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The artist who created Precious Moments figurines may want to hide his eyes. The porcelain figures — long associated with words like “adorable” and “heartwarming” and, well, “precious” — have been given a makeover. And their new look may shock you.
Canadian artist Keith Busher has taken the oh-so-sweet faces that grace these popular figurines and transformed them into the stuff of nightmares. He calls his works “Precious Mutations” and he shares his artwork on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and in his Etsy store where you can buy greeting cards and T-shirts with images of his mutated creations.
He basically turns the sweet figurines into gruesome undead creatures, as in the case of this sweet-girl-turned-zombie, posted to Facebook:
So delightfully disturbing!
Around since the late 1970s, the Precious Moments figurines were originally designed by Sam Butcher. He created them as religious-themed gifts people could give to friends and family. They exploded in popularity and have been incredibly collectible in the decades since.
The current owners of the Precious Moments brand are Butcher’s children. And while you’d think they’d be horrified by this repurposing of their father’s work, Butcher’s daughter doesn’t seem too upset. On the contrary, she seems absolutely thrilled.
In a comment on Instagram in 2019, Debbie Butcher wrote to the Precious Mutations artist that she loves his art. As one of the present owners of the Precious Moments brand, she explained that she has sample figurines she can’t sell to the public — and she would love to give them to Busher.
“I can’t think of a better donation for these samples than to a fellow artist!” she wrote in her comment.
Busher told Country Living that he started Precious Mutations after taking a trip to a local thrift store with his daughters. He spotted one of the Precious Moments pieces and was struck with inspiration.
Busher says it can take months for him to complete one figurine because of the attention to detail. This one looks like it got a complete makeover, from head to … scythe:
Some could argue that Precious Moments figurines are already creepy, in their own way. For example, the figurine in this Facebook post features two children getting married:
In giving the wedding scene a sinister twist, maybe Busher actually made it less weird!
We think these Precious Mutations figurines are super scary — and brilliant! We look forward to future works of horror from this artist.
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