Raffia nests

[kyle]

hello all,
I never cared for plastic nest boxes and decided to make my own out of raffia. The gouldians love them and I've had good success with them.

[lovezebs]

kyle

WOW! Those are absolutely lovely Kyle!!!

Are you ever talented my friend .

Could you give us some instructions with pictures of how you make them?
I for one would love to try my hand at making them.

Honestly, I think you could easily sell them.

[kyle]

lovezebs
Thanks Elana. they're made entirely out of raffia in the coil style in basket weaving. They traditionally use pine needles for this. In my case I used strands of raffia staggered in lengths and sewed it together using a yarn needle and raffia. As I go I add a few strands of raffia every few inches to keep it going. I will try to make another showing pictures as I go.

[Babs _Owner]

kyle

Beautiful ! Impressive work Kyle. Also looks like a relaxing hobby

[Fraza]

These are what I buy sometimes from a massive pet store I really wish u was as talented as you to make these it would save me 10 pound for one !!

[Rob]

Those are amazing! Not what I was expecting to see when I clicked on the post.

[lovezebs]

Rob

Love the "shocked face" lol.

Aren't they great?!

We should send Kyle some $ so that he can make us some, eh???

[Stuart whiting]

Those nest baskets are brilliant, I really do like these a lot
I'd most definitely use these meself,

The only other best boxes that I'm currently using are the wooden Gouldian boxes with chamber,

Far better than those horrible plastic or cardboard boxes

[lem2bert]

kyle

Very clever !!! They turned out wonderful !!!

[Rob]

I had to give it a try. It's a lot of work, but it's always nice to say "I made this". I just made a small canary nest.

Thanks for the idea and inspiration kyle

[kyle]

Rob
Excellent job Rob!

[lovezebs]

kyle

Here is my first ever misshapen trial and error offering .

Not the greatest, but I'm already working on #2, which hopefully will look somewhat better, lol...

It's kind of addictive in a crazy way, isn't it ?

[Rob]

lovezebs

That looks great!! How do you guys do the holes?

At first it was really easy, then it got tedious when I started stitching so I took a break, and then when I got going again I really enjoyed seeing it take shape. I picked up some colored raffia yesterday for some Christmas nests haha.

[lovezebs]

Rob

Hi Rob,

Not sure what's the right way to the the holes, but can tell you how I did it.

When I got to where I wanted to start the hole, I folded the raffia in on itself, and started stiching back the way I came. Then, when I reached the far side where I wanted the other end of the hole to be, I did the same thing (folded and stiched back where I came from, leaving the hole space open.

I kept doing that (back and forth, back and forth, leaving the hole space empty).
When I decided the hole would be big enough, I braided the raffia, and put it across the top of the hole, (like a bridge) attaching the open end of the braid to the far side.

At that point, I started stiching once again all the way around, using the braid as a bridge to keep the stiching going until the nest was finished.

Hope this makes sense and doesn't make you go , lol.

[Rob]

Thanks lovezebs That makes perfect sense.