Indigo Bunting Necklace

So, for the Rainbow Contest, I decided to go after that strange, illusive color, Indigo. For me, what pops in my head right away, is the cute little Indigo Bunting. I have seen a lot more of them this year than I have before. They tend to just look like bright flashes of color as they dart past, hiding in the weeds.

Instead of just portraying the well-known, flashy male, I decided to put him together with his female counterpart. I decided that a lovely little nest scene was a good way to show them. It is also a good way to educate people on what the two of them look like; a stark contrast of one another, the male bright indigo and the female in a drab brown of concealment.

Come along and create this cute necklace!

1. Clay in brown and indigo (or as close as you can get - we will add some colored pastel and mica powder to help his bright coloring).
2. Clay tools (roller, knife, and stylus or needle tool)
3. Work space
4. Tiny ball tool (also known as mandala tools or nail dotters)
5. Small soft brush for using with pastels and paint
6. Pastels in various shades of brown. Also you should add in green, blue and purple, and a grey if you have it (which I don't).
7. Acrylic paint in black and grey (Grey not pictured)
8. OPTIONAL: Mica powder in purple and blue. I think this just adds to his shimmery shininess, but you could also just paint him with metallic purple and blue paint.
9. Necklace chain with wide links
10. Two large jump rings
11. Set of round nose pliers

We will begin with the nest.

Roll out the brown clay. Don't make it too thick or too thin. With the knife tool or the stylus, sketch a bowl shape on the flattened clay. Trim this out with the knife tool. Set this aside.

Cut out two thin strips of clay from the leftovers. These will be the limbs that the nest sits in between.

With the stylus tool, scratch lines into the two limbs, making them resemble the bark of a tree. If you have any silicone stencils that are wood-like this would be a cool time to use them. Just make lines until you are satisfied. Vary the lines in thickness, thinness, and length to make them look more natural. I also used the knife to cut the end of one of the branches and make a small broken branch piece sticking out from it.

Stick the ends of the two limbs together so they make a "v" shape. Place the bowl in the middle of the "v". Make sure it is tightly adhered.

With the stylus tool, scratch and swirl the needle around to make a rough, fiber-like appearance. Their nests are made of twigs, but I have yet to come up with an easy technique to make small twigs that I am satisfied with. This is what I do right now, maybe someday I will figure it out.

At the ends of the branch limbs, poke holes all the way through the clay. These are for the jump rings. Make them larger than you think they actually need to be.

Now get out the brown, green, and grey pastels. With the small brush, dust the branch limbs first with various browns. I made mine pretty dark. Then dust the nest with a variety of the brown, green, and grey. You don't want to make it as dark as the limbs because then it won't stand out.

Set the nest aside.

With the left over brown clay, roll it out. Sketch a bird with a crest on the flattened clay. I advise looking up images of the Indigo Buntings to help you with this. Indigo Buntings are a member of the Cardinal family, but I have noticed in most photos I have looked at the female's crest is much more apparent than that of the male. They have fat beaks like finches (and Cardinals, duh :).

Trim out the bird. She doesn't have to be a whole bird; only the top half because she will be sitting on the nest. With the stylus tool, sculpt the little details, like the eye, the beak, and various feathers. I just make pokes and scratches to indicate the feathers.

Color the bird with pastel. This did not turn out like I liked it, so I added some grey paint later on, so you could just skip this and simply paint her if you wanted. Pastels tend to give more of a smooth, natural look, but my clay being the shade of brown that it was didn't make coloring it easy.

Place the female bunting in place behind the nest so that it gives the impression that she is sitting inside it. If you are using air dry clay you can affix her with glue, if you are using polymer clay just make sure that she is pretty stuck to the nest and baking should "glue" her.

Keep the nest and female bunting close by so that you can make the male as close to the same size as you can.

Roll out the indigo clay. Mine is really more blue, but I have looked up indigo and found out that people argue so much over the shade that I am not worried about it. I added purple later on to make it both blue and purple, therefore Indigo.

Sketch out the bird shape. The male is going to be a whole bird (I had to add the tail after I first cut him out). Once you have made him the way you like, color him with blue and purple pastel mixed together. I focused on more indigo coloring on the head region than anywhere else because the birds seem to be more blue on the nether and tail regions and become indigo as they go up.

With the stylus tool, sketch in the details. I really wish I had done this before I colored him with pastel, but I tried the opposite that I did with the female. For y'all I recommend doing details first then color.

Now the fun stuff! I bought some mica powder years ago but I have never used it. I decided today that I would mix together my purple and blue mica powders to get indigo and give him that lovely sparkle that they have. Once again, I heavily dusted the head area. Then I took a dark grey pastel and made "black" streaks on his wings and colored his beak. I really advise looking at photos while you work! Just google "Indigo Bunting".

I apologize for not having photos of attaching the male bird to his perch, but apparently my computer ate them.

**If you are using polymer clay, bake the piece before this step. If you are using air dry clay, let it dry.

With the grey paint, get a little bit on a tiny brush and lightly streak the nest to help it have more contrast from the branches. I also lightly colored the female bunting with a very thin coat of grey as well. She looks a lot better with that.

Now for the coolest tip in this Instructable: use mandala or ball tools to paint tiny things on your sculptures! This has helped me a lot when I want to make itty bitty details on miniatures and earrings, especially when they are things like drawn images or text. Just barely get paint on the end of the tiny ball tool and then use it like you would a paint brush. Obviously, it does not hold paint like a paint brush does, so you will have to go back and forth between your paint much more often. Just wipe the tip off between dips to make sure that you get the smallest point possible.

So for these Buntings I used the ball tool to paint their eyes, beaks, and the black feathers on the male's wings.

Now get out the necklace. From the clasp at the back, find the middle of the chain. With the pliers, take out that middle loop (this is why it is so much easier to use a chain with large loops than small ones).

Open the two large jump rings. Loop them on the holes in the branches and the last link of one side of the chain and then close them with the pliers. ALWAYS twist jump rings sideways to open them, don't yank them apart.

Now the little birds should be happily perched in their nest.

Ta-daa! You are finished!

I think I will probably do more Indigo Bunting jewelry at some point. He was really fun to color. I also like the bird nest necklace idea, so I may use that again. The necklace should lay pretty flat when worn, and I think it is a really cute piece for bird lovers.

Thanks for joining me, and go clay today!