering around the store, occasionally checking out a vendor’s wares, when I heard someone call my name. I turned to find Lindsay standing there, at a booth of her own, waving at me.

Having never met in person before, it was nice to chat with her throughout the day. I was surprised to learn that she was there with her latest venture: Lively Ghosts. The company, now just over a year old, creates horror and pop-culture pins, along with some incredibly awesome coffin-shaped pin boards. I had no idea she was doing that now, and was impressed with what she had done!

Considering how awesome her work is, I knew we had to showcase her for HorrorBuzz, especially because she caters to a pretty niche market that is made up of most of our readers! We met up a few weeks later, at a vegan bistro (“I’m not vegan, but they have the best vegan ice cream I’ve ever had!” she told me), to talk about her work and share her story.

For those who do not know, Lively Ghosts creates a wide variety of pins, with subjects ranging from The Shining, to Beetlejuice, spooky Disney, and more. Kaye, a huge pin collector herself, never intended for this to turn into a business.

“I had a lot of pins, and wanted a way to display them,” she told me. “I had just moved into my new apartment, and was a very crafty, DIY person, so I made a pin board for myself that had a spooky, Victorian look.” She posted a photo of it to her Instagram to show off her work, and almost immediately, had friends messaging her about it.

The pin board that started it all!

“They all wanted one!” she said, laughing. She was surprised by it, but she didn’t mind. She made an Esty, mostly for ease of keeping track of it, and for her friends to be able to find it easily. However, it kicked off something in others, and before she knew it, she was getting orders from people she didn’t know.

To help the blooming business, she wanted to create a separate Instagram account to showcase it. When I asked where the name came from, she was blatantly honest about it.

“It was my old Instagram name, so I just started re-using it,” she said. “I never thought it would take off.” Kaye always thought of herself as a lively ghost, always into the macabre and the spooky, but with a lively personality. And if you met her in person, you’d definitely agree with that assessment: she’s delightful! But the name became her brand, and was exactly what she was going for. It’s the perfect fit.

Lindsay Kaye

She started with just the ornate pin boards at first, and went the spooky route with it. She started in September 2017, and once October came around, started making coffin ones. When she would post photos, she’d showcase her own pin collection, but would often get inquires if the pins were included on the board when purchased. She felt strange selling pin boards with other people’s pins, so she decided to try it out for herself.

“I downloaded Adobe Illustrator, and taught myself how to use it,” she said. If she was going to do it, she wanted to make things that she would be interested in…and hopefully others would be, too. As a fan of Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder in their heyday, her first design was “Winona Forever,” based on Depp’s infamous tattoo. It was something she liked, but now in pin form, and that process of creating pins continues to this day.

Now, she has upwards of 75 pins, with a lot of core designs and then variants on some of them. She’s a big fan of horror, which shows in her designs, but she also likes the spooky side of Disney, so you will also find some of that in her work as well. She tries to combine those factors into every piece she makes.

However, she does stray from that mold every so often, such as with her most recent “Ready Freddie” design. She was so struck by the new film, Bohemian Rhapsody, that she wanted to create something based on it. The pin is not only fantastic, but Kaye also donates 10% of the profits to The Mercury Phoenix Trust, Freddie Mercury’s charity organization that fights HIV/AIDS worldwide. That’s not her only charitable endeavor, as she also donates a percentage of all her sales to an animal rescue.

When I asked her about her process of creating the pins, she laughed a little.

“It really depends,” she said. “Sometimes, I can go months without inspiration, and then sometimes I come up with a few at once.” Generally speaking though, once she has an idea, she makes sure no one else has done it first before she starts designing. From initial concept to getting a physical copy in her hand, though, it usually takes about a month. But I had to know more about her connection to horror in general, since it inspires her brand so much.

Like most folks growing up in Southern California, she often went to Disneyland. She credits the Haunted Mansion as her gateway into a love of horror.

“My dad would sometimes take me out of school for the day, and we’d go to Disneyland,” she laughed. “And he took me on Haunted Mansion, because he didn’t want me to be afraid of scary rides.” She said that this taught her a very valuable lesson; it’s okay to accept and appreciate the dark and macabre.

“It’s not something to be ashamed of,” she said. “We need to get rid of the norm that no one can talk about that stuff.”

She really connected to The Haunted Mansion, because no one ever really talked about it back then; it was all the bright and cheery Disney stuff. She loves it so much that, when she went to New Orleans in 2017, she got her first tattoo of the Mansion itself (and when I asked to see it, she comically struggled to take off her jacket to show me…that said, it was worth the wait, as it looks great).

She also grew up with a love of Tim Burton films, along with Danny Elfman’s music (from his film scores to Oingo Boingo).

She used to go to Knott’s Scary Farm, and watch the scare actors in Ghost Town.

“I just loved how they scared! From the sliders to the clickers on their hands, I was interested in how they crafted their horror,” she said.

She found the horror community in her 20s, and loved meeting new people within it.

“I didn’t even know horror conventions were a thing!” she joked. Her first was the initial Midsummer Scream, and she loved being surrounded by everything there.

Kaye was also struck by how open and welcoming the community is. Horror fans are very warm, and now that she is in the pin-making one as well, she feels the same way about them.

“Small businesses help each other out. They talk to each other, they share sources, and it’s very collaborative,” she said. In fact, lots of people have reached out to her for collaborations. A company that she has long admired reached out to her recently as well, and she was very humbled by it.

“It’s a pretty warm, inspiring feeling that people care about what I put out there,” she told me.

Though it’s a lot of work, especially during the Halloween season, Lively Ghosts isn’t her full time job. However, if everything fell into place, she wouldn’t hesitant to jump right in. She loves to be creative, and if she had that freedom with no barriers, she would have a lot of passion for it.

She mentioned that the Midsummer Scream Dark Holiday event I saw her out was her very first time selling her pins in public.

“I didn’t think I was worthy of doing something like that,” she told me. “But I met so many people, so many came up wearing the pins I designed. They told me they loved my work, and I was just awestruck.” Even just hearing her talk about it warmed my heart.

Kaye’s designs are all fantastic, and I really feel that horror fans will get a kick out of her work. In addition, she really is incredibly sweet all around, and one of the most passionate horror fans I have met.

Be sure to visit her online at livelyghosts.com, and make sure to say hello if you see her at the various conventions this year!