Bling + Taxidermy = BLINGIDERMY
What do you get when you cross taxidermy with sparkly crystals? Well, Blingidermy, of course! Everyone knows that. Don't they?
Probably not. I know I didn’t until I found out yesterday that one of my co-workers blings out taxidermied fish.
Yes. FISH.
It’s something uniquely Louisianan, I think. Or maybe it’s just uniquely Courtney Williams, which is probably more likely. But she lives in Louisiana, so either one works.
I don’t own any taxidermy myself, but I’ve been exposed to the weird and wonderful world of bizarrely stuffed animals by way of Jenny “The Bloggess” Lawson. She’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and definitely one of the weirdest. Which is awesome.
Her odd taxidermy collection ranges from the adorable Toates MaGoates to Rory, the lovable mascot for her latest bestseller, “Furiously Happy”. It’s like the Island of Misfit Toys at her place, but for crazy dead things instead of trains with square wheels or a Charlie-in-the-Box.
Which is exactly what I thought of when I first saw one of Courtney’s creations: that it would fit right in with anything in Jenny’s collection. Which is a really big compliment, if you understand how awesome weird things are.
What started with Courtney’s harmless infatuation with the HGTV series “Junk Gypsies” quickly turned into an obsession for taking old junk and making it new again. Or at least sparkly.
She blinged her first fish after local radio legend Dale Mann gave her an old, dusty, worn-out stuffed bass I guess he just had lying around as people do, and told her to make something out of it.
So she did. And Blingidermy was born.
She’s added sparkly crystals to all kinds of fish, from the old bass she made spectacular, to…well, a bunch of other kinds of fish that I don’t know the names of because shut up, I’m not a fisherman. But they’re all impressive.
Of course, she doesn’t limit her weird and wonderful gift to only fish. She’s also blinged out other things like deer and alligator skulls, because of course she has. Now I want one. I never knew how much I needed a sparkly gator skull in my life until I found out they existed.
In fact, one of my favorite things she’s done doesn’t have anything at all to do with making dead fish sparkle, but at least it’s still crazy taxidermy. And I love it.
Check out the work she did on this poor deer she found that was in desperate need of a makeover.
Lipstick? Check.
Adorable hair bow? You bet.
Spectacular feather eyebrows? Right on.
She even threw in some pearls because, come on. Sometimes, a lady likes to feel special.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. She put makeup on a boy against his wishes, but we don’t know this doe’s story. Maybe she had unusually high testosterone levels and grew antlers when she was in deer middle school that all the other fawns made fun of, so now she’s owning it. Or maybe this buck just identifies as a doe.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter, as long as she’s happy. Which she clearly is. I mean, look at that face.
JUST LOOK AT IT.