More to this bear than honey

Normally encountered as a squeezable dispenser, the honey bear has become a golden standard of cuteness. Now it’s showing a spicier side at two Vermont Avenue stores in Los Angeles. The familiar form has been turned into a $12 set of amber glass salt-and-pepper shakers, available at Atmosphere, (323) 666-8420. For a larger and more intriguing dining room statement, the couture glassworks company Esque of Portland, Ore., has fashioned the honey bear into a vase with an extended neck that some say looks like a bong. (It isn’t one.) The $250 handblown vase is at Show, (323) 644-1960, www.showlifestyle.com.

-- David A. Keeps