Friday, December 31, 2010

"Home Grown" figurines

It seems I have yet to get cute, goofy hybrid things out of my system, because I really feel like posting about these ceramic animal/vegetable monstrosities by Enesco. You may have seen them in Hallmark stores or other fancy gift shops, and they're pretty well done for what they are:



Zucchini Frog is a typical example of a "Home Grown" figurine and exactly what its name implies. The textures on these things are sometimes eerily realistic.

I like to think the flower attracts its insect prey.





Both of these are supposed to represent penguins, though the pears are a little more abstract. They just kind of look like googly-eyed alien sack monsters, until somebody explains them to you. I like that.



Pea caterpillars. Do they metamorphose into something? I don't think there are any moths or butterflies yet.



MUSHROOM SNAIL. How is that not the cutest thing you've ever seen?



Mushroom ray, at a distance, really just looks like a ray swimming over a coral reef, then you get up close and realize it's made all out of fungus and plants. Weird.



Grape Walrus needs no further elaboration.



Corn Armadillo: the only corn I could ever not find disgusting.



Like the penguins, it's hard to tell these bean sprouts are supposed to be snakes. They could also pass as tadpoles, worms or spermatozoa.





Cephalopods!!! The banana octopus is interesting in that, again, you kinda have to be told what it is. I'd have just thought hey, a banana peel with a face. Radish "cuttlefish" (looks more like a squid) is more distinctly squidlike, but in a subtle enough way that you might just think it's a little statue of a radish.

That's probably the best thing about some of these; they make absolutely no sense by themselves. If you collect and display them together they make a reasonable amount of sense, but if you own JUST a stingray made out of a mushroom, you're probably going to look a bit strange.