NESTING

NESTING

I’m always on the lookout for old abandoned bird nests. But it’s usually the little broken ones lying under the trees. I thought it would be nice to have something bigger to use as a decorative piece on a side table or even outside.

So when my husband recently got rid of a few unwanted vine branches, I just had to give it a go!

It’s not too difficult to do, just a bit time consuming. So, if you want to use this on the Christmas table, you better get started as soon as possible.

You will need:

Green vine branches or any bendable tree branches, like the weeping willow for example.
Pliers
Wire. Copper or any soft binding wire. I just use the small white bendable strips that comes with your freezer bags. They don’t seem to hurt the fingers as much. Strip the plastic coating, and join them if they are too short to fit around branches.

Method:
First I took the branches and stripped the leaves of. Leave some of the curly growth on your vine branches. Once they dry, it looks really good inside the nest.

Then I started bending my branches. I usually work with thicker branches. The really thin ones seems to snap as soon as you try and bend them. Work really slowly, and bend the branch piece by piece. It will make a cracking sound, but if you don’t do this properly, even the thicker branches will snap in two.
Make circles in different sizes by joining the ends with wire. Overlap the ends and join tightly. You will need a really tiny circle for the middle and keep create bigger circles, until you happy with the final outer size.

If you have around twelve circles, start building an upside down nest. Lay the biggest circle down. Start adding them until it ending with the smallest circle. It will kind of look like a hat.

Then take the smallest and second circle and join together with wire on both sides of the circle. Then the next two. Keep doing this until you have about six rings. Start all over again joining them together until all the rings is joined, and you have a completed nest.

Turn the nest over and start filling the gaps with the thinner vines. Weave them around and around until the holes are filled up. If there is unwanted branches poking out, keep them in place with a piece of wire.