The Rooster Bead

OK, this is my last *brand* new bead before I open my store. I have to make repeats of two other beads, but hopefully, they will take less time.

step 1: mix colors

step 2: make tear-drop-shaped logs

This rooster bead was so much fun to make. I researched colorful rooster paintings before I settled on a color scheme and design.  The rooster itself, is made with what I call, a painter technique. I don't think it has an official name, but you use many different shades of clay and put them together like a painter uses different strokes to paint a picture. It is actually quite simple and after I mixed the colors and shaped them into tear drop shapes, I was done assembling the rooster in no time.

Step 3: rough draft of rooster

Step 4: Rooster finished

After the rooster was finished, I couldn't bare leaving it with a boring all white background. There was just so much space to be filled and so much potential! I decided on Polish folk art flowers called Wycinanki flowers that are made by cutting paper.  You often see roosters in folk art and Wycinanki, so it was a natural fit.

Polish paper cutting flowers (Wycinanki).  Do you spot the flowers I used?

Step 5: Make flowers

I spent one day making the flowers- not too complicated. Then I spent the whole next day arranging them into the crevices of this rooster! I did not anticipate the work and thought involved with fitting them in just right. In the end, it was worth it.

Step 6: Add flowers to rooster

Finished bead and 25 week pregnant belly- not to mention a huge mess.  All in a day's work- or several.

This bead is so me. I'm attracted to colorful things like a moth to the flame.  Don't be surprised if you see this bead on an entire line of products- pins, earrings, hair pins, pendants, and bracelets- that is when I get around to it.

Rooster canes- reduction process

Next week, I open my shop, start our homeschooling year and direct a Montessori classroom (for which I have no experience or training) one day a week at our homeschool coop.  Life is good. My new motto is "Keep Calm and Pray the Rosary" It's the only way I'm not freaking out right now.

P.S. The rooster is traditionally a symbol of the resurrection.  Honestly, I see it more as a symbol of God's mercy, but  
this website has a very nice bit about the rooster as a symbolize vigilance: 

At the time of the Revolution in France, the Rooster was a sign of resistance and strength. Churches in France were often adorned with the symbol of a Rooster to symbolize Vigilance, as the Rooster crows to greet the rising Sun. There is a powerful Christian symbolism here too:  Just as the Rooster crows to greet the rising of the Sun, the Christian watches and cries out to greet the rising SON of God, Jesus, the Risen Lord. The symbol of the Rooster may also be a little reminder by the French Catholic Church to the Catholic Church in Rome that even Saint Peter denied Christ three times on the night of Jesus’ arrest (and then the Rooster crowed), so all Christians should be alert, lest they deny Christ in their lives.