Decorative Spring Table

Today I just wanted to show you how to make a decorative nest which you can use for displays for Spring table settings  and displays all year round.
First, take some material from nature from which you can wind a wreath (it still needs to be a bit spring-y and flexible ) - this could be old clematis- shoots, or dried sweet peas from last year .
Just have a look around to see what you can find, either in your garden or on a field trip or walk.
The material needs to be flexible and not break .I used old sweet peas .
 I also got some very thin  willow wisps to thread around it and some moss for the filling of the nest.
So this was my main material.

 Take a handful or two of the stringy material, either clematis or old sweet peas, stretch it out so you have a long  sort of string a hand wide and  start turning it into a circle, as though you are making a wreath. Cup the bottom together with your hands and pad and make into a bowl. Use some willow strips to weave through it so you fasten it to itself.  Make a slightly bigger wreath on top and a circlet of willow at the top.
Leave the willow sticking out here and there to get a rustic feel. Fill the bottom of your nest with moss.
Now for your eggs.

Take a big darning needle, make a big hole at the top and the bottom of your egg,

and blow out the egg yolk and egg white-

- and don't forget to collect the egg in a bowl so you can use it afterwards.
I usually get some feline assistance with the disposal of the egg yolks at this part of the proceedings !!

                                                             

                                                                          
Clean the eggs and dry them ( more extensive instructions if you need them are in this post, (  Easter egg  display with painted eggs ) then paint the eggs pale blue .
 I had some “ Theresa’s Green “ paint over from Farrow and Ball, from my plate rack make-over post  - and this was a perfect  pale blue.
To be  able to paint the egg all over, so that you do not have to hold it, you can  take a wooden skewer which you can get in a kitchen shop or supermarket, normally used for barbecueing, and skewer the egg on it, sticking the skewer in through the bottom hole you made, and fixing it in the top hole in the egg.
Paint the egg all over, turning it on the skewer, than fix the skewer while the paint dries in a surface that will support the skewer and egg.I could not think of anything clever so put it in a big candle.

You get no marks or fingerprints on the egg this way and it can dry all over. Once the egg is dry, it is time to paint the little speckles on it.
Take a saucer, a brush, some dark brown oil paint and some  non-smelling oil paint thinner.
                                   

     Thin the paint with the oil-paint thinner- it should be thin enough so you can spatter with it, but no so thin that the spattering will be too pale.You will just have to experiment a bit and do a trial- run of spattering on paper like I did here..

        Then spatter your egg- just take a hoghair brush, put the ends in the thinned oil paint, and run your thumb carefully over the brush, pointing in the direction of the egg.

 Your egg should end up like this:

   Make yourself a couple more eggs like this, place them in your newly made nest from clematis and willow...

                                                                                                                                                                                                               Add a gingham ribbon if you like..and you are done!
You can use this as a nice Spring Table Display in whatever way you like..quite simple, with some silver candelabra's and Spring flowers-

                                               or with a painting that echoes the eggs and the nest ...

                                             or just with some silver and crystal decanters..

 Whatever you decide, it will be quite a fun project -will just look lovely and will give that special Spring feeling in your house!
So enjoy the Spring time and your Spring crafting!!