Delightful Discoveries - Send in the Clowns 08.01.10

When my daughter was a toddler, we often used to go to a certain restaurant on "family night", when the kids ate at a reduced rate and they would bring in a clown to do those cute little balloon animals. As said clown would approach our table, the boys would happily anticipate the chance to get a balloon sculpture and Angela would scream and cry and generally be terrified until the clown left. And then she'd be watching him out of the corner of her eye to make sure he wasn't coming back. To this day, and she's 23 now, I think she's still not crazy about clowns.

I guess I never really thought about it back then, but clowns must truly be terrifying to young children. I could understand nasty mean clowns like Pennywise from Stephen King's It fame... but I guess if some weird looking humanoid with a crazy colored face and weird hair stuck their nose in my face, I probably wouldn't react very happily either, especially if I didn't know what it was all about. I'm even thinking that parents shouldn't expose young children to clowns, because it could be a worse experience than most adults realize, simply because young children react best to things that are comfortable to them... which clowns are not.

But since I'm not a young child and I'm guessing you're probably not either - we're more likely to enjoy clowns - even the evil mean ones in some quirky contradictory way. So, in honor of National clown week, I present to you some of my choices from the (somewhat limited) selection of clowns on Etsy!

Audreysoriginals, another relative newcomer to Etsy, offers a great selection of handpainted home decor items, among which is this sweet little Clown egg for the clown aficianado. Did you know that there were four different categories of clown characters? This type of clown would fit into the "whiteface" clown category for the most obvious reason - his face is painted entirely white! It'd be pretty hard to be afraid of this adorable happy faced clown, now wouldn't it?


JessMadeThis is back to share these cute little Clown Thank You Tags which would be perfect for party favors or just to say thank you in a cheerful way! This type of clown sort of fits into the character clown category - these clowns often portray an occupation or parody a well know character.


When I was little, several TV shows featured the third category of clowns, the hobo clown or tramp. I remember watching the Red Skeleton show and looking forward to the antics of Freddie the Freeloader, and loving the Bozo show with Sandy the Tramp! TopNotchBits offers this delightful Hobo Joe the surly tramp ceramic figurine that has a dual purpose - you can store goodies in his saggy pants or even turn him into a planter! (Which might explain why he's a bit surly!


The last type of clown is the Auguste clown, the most comedic of clowns and the type you are likely to find in a circus. With facial features exaggerated against a more skin tone background, you'll also find his antics more exaggerated and slapstick than other clowns. This Portrait of a Clown - Oil Painting by bbbcab portrays this legendary clown type beautifully!


I guess I'm done clowning around for right now! I'll be back a little later with my customary first of the month post about all things August, so save a few minutes out of your busy schedule to rejoin me later today! Tomorrow I'll be featuring some wonderful bright red creations as my feature of the day returns to a color theme. So show me your best red items - simply take a minute to click here to e-mail me the link.

Enjoy your Sunday... and I hope to see you here a little later to learn a bit about August facts and folklore!