If Life Gives You Broken Chickens...

If you accidently knock a cute little pottery chicken from a high shelf and try to catch it as it bounces across the counterops, do you...

a) Cry while you wonder if you have a box that is the right size to bury your poor chicken in the backyard?

b) Stare at your broken chicken and sigh heavily (repeat as necessary)?

c) Look at this as an opportunity to create the chicken of your dreams?

d) All of the above

Ohhhh...my poor little chicken. What shall I do with you?

First I'll apply two coats of gesso as primer.

Then a coat of black acrylic paint.

Ladybug chicken, anyone? I'll draw on a design with chalk and then paint... red (the ladybug phase), green (the strawberry phase), and then blue and white.

Then I'll add eyes from a Dover clip art moon and enhance with a white paint marker. Little chicken is feeling much better now!

But something is missing! Every chicken needs a nest. I need an "easy" way to bend wire back and forth. Maybe this board and nails will work?

Ummm... that's not such a pretty nest. There must be a better way.

What if I just pinch the coil of wire like so?

Oh, that's so much better!

Now for a little shaping...

A little pistachio green spray paint, a little poof of sawdust, a little more spray paint... AND little chicken has a nest!

Don't you look so handsome in your new nest with painted box to match?!

Voila! A chicken is reborn!

Do YOU have any worn or broken objects around your house that you could refurbish?

Lately everything I see if a project waiting to happen... from the stuff hiding in boxes in my basement to the neighbor's worn out wicker chairs put out for the garbage collector.

I'd love to see any reworked pieces that you do. I started a Flickr group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/1151465@N24/) for sharing. Please feel free to join and share your work too!