I have been so excited to make this guy!!

I love the barnyard for inspiration, don't you? I made a cow pumpkin and pig pumpkins and I made my 5 year old granddaughter a unicorn pumpkin so I was looking at roosters and said to myself, 'why not'?

Getting the colors just right was a bit challenging though. At first I painted the rooster neck half orange and half red. Then I changed it to all red. Then a friend said, you changed the colors. So I changed it back from all red to half orange and half red. I'll show both so you can decide which you like better.

This picture is the half orange and half red...

Isn't he beautiful!?

He's made from a gourd and an heirloom type pumpkin. I think he came out fantastic. I'd rate this a fairly easy craft, a little painting and boom, you can fool the eye. It does look like a rooster, right?

This looks complicated but it really wasn't. Picking out the right size gourds to make the chicken and rooster took some time at the garden shop though. The gourd for the hen could have been a little fatter. Other than that I think the proportions are right. We used to have chickens when my oldest was little. Lots of fun chasing them around to get them back in their enclosure at night. Lol

Here are some of the gourds. I think the pumpkins are the heritage pumpkins. They are flatter and less tall which is perfect.

To connect them together glue isn't going to do it so I had some very stiff wire that was perfect for inserting into the gourd and then the pumpkin to hold it up. Run on sentence.. there.

I just stuck the wire in the gourd and then stuck it in the pumpkin and it holds up really well. I had to cut the gourd on the bottom first.

Then I painted the hen and rooster. I made the combs out of red felt. Believe me, it didn't take long. I cut zigzags for the tops of the combs and then gathered the bottom part and glued it together with hot glue to make it stay. I could have sewn them but I didn't want to do that much work.

Here's  Ace, one of our dogs... he's such a beautiful dog..

Ace next to the morning glories that took over the lamppost... don't ask where the flowers are.. underneath all the greenery. I think I over fertilized them.

I lifted up the hen and look what I found!!!

Actually, these are real chicken eggs. My daughter gave them to me tonight and I thought it would be fun to put them on here. She ended up with the hen. I kept the rooster.

I glued the combs on - oh  and the small dangly things under the beaks were made with red felt also and glued with hot glue.

I used raffia for the tail of the rooster and feathers for the tail of the hen. Easy peasy...

Originally I left the pumpkin its natural color for the rooster but then decided it really didn't "fool the eye" enough... you know trompe l'oeil. Actually, trompe l'loeil is an art technique that creates an optical illusion to make objects (2 dimensional paintings) appear three dimensional.

This is the really red rooster...

So then, when I decided to paint the pumpkin on the rooster it was painted several different colors. Finally, I settled on an orangey red color.

I also made an owl pumpkin that's pretty cute, too.

OH, and if you haven't seen my turkey cheeseball for Thanksgiving, here he is.

Have a wonderful Fall season, my friends and much love to you,

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