From Garden Gnomes to Phenome- GNOMES!

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Welcome, fellow believers, to PhenomeGNOME.com -- your new home on the Web for everything gnomic! According to aficionados (and there are plenty), garden gnomes are merely the most common (and popular) variety of a race of wee folk who originated in Scandinavia and Siberia, but are now found throughout the world. Should you be strolling about some dewy garden one morning and happen to spot a tiny pipe smoking gentleman peering out of the hedge, don't doubt your senses: you've simply been fortunate enough to encounter a garden gnome. These good-natured magical folk enjoy humans, but tend to be reclusive -- so if you catch sight of one, count yourself as fortunate. Related to elves, sprites, and other faeries, these little chaps resemble miniature bearded humans, and can be distinguished by their ubiquitous pointed red hats.

After all, no one has ever proven that the wee folk don't exist...
And as any good scientist will admit,
absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

We're passionate about YOUR Gnomes!

We invite you to share your gnome experiences! If you've got gnome stories, photos, or encounters to share, we'd like to hear about them. We're especially interested in learning how and why you got started gnoming, and we'd love to do profiles of prominent gnomers. Trust with us with everything gnomic, and we'll put it all up here for the world to see. Got a gnomie on your desk? Send us a picture. Take your little buddy traveling with you – we want to see that too. It's all good!

At PhenomeGNOME.com we like to think of gnome figurines as mere representations of the real "little people", the same way that Michelangelo's famous David statues are representatives of the Biblical giant-killer. All those yard gnome statues by famous gnome-makers like Kimmel, Gare, Hummel, Goebel, Tom Clark, and Tim Wolfe: they're monuments to gnomic accomplishments and culture. We like to believe that they really are out there, helping animals and plant life, and otherwise making the world a better place. Maybe someday, we'll get lucky and enter the garden just in time to see a wee foot disappear behind the hedge, accompanied by a tiny trail of pipe smoke.

Are these tiny folk real?

True believers realize the wonderful wee folk described above should exist, if only to make the world a happier place, but sadly there are (egad!) skeptics! You see, scientists have never been able to capture one to prove their existence to the world (as if any self-respecting gnome would allow himself to be seen by a non-believer!). Those of us who truly understand them know they are very good at hiding and some believe they can turn themselves into mushrooms when they suspect a non-believer is lurking about. In fact, the next time you see a wee red hat – you will no doubt see a mushroom very nearby.

Back in the olden days these wee folk guarded treasure, and even helped clod-footed humans find the occasional vein of gold; these days, as natural treasures decline in number and the gnome population rises, they're generally satisfied to dig a little house in the back of a congenial human's yard, and raise their cute little gnome babies (which are always born in pairs). Now, it's possible to mistake them for other, similar little people. For example, you may mistake one for a dwarf at first glance, given his long beard and propensity for pipe smoking. However, compared to a dwarf, they are small indeed, given that the average male never exceeds eight inches -- hence their nickname, the wee folk. And don't forget his red hat, which will easily bring his height to about a foot or so. The wee folk are about the same size as fairies, then, but of course they lack the wings.

Oh, make no mistake: you can see gnome groups and singletons in lawns and gardens throughout the world, but they're figurines: statues erected in homage to gnomes and their culture, mere representations made of ceramic, bisque, resin, and plastic, standing tall (or as tall as they can) through wind, rain, snow, and all kinds of weather. The best gnome statues are made of cement and terracotta, or fired ceramics and can last for many years before they're retired.

Gnome on!