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Gracie Lee and the Bean Rooster

January 30, 2016 By Talya Tate Boerner

bean rooster art

Gracie Lee and the Bean Rooster is not the title of a children’s picture book, (not yet anyway). What I’m talking about is the bean rooster picture families displayed on kitchen walls during the 1960s and 1970s. Some of my younger readers may not have experienced the joy of the bean rooster. Back during the days of Paint-By-Number, when we cut paper dolls from the Sears Catalog and life wasn’t perfectly staged for Pinterest, moms and kids gathered around the dining room table to glue beans to a pattern. Every type and color of dried bean.

I thought peas looked way better on rooster tail feathers than on my plate.

The bean rooster was a work of Americana art.

Momma proudly displayed ours on the small section of kitchen wall space behind the back door, and Nana hung one at the lake cabin. The one at the lake became infested by some sort of bug, and I suppose we threw it out. Or maybe we dosed it in bug spray. I don’t remember. But I remember exactly how it looked and where it hung and how I thought it was the coolest thing especially the whole idea that beans could become art.

If you’d like to relive this art project, or if you’d like to experience it for the first time, I found this pattern at Cotton Arts Boutique.  Perfect snow day project, I say. Gracie Lee would agree.

Cock-a-doodle-doo,

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Did you have a bean rooster on your kitchen wall? #vintage #crafts #makewithme #GracieLee[/tweetthis]

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Musical Pairing:
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Filed Under: Crafts, Reading & Books, Simple Pleasures, Writing Tagged With: 1970s, Americana, The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee, vintage crafts

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Comments

  1. Barbara Tate says

    January 30, 2016 at 7:55 am

    Do you think we have time to make one while you are home for your book signing? Prolly not!!

  2. Colene says

    January 30, 2016 at 10:25 am

    My children did, of course. Thanks for the memories!

  3. mark price says

    January 30, 2016 at 11:01 am

    Never made a bean rooster but I did glue macaroni to a ladies shoe and spray paint it. Whitton Baptist Church( Vacation Bible School).

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      January 30, 2016 at 12:12 pm

      Greatness, Mark.

  4. Dorothy Johnson says

    January 31, 2016 at 8:41 am

    I never got around to making one, but I admired them when they were in vogue.

  5. Martha Orlando says

    January 31, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    I’m not familiar with this tradition, Talya, but I must admit I was raised in the south by Yankee parents, so that probably accounts for my lack of knowledge in this department. 🙂 Certainly sounds like a great craft I’ll try with my oldest granddaughter. Thanks for sharing!
    Blessings!

  6. Heather M. says

    July 20, 2024 at 2:06 am

    I’m looking for the plans for these! My grandmother and her sister-in-law made some. The hen didn’t last but the rooster did. I grew up loving the rooster. She just passed in February and I I inherited it. So, I’d love to get my hands on some patterns to make a few with my kids to keep Granny’s rooster company on my dining room wall.

    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      July 21, 2024 at 12:58 pm

      I hope you can find a pattern. Such a classic!


Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (2022)

THE THIRD ACT OF THEO GRUENE (coming 2025)

Recent Ramblings:

  • Sunday Letter: May 4, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Rainy Day Edition
  • Spiderwort: my love-hate relationship
  • Sunday Letter: March 23, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: March 16, 2025

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