diy art: bottle cap snakes

As part of my series of posts about ideas for cheap do-it-yourself art, I share with you these great photos of bottlecap snakes in the garden of Austin blogger Cheryl Goveia. Cheryl's was one of several gardens featured on an Austin garden tour last fall and captured in colorful detail by Pam over at Digging. (Thanks, Pam, for agreeing to let me share your photos here!)

 

While these look great outdoors in the garden (the rust only adds to the charm), I could also picture a collection of several of these abstract snakes in different lengths hanging together in a corner indoors. Or you could also get more literal with the "snake" idea, such as in this creation by artist Felipe Archuleta (in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum):

For some guidance on how to make your own, see these instructions for a kid's "fake snake" craft project. For a more sculptural quality, though, wire would probably work better for stringing these critters than the yarn that's suggested for the kids' project.