Industrial Light Bulb Transforms into Turkey

Somewhere on the blogosphere, I saw a really cute project where a crafter made a turkey out of a burned out light bulb. I really wanted to try it out, but all we have in our house are those weird squiggly CFL bulbs. When I was at work, our maintenance guy was changing out these huge industrial light bulbs in our shop area and I asked if I could have one.

He gave me the stink eye like he was wondering if I was planning to make a bong out of it or something. Actually, it would make a really nice bong if you removed the insides, but that is a different kind of post for a different kind of blog.

Anyway, here is what I had to work with and how I ended up making a turkey out of an industrial light bulb.

The bulb I used was a GE Multi-Vapor Lamp. I'm sure GE would be thrilled to learn of this unauthorized use of its product.

All I know is that it puts out a lot of light, get really hot, and costs a lot of money. Seems a shame to just toss it out, right?

Here is a shot of me holding the bulb so that you can get an idea of how big it is. Pretty nifty, huh?

The bulb can not stand up on its own because it has a funky little bump on the top, so I dug a little indentation in some floral foam and set it in there so that I could paint it.

I primed it first with some cheap-o primer Mr. Nitty Gritty had laying around the garage. One coat did the job.

Then I shot a coat of Rustoleum Satin in brown over the whole primed light bulb.

Kinda looks like chocolate, doesn't it?

Once it was dry, I turned it right-side up (yes, there is a right side up to this thing) and installed it in a little foam base I created and covered in burlap.

Now it kinda looks like it could be a lamp! I swear this thing is going to look like a turkey by the time you get to the end of this post. Promise.

Now I needed some feathers. I tried cutting some out of card stock I had on hand for scrapbooking, but the paper feathers ended up being too limp. And as you ladies know, limp is OUT. I needed something stiffer, so I went to Michael's and purchased stiffened felt. Yes, there is such a thing. Here is the photograph to prove it. 99 cents per sheet, so I am now six dollars in the hole making my turkey out of a free burned out bulb.

I cut the stiffened felt into nice turkey feathers,

But I was afraid they would still be too limp, so I gave them some Viagra.

Just kidding. I simply reinforced them with some floral wire attached with a hot glue gun. I can gently bend the tail feathers they way I want them to go instead of them sticking straight out.

I glued the tail feathers to the turkey's "bottom" and gave him some red felt legs and a yellow felt beak. I then glued on some googley eyes also purchased from Michael's. I looked all over the store for a little straw hat for him to wear to cover up the bulb's screw-in connector but I could not find one. I settled on a tiny clay flower pot which I placed on the turkey's "head" as a hat. I wrapped a bit of raffia around the "brim" and glued on a few colorful buttons. I added a raffia bow around his neck and now he looks like this:

Cute, huh? Happy Thanksgiving!