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A Beautiful and Easy
Bird's Nest Ornament

© Stephie McCarthy

Fresh vines in a bowl are the start of an
easy nest ornament that will last for many years.

Vines tend to hold their shape after drying. If you dry them in
a bowl with a smaller bowl or bottle of water
on top, they will dry into the shape of a bird's nest.

We use vines that are about 3.5' in length with leaves removed.
We soak our vines in a tub of water overnight. Dried
vines will be a lot more flexible after soaking.
Fresh vines can be brittle too … soaking helps a lot!

You can make this nest ornament any size.
You'll need two bowls, one that is smaller than the other.
as shown above. These bowls will make a very small nest.

Remove vines from water bath.
Twirl damp vines into coils, around and around.
Keep going in the same direction.

Stuff the coil into your larger bowl. This is the tricky part!
You may have to do this a couple times to get the
vines to stay put because they are springy.
We weighed ours down with marbles.
We once held them down with our feet until we could get
all the coiling in place!

Once vines are in the larger bowl, place a smaller bowl
on top and weigh it down with books or a bottle of water.
We decided to use terra cotta bowls this time
and speed up the drying process in my food dehydrator.
The clay helped "bake" the nest.
You can also make a nest in a small colander.
The holes will help speed air flow and drying time.

Let your nest dry for several days before unmolding.
If you are using standard bowls, allow about a week
before unmolding.

The fun part is adding decorations like
bits of dried moss (I always use yarrow fronds),
herbs and flowers.

Don't forget the faux eggs!

Just look at the wonderful results … the one on the lower
left is by my Facebook friend Christy Morrow.

By the way, we always wear gloves when working
with plant materials. Even non-poisonous plants
have been known to cause rashes.

Good choices for the vines are honeysuckle
(Lonicera periclymenum)
Morning Glory (Convolvulaceae)
or my favorite, Virginia Creeper
(Perthenocissus quinquefoia).
Virginia Creeper is easy to identify with its five leaves.
Never use vines with three leaf clusters as it
is likely to be poison ivy.

Wear gloves when working with ANY wild plant materials!

We'd love to see your results! You can email me at
the address on our contact page.

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