Say Hello to My Leetle Friend.

You've seen and admired and adored this chrome pig bank from the sidebar of Cococozy (read the story of her pig here). It was created by New York artist Harry Allen. Something you may not know about me is that I have a fondness for pigs and wee beasties in general (remember my guinea pig which lived to be 9 years old?) dating back to my birthplace of DeKalb, Illinois, home of Barbed Wire and Cindy Crawford (that's a whole separate post just like Texas is a whole other country).

Gold pig bank; photo James Merrell via Cococozy

An illustration of my love of pigs: When I worked in creative for Marshall Field's advertising department, I wore a Heinhold pig racing watch. (I know, how cool was I?)

Gold pig bank Elle Decor March 2010; Nate Berkus decor; photo by Mark Shaw

Now, to the point: I found this here ugly pig at Home Goods for $6.


I purchased this here chrome paint at the Farm & Fleet (actually, there is no Farm & Fleet here and I miss it so. I miss the sweet, slightly toxic smell of gasoline, fertilizer, Wrangler denim and new tires):


I sprayed that there pig like this here and voila:


Now you tell me that's not one handsome piece o' plasticized pork. It also only measures about 8 inches long and 4 1/2 inches high (whereas the original is quite large [18"Lx10"H] because it was cast using the remains of a naturally deceased* pig); perfect for my sideboard at the beach. Oh, and did I mention $6.50 + $4.50 for paint = $11.00 vs. $190.00 for Harry Allen pig bank. Now, mine's not a bank and I'm not trying to make a starving artist out of Harry, but you see my point...

*No pigs were harmed in the production of this post; however, some resin was wildly abused and spray painted into submission.