Collecting materials

I have now started to collect natural materials to both use in my work and also to inspire my work and also patterns and images I find interesting. I decided to try making a mould of part of a tree that I found peculiar using latex, I then wanted to make a mould of this using wax and some of the natural materials I had collected as I thought they would resemble a birds nest, such as ones using their own faeces and natural materials such as twigs. The outcome of this isn't how I expected, the wax looked like ice with twigs and things stuck inside. I want a warmer feel to my work. I have now thought of making a mould of a bird feeder using latex and then wax again and then seeing what it looks like shining light through it, appearing like a lamp shade. I think this could work really effectively.