Metal and Leather Rooster
Handy Husband and I were married for eight years before we had children. In those years, we worked hard. We played hard. Our lifestyle was not conducive to having a conventional, living, breathing pet.
We did have a metal rooster though.
We even named him and I’m not embarrassed to admit that. I should be, but I’m not.
Meet Roddy.
He’s from a little farm I like to call Pier 1. Maybe you’ve heard of it?
I like Roddy. He’s a keeper.
However, sometimes when I walk by Roddy his metal tail feathers rattle and then I don’t like him very much.
No girl needs to be reminded that they are heavy-footed enough to rattle a rooster. Life has enough insecurities, dang it!
Roddy has rotated in and out of my decor scheme for at least 15 years. Recently, I was about to rotate him out when I had an epiphany.
Have you seen those metal animals at HomeGoods that are embellished with driftwood? Sometimes they are made entirely of driftwood. I like them, but I don’t need them. I thought perhaps I could embellish my rooster with some driftwood, but procuring driftwood seemed like a lot of effort.
You know what I do have? This is the epiphany part of the story…
Leather! I have tons of leather scraps that were just begging to be used for a little metal rooster makeover.
This is my version of finding out if blondes roosters with new tail feathers really do have more fun.
I cut out strips of leather and hot glued them to the rooster’s tail feathers. I could have added more, but I made a judgment call on where to stop.
Plus, I had a doozy of a hot glue burn. That dampened my enthusiasm for continuing this project, but not for how it turned out.
I’m digging the fall vibe that the leather gives to the metal rooster.
I don’t know that the metal rooster will stay this way for the next 15 years, but it was fun to switch things up and it will be easy to restore him back to his original state.
The creative challenge of using what I have on hand to refresh and reimagine items in my home invigorates me. Next time I might go the whimsical route with a bright, happy fabric on his tail feathers instead of the leather.
Who knows where the creative journey might lead…probably not across the road though.
Sorry. I couldn’t resist.
P.S. I was wrong about how hard it is to procure driftwood. You can order driftwood on Amazon
. Of course you can! Silly me.
P.P.S. I used emu leather on the rooster, so I managed to keep it all in the bird family.
If you enjoyed this post, you might like one of these leather crafts too!
Leather Map Art – Made from old boot leather
Leather Wrapped Basket Handles
Leather Wrapped Rock Paperweight
Framing Art With a Leather Mat
*affiliate links in this blog post*
2 Comments
Sandy Smith
I’ve said this so many times and I’m saying it again. “You are so creative”
I love the “new Rooster”. I liked the old one to but this brings out a different look on the old bird.
Emu Leather reminds me of when your mom was raising emu’s and decorating the eggs. You get your creativity from your mom.
annisa
You are certainly good for my self esteem. Thank you!! The emu leather was from back in the day – good memory! And, yes, she was very creative and I will happily be compared to her in that way any day!