I've had this project on my mind for a while and finally had the chance to take it on. I had been OBSESSING over the collab between Pottery Barn x Harry Potter and have been eyeing the Nagini Snake Candelabra for a long time, waiting for it to go on sale. Alas, It is no longer being sold, so I thought now would be the perfect opportunity to tackle this project. Overall it took about 5 hours to complete over the span of 2 days, and the family and I are in love. We pet the snake candelabra every time we pass her. Let me share how I took on this project...

Supplies:

• 2 Packs of Sculpey
• A Rolling Pin
• Clay tools or anything to help you sculpt (I used a bone folder tool)
• 1 Roll of Aluminum Foil
• 1 Sheet of brown kraft paper (oven safe)
• 1 Set of brass candle stick holders
• Aluminum wire (I had this on hand, but any mailable wire would do)
• 1 Sharpie
• Brown and gold paints (I love this set, but you can get individual paints)
• Paint Brushes
• A large baking sheet (that fits in your oven)

After collecting all of my supplies, I cut a sheet of kraft paper to work on. With the Sharpie, I roughly drew out the positioning of the snake and placed the brass candle sticks where I wanted them. This part is crucial, to ensure the candle sticks are evenly placed and spaced. Also take note that this entire piece needs to be placed in your oven, so I would make sure your drawing (and eventually snake) will fit inside the oven. I based the size of the snake off of my largest oven baking sheet. Eventually you will need to transfer to the oven. So, I thought it was easiest to work on the kraft paper, slide the kraft paper on to the back side of my baking sheet and bake this in the oven (with the baking sheet upside down... please be careful doing this).

Measure the length of your Sharpie snake with string and that's how much wire you will need. Cut the wire to that length and then start ripping off sheets of aluminum foil and crinkling it around the wire. It's going to look like a hot mess until you cover the entire length of the wire with aluminum foil, then pressing it hard to make the snake shape smooth (ish). I was ripping off about 12" lengths of aluminum foil and working it around the wire. Take note you will also be applying a 1/4" of sculpey around the aluminum foil snake, so the diameter of the snake will get thicker. Don't forget to make the tail of the snake tapered and add a little more bulk for the head.

Bend the snake to match your Sharpie line. When I created the bends in my snake, I had to add additional aluminum foil to the curves of the snake because the aluminum foil began to open. 

Now the Sculpey! I worked with sections of Sculpey at a time (not the entire block), and began to knead it until it was more soft and pliable. I rolled out a smooth sheet of Sculpey about 1/4" thick (it's A-OK if it's a bit thicker, but I would not go thinner than this) and began to wrap it around sections of my snake, leaving the head for last. This is where I discovered I wished I smoothed the aluminum foil a bit more. I also realized I can fill in some lumps with additional Sculpey. The Sculpey smoothed out fab-u-lous-ly with just my fingers as I blended the it around the snake.

I left the snake's head for last, knowing I wanted to spend more time on her facial details. While I LOVED the PBxHP candelabra I wanted to make this one more of my own, so I sculpted this more off of a Reticulated Python.

Throw on some headphones and listen to some music or an audiobook, because here comes the tedious part... the scales. I used some extra Sculpey to test the application of the scales before I worked on my actual snake. I ended up using the pointed end of my bone folder pressing in each scale at a time, row by row. You can watch this on my youtube page here. I also rolled out smaller sheets of Sculpey with the scales to do some test painting before I paint the snake. After you are 100% happy with the sculped snake it's now time to bake. I was able to transfer my entire snake (while still on the kraft paper) to the back side of my largest baking sheet, and then put the entire thing in the oven. 275 degrees F for 20 minutes. Don't forget to add your test Sculpey scaled pieces to practice painting.

The snake turned out great after baking, and while it was cooling, I tried a few different ways to apply my acrylic paint (you can also use craft paint) to my scrape Sculpey pieces I baked. I ended up applying a dark brown paint first, allowing that to dry, then applied a top coat of gold metallic paint.

She's a gorgeous golden beauty, but I took her a step further...

With a ridged flat brush, using just the tip, I began adding a metallic brown acrylic paint in a diamond formation along her back to mimic the look of the Reticulated Python. This just set this over the top and I'm obsessed with the way she looks. The paint application had masked the lumpy flaws of her body perfectly too.

Here she is in her gold glory! After the paint dried I positioned her on my dining room table and slid the brass candle stick holders in between her curves and adorned them with white candle sticks. Needless to say she looks absolutely magical at night when those candles are lit. 

Final thoughts, I would say while this project was not hard, but it did take some time, patience and some minor sculpting skills. The Sculpey was easy and fun to work with and the painting did cover up my imperfections. I do see this sitting on my table throughout the year and not just during the spooky season too. Don't forget to check out my YouTube page here with a short video "how to" with this Snake Candelabra!

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