A Blue Rooster tale........................by Carolyn H

HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUIMPER CLUB BLOG!

We are celebrating our First Anniversary here at QCI and Carolyn's Blue Rooster restoration tale is our 150th post.

To mark the occasion we are giving away a beautiful heart shaped necklace, from Henriot Bijoux, to one lucky visitor. Click here to find out more about this lovely piece.

Just leave a comment on this 150th Blue Rooster post, between now and the end of February, and your name will go into the draw.

The winners name will be selected at random on the last day of this month.

We're spreading the joy through blogland by linking to 3 of our favourite meme's today.

Mosaic Monday @ Mary's the little red house, Smiling Sally's Blue Monday gathering and Metamorphosis Monday over at Susan's Between Naps On The Porch.

Be sure to go and visit these very gracious hostesses who do such a wonderful job of inspiring us to blog, but not before you have left a comment here to partcipate in our giveaway.

Blogmistress, Maggie

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Here's Carolyn's Blue Rooster tale..........................

A number of years ago a dealer in antiques came into my studio with an earthenware rooster that he had purchased at auction. He had determined that the bird had value, even though it was apparent that it had sustained a considerable amount of damage in the past and had been poorly restored.
The gentleman had purchased it for resale and wanted it properly restored. After thorough examination, I gave him an estimate of price and an explanation of what would be done to bring the rooster back to its original appearance. He grimaced, then went on to explain that he had paid more than he had anticipated after being caught up in a bidding war over the bird. He concluded that, with the additional restoration charge, it would be highly unlikely that he could make a reasonable profit on resale.
His next question was "Would you be interested in it?" I told him that I couldn't afford to buy it outright, but I would consider a trade for other restoration work. We came to an amicable agreement.
The poor, dishevelled bird sat on my "to do" shelf for the next two years. I was too busy restoring for others to work on a piece that now belonged to me!

When we moved to North Florida four years ago, the rooster came with us in a cardboard box. Over the next several months, as I slowly worked to put my studio back together and re-establish myself, I found that I could take the time to work on my rooster. It was to reveal several surprises!

My first job was to thoroughly clean the bird of all foreign matter (dirt, paint and old glue). Much of the original face was missing and had been replaced with plaster of Paris by the original restorer. There were multiple chips and missing parts along the back and tail. Both legs were broken and had been fitted with unnecessary metal armatures, adding to the damage, these were removed.

All original useable pieces were then bonded back. I then hand sculpted and added back all of the missing parts using a two part epoxy putty, tinting it to match the color of the earthenware body. The rooster was coming to life!

The final step was to paint back all of the newly restored areas to match the original design and glaze finish. My restoration was complete.

This final restoration took approximately sixteen hours to complete but he was well worth it! He now has a place of prominence atop our dining room hutch and fits quite nicely with my collection of Quimper and Country primitives.