How to Destroy a Perfectly Nice Manicure (or Giving a New Life to an Old Turkey... and I'm not talking about Jason)

As many of you know, I lost a dear ceramic family member in the last move. My beautiful majolica turkey was shattered and while my mom replaced it with a gorgeous one (totally obsessed with my new one), I couldn't help but to still feel super sad about the damage. When I got out my Thanksgiving decor a few weeks ago (let's be honest... it was October 31st), I found the shards of my majolica turkey in a box. Who keeps a broken turkey? I thought that since I still had the pieces, I'd take a stab at reviving it (and I had lots of spackle left over from my mirror project). Here goes!

I used super glue to put the bird back together, although it was NOT a perfect outcome. Jason said that I should've taken pictures of the broken bird, because he couldn't believe that I could get it all back together. I felt proud, since he seemed so totally impressed with my skills. Looking back on it, he may have just been glad that the broken pieces were no longer strewn all over the kitchen island. I'm going with the idea that he was totally impressed with me...

Secondly, I filled the gaps with lots of hot glue and smoothed the varying surfaces from the shotty glueing job.

Next, I used the spackling to give the bird a little texture. I especially masked the areas where the hot glue looked a little sloppy. I also accentuated the feathers and tufts, trying to give it a "hand built" sort of quality. My final goal is to make the bird look like an old terra cotta creation with maybe even a little moss growth here and there. I love the old French pottery that I have and think he'll look fine nestled next to some of those pieces.
 

I sprayed the bird with some Krylon Stone spray paint. It comes in several colors, but I chose the light color, as I'm going to paint it a terra cotta color later...

Here is a close up of the texture that the stone spray is adding. Next coat in an hour or so!

After the stone spray, I added two coats of primer, which really helped seal everything and make it look more solid (less chalky).

I added the terra cotta color, using 3 different paint colors (orange, brown and an ocre tone).

Lastly, I added a light dry brushing of a cream color and hit the high spots, then a mossy green color in some of the areas that might have had contact with the ground (to add authenticity of the "old" terra cotta pot look) and a few flicks of the same green. I noticed that my older pots have these unique color and texture patterns and I tried to mimic that look.

The finished product! I'm so glad that I never threw all those shards away! Who knew?!?!