Today day I made a snake ... ...

Just a quick post, and as the title suggests it's about a snake.

My son has a wooden snake that we got him last christmas, and my daughter has decided she likes it very much, which has resulted in some small arguments between the two of them, so in a flash of genius I decided I'd make another snake, and thus solve the problem.

Here's the snake -

It's not to scale ;-)

Okay so it isn't anatomically correct, but it is vaguely snake like, at least the kids thought so.

It's made from a piece of eucalyptus, which was basically the first thing I picked up, some string and a bit of red felt.

It was easy to make, I tried to get a bit clever by cutting the segments with a curve in each to make it articulate a little better, the head and tail I carved a little to a sort of snake like look.

To hold it all together I used some string, which I fixed into a hole I made in the head and tail ends with a drill bit, using a little glue helps make sure the string won't come out easily, each segment had a hole drilled through it so I could thread the string, then I put a knot in after each segment to help it stay together if it gets pulled at each end.

Another couple of pictures - 

Can you tell what sort of snake it is ? ;-)

It ended up with a kind of cheeky looking face.

After sticking all the segments together I drew a couple of eyes on it and made a mouth shape and stuck some red felt into it to create a snake type tongue, the felt may be a little large.

It's not meant to be an accurate model of a snake, it's a toy for my daughter, which she likes a lot, and as it turns out so does my son, so much so that he now wants a snake like this, and I've got to make another one, so I guess I did good, maybe a little too good, I think it's great though that in this day and age, with all the technology that's about my kids get enjoyment out of a few bits of wood and some string, why not have a go at making a wooden snake ? it's easy to do.

Instructions.

Just find a length of wood, maybe from a tree that's been pruned, you could even use a piece of wooden dowel from a diy shop.

Cut it into how ever many segments you want, making sure to leave slightly bigger segments for the head and tail, then drill a hole about an inch deep in the head and tail end, this will be where you glue the ends of the string to make it secure.

Drill holes through each of the remaining segments, you should use a drill bit slightly bigger than the thickness of string you plan to use, you can use a little sand paper to smooth any rough edges.

For the head and tail you can add as much detail as you like, I used a stanley knife to carve the respective ends into a vaguely snake like tail and head.

Then start putting it together, glue one end of the string into the tail part (or head, depending on which end you start with) then tie a knot in the string, try and get it as close to the wood, then thread the next segment and tie another knot, and so on until it's put together, then glue the end of the string that's left into the head or tail, which ever bit is left.

You can then make a small cut for the mouth, or just draw it on, along with the eyes, and once the glue has set you should have a pretty robust toy, if you prefer you can paint it what ever colour you choose, or just leave it with the bare wood.

Thanks for reading.