Years ago, I saw a show about a woman who made her home a sort of shrine to Precious Moments figurines. She had custom cabinets built for them and everything. I remember being horrified that someone would devote such incredible resources to Precious-freaking-Moments.
Many years later, enter my hero: Canadian artist Keith Busher aka the Precious Mutator. As his artist name suggests, Keith takes old Precious Moments figurines and morphs them into hideous mutations. Yes!
Apartment Therapy:
Though he initially shied away from toying with Precious Moments because he didn’t want to upset anyone (and, practically speaking, because people aren’t in the habit of discarding those particular figurines very often), Busher says he hit the jackpot when he found out a local antique shop had an entire box of Precious Moments it was looking to offload. “The Precious Moments pieces tend to get the biggest audiences as they are so recognizable,” he says. “Everyone knows somebody who had this piece or that one.”
Busher uses a self-hardening clay and mostly recycled materials to transform each figurine. And he takes his time. “I’ve learned that I can make pieces quickly, but I won’t be happy when it’s done,” he says. “I often add things that don’t get seen, several layers of paint to get that right feeling of depth.” He talks more about his process on his newly created YouTube channel.
Want one of his creations? Head on over to his Etsy shop.
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4 new mutants up on our #etsy page!
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It’s nearly impossible to go anywhere these days without tripping over a Funko Pop. The vinyl toys have taken the pop culture world by storm, with characters ranging from Star Wars and Game of Thrones to Rick and Morty and RuPaul’s Drag Race. They’ve been referred to as “Precious Moments for Generation X,” and there could be some truth to that. Like Jason’s purchase of a single Mr. Rogers Pop, I once purchased a single Pop of Jax Teller from Sons of Anarchy, with the intention of never buying any others.
300+ Pops later...
With all the madness surrounding Funko, Precious Moments decided it didn’t want to be left out of the nostalgia game. You remember what the figurines look like, right? Those sugary cute pastel colored ceramic figurines of little kids and old couples? Well, these figurines are coming straight out of Saturday detention. Cue Simple Minds.
My first reaction when I saw this was to feel very old. After all, The Breakfast Club is one of the defining movies of my adolescence, which doesn't feel that freaking long ago. The second was to see if I had any extra shelf space. Precious Moments also offers a set of Princess Bride characters and one of Marty McFly from Back to the Future. A Golden Girls set is rumored to be in the design stages. And speaking of the Golden Girls, the merchandise license to the 80’s NBC comedy is red hot right now. Just over the past few months, we’ve seen Golden Girls Monopoly, Clue, Trivial Pursuit, Funko Pops and Dorbz, t-shirts and even hot sauce.
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