It's buy a new calendar season

October 8, 2024 4:58 AM

Can you recommend me a calendar based on interests below? I usually buy a couple for my office, the kitchen, and sometimes for my daughter. These are all good options but I get EXHAUSTED looking through Amazon and aggregated calendar sites, and I would like something good, not the love child of AI and clip art. I want good art, useful info if given, decent paper.... Also if you know a good source that makes good calendars interested in those two; I just thought something here might spark a memory for someone.

Some examples, not of actual titles, but stuff that would be interesting. For geographically relevant stuff we are in New England/North East.

Native pollinators of New England (that includes the weird little ones)
Crystalline structures (metal, ice, chocolate, whatever)
Naturally occurring stone or gemstones of New England
Spices from around the world
Endangered species of New England
Practical witchcraft
Abstract art by women
Calendars that focus on single plant groups: Dahlias, nasturtiums, herbs/spices, New England wild flowers
The cuisine of Thailand/SE asia, North Africa, or Sicily
Trees of New England
Common Birds of New England
Mushrooms/foraging stuff esp with illustrated spore prints
Gorgeous Catholic art (my daughter is drawn to it--the spectacle of it all)
Native ferns
Native sedges (good luck, try to identify a sedge on first glance)

Also anything super nerdy - Twelve months of brain structures! Anatomical structure of the month!

posted by A Terrible Llama to Grab Bag (6 answers total)

I would check out the gift shops at your favorite museums! Many have ones from their own collections, but even when they don’t they often carry ones from great imprints (that will absolutely be factual, almost always informative in some way, and not AI). Not all museums have an online gift store, but many do.
posted by seemoorglass at 5:12 AM on October 8

I can't believe I'm recommending The Wolf Creek Printery for the second time in as many weeks. Wonderful, thick paper, nature and scenic views. I'd say it's less specific than you're looking for, and more on the artistic side. Other than being scenes from West Virginia, there's not really a theme, which you seem to be interested in. So it might show pollinators, and ferns, and so on, but not as a theme.

The wooden two-post calendar hangar you can buy is very nice. As I said elsewhere, it was on my wall growing up, and it's on my wall now.
posted by AbelMelveny at 5:23 AM on October 8

Geographically, I'm not quite in the right area for you, but I've loved calendars from all of these:
Wander Gather's Great Lakes Native Plants
Studio 13's Keweenaw Calendar
Vatican Observatory Calendar
Kalamazoo Calendar Project
posted by hessie at 6:15 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]

Sent you a MeMail!
posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:12 AM on October 8

In addition to local museums, your local nature sanctuary (example of the one local to me) may have a great gift shop as well. Here's the Massachusetts Audubon chapter as an example. Based on my local nature store (which I volunteer for), the online shop is only going to have a small fraction of what's actually available in the physical store. We've already put out a bunch of 2025 calendars, many on the topics you listed! Illustrators such as Charley Harper and Molly Hashimoto also have new calendars every year. Another fave of mine.
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:37 AM on October 8

My large, local independent bookstore has an outstanding calendar selection, as does my local independent, smallish grocery store. I recommend a bookstore or museum.
posted by bluedaisy at 11:04 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]