Customers will find all sorts of oddities at Denver’s ‘The Terrorium Shop,’ including “preserved mini-worlds,” made of everything from animal bones, preserved reptiles, and pinned insects.

The shelves of the shop are lined with a combination of living flora and preserved bones, blending life and death into one piece of art.

Located in Denver, The Terrorium Shop is billed as Colorado’s oldest oddity shop. The business blossomed after owner Amber Hage-Ali gave her partner Ian Johnson one of her “terrariums,” a glass vessel showcasing a skull with living plants. According to Atlas Obscura, Johnson pushed Hage-ali to share it with the world. They combined their skills (Johnson was a taxidermist) and began selling the peculiar creations at markets.

The business evolved from a small booth at local craft markets in 2017 to a full-fledged brick and mortar shop by May of 2019.

As a morbid take on the modern terrarium, the terroriums combine skulls with living plants to highlight the “magical process of decay and regrowth.”

Customers of the store can even take classes on a variety of subjects, such as taxidermy, entomology, botany, and more.

The Terrorium Shop was voted as the best oddities shop in Westword’s Readers’ Choice Awards in 2024.

Learn more about The Terrorium Shop, and maybe even sign up for a class, here.

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