Structure

More Work on bird nests.  I'm really narrowing down my materials and techniques so I think I'm on to a final products for these things.

It's been a few years but now I can see that I'll actually have a beautiful, naturalistic nest that's also durable out in the environment!

 Yes.

I leveraged basic archway physics for this but it shows the durability of the final product.

It's just bailing twine, plus a couple secret sauces, then paint.

I have no doubt it could hold a lot more weight. 

 So I bit the reality bullet and realized I had to provide more structure to the nest before the final coating(s).   Here's a look at the spiral form I started using rather than the clump method which looks frickin' cool but leaves big soft spots that loose structure if they get damp.

 Unpainted, the surface gets crumbly when left in the open outside but due to the tight coils, it's still as strong as the painted version.

I didn't make the back for these since their in testing but the closure will look the same and will be (and is on earlier pieces) removable for cleaning.

                                                  
This one===>
Is a proof of concept piece where I deliberately omitted one of the structural steps on a clump method piece and just coated with spar urethane. It gets soft in the rain but remains intact and firms back up when it dries.



You can see some of the clump pieces before I dialed in weather durability here.

 A shot of one of my earlier nests that I converted into a lamp. It casts an awesome multi-colored pattern on the wall! 

                                                  Boom.

Also available, contact me if interested!