If you invite Montreal artist Michaela Snoyer over for dinner, don’t expect a typical host gift. While bottles of wine and fresh flowers are nice, Snoyer opts for the spectacular: a molded centerpiece made out of butter.
Butter sculpture has a long history. Snoyer doesn’t claim to have invented anything, but her methods and technique are novel. She eschews the folk art rosettes and floral motifs of traditional wood-carved butter presses, opting for the cheeky, contemporary, and deliberately funny that range between the ribald and mundane. She makes butter toothbrushes, butter stilettos, butter diamonds, and butter remote controls.
“The butter butt plug is a crowd favorite,” she says. Sometimes she’ll add a wick, transforming the sculpture into a free-standing candle that, once lit, melts into a pool of yellow as dinner progresses.
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She documents her creations on her Instagram account @smorgava. Smorgava means “butter gift” in Swedish, in honor of her Swedish grandmother, for whom Snoyer first made her first butter sculptures. Snoyer doesn’t sell her creations. “They’re specifically for providing an experience for my friends. It’s a funny thing. At this point when I show up for dinner, I always have a butter sculpture. That’s why I make so many of them.” She says.
When I first came across Snoyer’s account, I immediately understood the appeal. A butt plug made of butter wields a potent charm and charisma that is frankly, undeniable. And her elegant taper-shaped butter candles are a far cry from the ungainly clods of lit butter you see all over TikTok.
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