AAAHHH! There's a SNAKE in your hair!

I have never made a hair twist before from clay. I have made metal ones, but today I decided to try to make one from clay. I wanted something more unique than just a colorful spiral, and a snake seemed an obvious choice when it dawned on me. Snakes coil around things naturally, so having one coiled around your hair would be cool. I went with the Butter morph of the Corn Snake. Corn Snakes come in really cool colors and patterns, just google and see!

Supplies

Clay in light yellow. I am using air dry, but you can use polymer clay, too.
Stylus or needle tool
A tube to wrap the snake around. The diameter of these tube will indicate how big of a braid or strand of hair the snake will go around, so keep this in mind.
Pastels in deep yellow
A reddish-pink for the eyes
A small paint brush to apply the pastel and paint
Netting from produce. This is the key to getting the snake texture. Mine is a stretchy netting that garlic cloves came in, but you can use any netted bag with a diamond net texture.

Step 1: Roll a Snake!

This is a super common clay technique. Rolling a snake of clay! Except ours will be a literal snake when it is finished.

Snakes tend to be thinner both near the head and tail regions. The middle of their body is thicker. The tail should come to a point, but not too tiny of a point.

There is not really a "neck" portion. The body and head join without much change in thickness.

Step 2: Create the Head

Flatten the head portion slightly. Snakes have pretty flat heads.

Pinch the snake head into a slightly triangle shape. Corn snakes don't have pointy triangle shaped heads, but all snakes have a bit of a triangle. Corn snakes just have a more rounded one than say a copperhead.

With the stylus tool, make indents at the jaw area of the snake. Also smooth and skinny the nose so that there is a bit of a dip, almost like cheek bones. The pictures help explain this better than I can in words.

Make it a bit thinner behind the jaw lines to emphasize the jaw bones. Snakes have crazy jaw bones that they can dislocate (just in case anyone didn't know that. Probably did - one of those always used "fun" facts).

Step 3: Giving It Shape

If you have ever held a snake you know that their bodies are not actually tubular. They are flat on the bottom. To get this, use your finger and thumb to slightly press down on the snake's body while barely pinching it. Do this all the length of the body.

Now get out the tube that you selected. Starting with the head, wrap the snake around the tube, pressing slightly. We don't want him to move.

*If you are using polymer clay, this tube needs to be made of wood or metal or glass that can be baked!

Step 4: Coloring and Texture

Getting out the pastels, color blocks/ovals of the dark yellow. This will depend on what pattern of snake you are making, but I chose a simple one. Use the soft brush to color, or you can use the tip of a finger if that works better. I ended up doing that to get a bolder color than the brush was allowing.

Now the fun part! Texture!

Get out the net bag. I put it over my hand (or just lay it on top of your hand if it is not a complete bag), lay the snake (still wrapped around the tube) in my hand and then just barely squeeze it in my hand. This causes the netting to push into the clay, leaving an imprint. This was way easier than trying to press the netting in individual sections of the snake.

The snake is textured!

Step 5: Final Touches

With the stylus tool, add in the nostrils and sketch a round eye shape. Look at the head straight on and just make a poke where each eye should be to make sure the eyes are even on each side of the head.

*Polymer clay: Bake the snake now.

With the paint, carefully paint the eyes and barely brush the nostrils. Corn snakes tend to have pink/reddish eyes.

*Air dry clay: let the snake dry.

Step 6: How to Wear

Wearing the snake is easy. Braid a plait of hair about the same thickness as the tube piece that the snake was wrapped around (or a bit bigger). Carefully twine the snake around the braid. He shouldn't break if you used flexible air dry clay or if you baked your polymer clay correctly. Don't try to just stick the braid into the coil - it doesn't work. It just makes your braid look frayed.

If you want, you can secure a ponytail or clip right beneath the snake's tail to make sure he stays put.

Now you have a cool little snake friend to wear around! I may make more of these - I think he is actually really cool.

Have a great day and go clay today!