SMHS Fightin' Rattler Graduation Cake for my Nephew

I planned this cake for months!  I was really excited for the opportunity to make it.  When my Mother-in-law came to me and asked me to make my nephew's cake, I was flattered.  I love making cakes but this was an opportunity to really do something fun!  I pondered what I could do to set this cake apart from your average graduation cake and it hit me like a ton of bricks.  A RATTLER cake!!!  I took to google to find the perfect "pattern" for a cake.  Not a literal pattern, but at least an idea of how I should attempt something like this.  Here is the site I found.
http://peachofcake.blogspot.com/2012/05/snake-cake.html

In order to achieve this, I would need to know how to cover cakes in fondant, so I planned to practice.  (you saw the last two posts, right?)  Once I felt comfortable with that technique, I decided it was time to try this. 

My first step was to mold the head of the snake and the rattler.  I brought up google images of a rattlesnake head and it's rattler and molded it based on the pictures I saw.  The rattler needed to be purple because those are the school colors.

I let these dry for several days.  To get that neat texture for the scales, I used a netting I picked up at the grocery store.  The next step was to make my cake and carve and cover each layer.  I also had to texture each of those.

I got to the top layer and built up the neck so that I could attach the head.

I then stacked the cakes.

I'm not sure why the first picture had that purply-pink thing going on, the other pictures are more true to color.
Several days before I had worked on a graduation hat and tassle.  Those had been drying, so the next day I added them, and some diamonds.  This was a diamond back rattler, afterall.

The final touches were his eyes and the 2012. 
I was really proud of this cake, and my nephew loved it.  I'm waiting on a picture of him eating the head of the rattler...but, it hasn't made it on Facebook yet. ;-)