Butter sculpture. It’s a thing.

It may have started with Caroline Shawk Brooks (1840 – 1913) who is America’s first known butter sculptor. Early on, she showed artistic talent and won her first award (a gold medal for her sculpture of wax flowers) at the age of twelve. A career in art, however, was not regarded as an appropriate activity for a young woman in the 19th century. Instead, she married railroad engineer and moved from Memphis, Tennessee to a farm in Arkansas.

She noticed that the wives of other dairy farmers were making pretty butter patties using molds in floral patterns, but Caroline thought in big terms. Using what dairy farmers had on hand because sculpting tools were too expensive, Caroline sculpted her first butter sculptures in 1867 with common butter-paddles, broom straws, and cedar sticks; she had found a way to supplement the family income by charging the public twenty five cents to watch her work when the farm’s cotton crop failed.

Caroline paused to raise a daughter and tend to her farm chores, but returned to sculpting her butter creations when she crafted a bas relief for her local church. It was so popular that people visited the church from other states just to see it, and the sale of the piece earned the church enough money to fix its roof. One visitor even paid her to create a large butter sculpture of Mary Queen of Scots. As Caroline turned to traditional materials to sculpt, her fame grew. No stranger to fame (Caroline’s father, Abel Shawk, had invented the first fire engine powered by steam), she was unfazed by giving lectures and demonstrating her skill, and toured many cities to do both.

Caroline died in 1913, but her craft survives. Each year, hundreds of pounds of butter are plastered on wire frames to create sculptures made entirely from butter and displayed at exhibitions. In one such expo sponsored by the Massachusetts Dairy Promotion Board, over 600 pounds of butter are used for these creations. One such piece included a Poodle which you see here.

For those who lack the time or ambition to sculpt their dog breed out of butter, the internet is filled with sites where one can purchase molds, and to our knowledge, molds for chocolate and soap may also be used for butter. From Pugs, Great Danes, and Collies to Rottweilers and Poodles (additional breeds may also be found here), you’d be surprised how much mileage a breed “junkie” with a bit of time can get out of a mold.