This week’s blog post is a tutorial directly related to my next dragon project, a polymer clay bird nest. A sneak peak will be at the end of the post, but I’ll have a more detailed look on my social media later this week!

I took to researching techniques and reference photos, keeping in mind that I wanted to keep the nest more on the whimsical side to fit my dragon style. A tutorial I found extremely helpful was this one by Kaitlyn Brandon. I made some modifications and worked out my own process to create the end result.

Supplies:

• Various shades of brown polymer clay
• Your hands (or an extruder if you want to be fancy; I made a few snakes with mine but I really needed to force it out)
• Exacto knife or some way to cut the clay
• Needle or blending tool

Step 1: Make all the snakes!

We’re essentially going for twigs here. You’ll want to take your different colors of polymer clay and make snakes of various sizes. I mixed some different browns together for a few variegated strands too. A few are large in thickness (these will be for the base of the nest), some that are medium in thickness (for the side of the nest and some accent twigs for the base), and some that are thin (these are additional accent twigs for the side and base).

Step 2: Making the base

For the base of the bird nest, I took two different colored strands from my largest pile of snakes and twisted them together to create a braid-like strand. This was twisted fairly tightly without stretching out the clay.

Once I had my braid, I trimmed the uneven ends and began rolling it up to form a flat circle.

This creates a woven look for the base with the appearance of different branches being used to put it together.

Step 3: Weave

We could stop where we’re at, but I wanted too make the base look more woven, so I took a combination of my medium and small snakes and “wove” them around the base. I layered the medium snakes around the edges so they would poke through between the base and the side of the bird nest once that was added.

I also took the smaller snakes and layered them on top of the base, moving in the same direction (circular to look kind of like a swirl) around the bird nest. This enhanced the woven look of the clay.

I found my silicone blending tool to be perfect for pushing the edges of my pieces down into the base to help make it look like it was coming out of the twisted branches. A needle tool would work for this as well, however.

Step 4: Creating the side of the nest

Once you’ve built up the base to your satisfaction, it’s time to create the side of the nest. To differentiate from the base and enhance the woven look, I created a braid from clay. I used my medium strands (in three different colors) of polymer clay for this because it becomes quite wide with the three strands of polymer clay. I chose to only do one layer of the braid for the side, but if you want to do more layers you can also use thinner strands.

Once I had my braid completed, I trimmed up the edges and wrapped it around on top of the base, making sure my layered twigs poked through.

In this case, my braid was longer than needed so I just trimmed it to where I needed it and loosely blended the strands together. I also firmly (be mindful of distorting your braid) pushed the braid down into the base so that everything would bake together properly.

Step 5: Add the finishing details

With the side in place, I went around my bird nest a few more times, adding thin and medium snakes “connecting” the base and the side, always working in the same direction as my base swirl.

I also took my tiny snakes and cut small pieces off of them to add as twigs poking out through the braid, primarily placed in the holes of the braid itself. A few more snakes were wrapped around the side to look like smaller twigs woven in.

When you’re happy with the layering, it’s time for baking! I baked mine according to my package instruction. Since I wanted the wood to have a more natural look (as much as natural can have on the whimsical side 🙂 ), I left my nest unglazed.

I decided to finish my nest with a little shiny, marbled dragon egg. Isn’t it cute?!?

This little nest is not the one I used for my dragon project, so here’s the sneak peak of the custom order I recently finished. I’ll share more about it on my social media soon!

Overall, I’m really pleased with how everything turned out, and I really hope you enjoyed my tutorial!