How to make a house for a cat with your own hands from old clothes: step-by-step description, master class
Unneeded clothing, namely a T-shirt or sweater, can get a chance for a second life. You can quickly make a tent house for your cat from these clothes.
To make such a house you will need:
- Old T-shirt
- Aluminum wire
- Large sheet of thick cardboard or plywood
- Glue
- Scotch tape
- Shiloh
- Threads, needle
Step-by-step production:
- Take a sheet of cardboard measuring 40*40 cm. To make the cardboard more durable, cover it with tape. Instead of cardboard, you can take a sheet of plywood. This will be the basis for the future house. Use an awl to make holes in all corners of the base.
- Then take two pieces of aluminum wire of the same length. Make two identical arcs and connect them crosswise with tape.
- Then thread the edges of the wire into the holes of the base. Fold the edges and secure them very securely with tape. The pet should not get hurt on the edges of the wire.
- Now examine the frame of the cat house. It should be symmetrical. If the house is uneven, you can fix it. To do this, one of the uneven edges of the wire should be lowered lower or raised higher and fixed. But it’s better to immediately do everything evenly and symmetrically.
- Then a T-shirt should be put on the frame. The hole for the head should be placed in the center, and preferably closer to the bottom edge. This way it will be convenient for the cat to climb into the house.
- The sleeves of the T-shirt and free edges should be carefully folded down and sewn with a thread and a needle.
- Place a soft cloth inside that matches the size of the house.

Important:
Large size T-shirts are suitable for making a house; children’s T-shirts are definitely not suitable. The item must be ironed, without stains, without holes, so that the pet’s house looks beautiful and neat.
- Another important point: the T-shirt should be made of cotton. Synthetic clothing can accumulate static charges. It is unlikely that your pet will like such a house.
- Using the same principle, you can make a house out of a sweater. But it is better to shorten the sleeves so that they do not interfere when tucking them down. Such a house will become a warm refuge for your pet.
- Instead of cardboard or plywood, you can use a small soft pillow. The wire can be made not arched, but pointed upward. Then you will get a wigwam house.
- If you don’t know where to get the wire of the required length, wire hangers, which many people have at home, will come to the rescue. The hangers can be straightened using pliers, and you will get the necessary material for needlework.
- You can make a soft, cozy cat house from an old sweater. You will also need a small soft pillow that can fit inside the sweater, foam rubber.

First you need to sew the neck of the sweater. Then sew the sweater in a circle and sew the sleeves to the body.

The sleeves should be stuffed with foam rubber and sewn together.

Then a pillow is placed inside the sweater and the edge is sewn.

The last step is to sew the sleeves together and hide the seam. To do this, the junction of the sleeves is sheathed with some kind of fabric. The soft cat bed is ready.

Which house to choose for a cat: types of houses, tips on arrangement
If you become the owner of a cat, sooner or later you will have to think about arranging a cat’s home. A cat needs a home, just like a person needs personal space. In its house, the cat will be able to rest peacefully; no one will touch it here.
If the cat does not have its own house, it will find a place for itself on its own. An animal may choose your closet with clothes as a home or find a place for itself on the sofa or table. If you don’t want this state of affairs, then it’s time to arrange a cozy house for your pet.
You can buy a ready-made cat house. Or you can make it with your own hands, putting your love and care into it. There are many advantages to a house made by yourself:
- They are easy to make;
- You can make a house of any size and configuration;
- For production, improvised materials that can be found in your home are suitable;
- Materials can be purchased, their cost will be significantly lower than that of a finished house;
- If you like to make things, this activity will allow you to spend your leisure time in an interesting way;
- Only the owner knows about the desires and habits of his pet, so he can easily make the house as comfortable as possible for the pet.
Important:
Before you find a place for a house in your house or apartment, watch your cat. Surely there is a place in the apartment where she prefers to be most often. This is where you should place the house.
Also, if the cat is not litter box trained, it should be trained before it moves into its new home. Otherwise, the house will have to be washed regularly.
A cat house must meet the following criteria:
- Space
. The dimensions of the cat’s home must correspond to the size of the pet. In a small apartment it can be difficult to find a place for a large house, but a cat will not be comfortable in a house that is too cramped. - Materials
. To create a house, choose natural, breathable materials that can be easily cleaned if necessary. - Place to play
. It’s a good idea to make sure your cat has a place to sharpen its claws or play with a ball. The play complexes look original, and pets really like them. - It is advisable that the cat house have a back door
. Although this animal has long been a domestic animal, its instincts for survival and procreation come first. Having a back door will provide the animal with peace of mind and safety. - The cats’ housing should be slightly elevated. This will provide the cat with an overview of the territory
, which is very important for the male. The cat’s home, on the contrary, should be lower. Such a house will satisfy the instinct of preserving the cat’s offspring.
There are different types of cat houses. The choice of a certain type of house largely depends on the habits of the cat. Let’s look at what types of houses there are for cats.
Beds
Looks like a miniature bed or sofa. This house does not have a roof. A cat will not be able to fully retire in such a house, but many pets get used to this type of house. The bed can be easily moved from one place to another, and you can take it with you on a trip. This is the advantage of this type of house.

Hammock
This is a mini version of a hammock for people. A hammock for cats can be placed without hesitation without compromising the area of the apartment. For example, under the seat of a chair by tying the edges of a hammock to the legs of the chair. Making a hammock with your own hands is as easy as shelling pears. It is enough to take a fairly thick piece of fabric, sew strings to its edges, and the hammock is ready.

Booths
This house with a roof is closed and allows the pet to be in complete privacy and tranquility at any time of the day. If the area of your apartment or house is large, the booth can become an interior decoration. Some people place similar houses in the courtyard of a private house.

Wigwam
House with a pointed roof. Houses of this type are suitable for Siamese, Abyssinian or Bengal cats. Cats of these breeds love to stand on their tiptoes.

Complexes for games
Such a cozy corner is a real joy for an active pet. Such complexes are especially necessary if there are several cats in the house. Complexes can consist of various devices for cats, for example, stairs, beds, scratching posts, etc.

House built into furniture
An excellent solution for those who want to save space in their home or apartment. When arranging a cat’s house with furniture, you should take into account the character and size of the pet. A cat that is too large and energetic can topple the structure.

Methodological manual “we create with our own hands”
MUNICIPAL BUDGET INSTITUTION
ADDITIONAL EDUCATION
“YUNNAT STATION” VYAZMA, SMOLENSK REGION
WE CREATE WITH OUR OWN HANDS.
(methodological manual for working with natural materials).
Author-compiler: NAVROZASHVILI ELENA VLADIMIROVNA –
additional education teacher
highest category.
Vyazma
Smolensk region
2022
CONTENTS.
pp.
I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….3-4
II. Comprehensive development of children in the process of working with natural materials.5-7
III. What you need to make crafts:
Natural material………………………………………….8-16
Additional materials………………………………………… 16-17
Tools…………………………………………………………….17-18
IV. Methods for making crafts from natural materials:
Crafts from shells…………………………………………………….19-21
Compositions from dried plants…………………………………22-29
Weaving straw ribbons……………………………………………………….29-39
Crafts made from pine bark and mulberry mushrooms……………………….39-49
Crafts made from mosses and lichens………………………………………………………50-53
Chestnut crafts…………………………………………………….53-54
Potato crafts…………………………………………………………….54-55
Crafts made from nutshells……………………………………………………….56-58
Miracles from plant fluff…………………………………………….59-61
Crafts from figured pumpkin………………………………………….61-63
Crafts from carrots and potatoes……………………………………63-64
Eggshell crafts………………… …………………….65-69
Crafts from tenacious plants……………………………………………………….70-73
Crafts from corn cob leaves……………….….…….74-77
15. Crafts from acorns…………………………………………………….77-79
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….80
List of references……………………….……………………….81
I
. IN CONTROL.
Nature is fabulous and rich. What a variety of feelings overwhelm us when we meet her! At any time of the year, it reveals its charms in different ways, giving scope to imagination and creativity, strengthening tender and kind feelings in a person.
Each of us had the good fortune once in childhood to freeze from an unexpected miracle in nature. This can be in the spring, when the sun confidently sends its warmth to the cooled earth and it, basking and thawing from the winter cold, is covered with a light steam. And the sky is so bright and bright from the sun that it hurts your eyes to look at it.
You go home, slowly, without thinking about anything. There are puddles of water around from melted snow and small thawed patches that are starting to turn green. And suddenly, on one of these thawed patches, you see a delicate and fragile flower – the first snowdrop, violet.
Sometimes in childhood, having encountered such a miracle, you want to take it home so that it is nearby. But, having carried out your plan, you destroy the flower. There is no limit to grief! But the lesson is remembered, and you will never replant snowdrops again, since they do not tolerate interference in their existence.
A person must experience all these feelings in childhood, so that later, with the accumulation of life experience and knowledge, they become stronger in us, transforming into an understanding of the beauty of a forest, field, flower, nature in general, into a sense of beauty.
Children are trusting of adults. Their souls are open to the world around them and to us adults. Therefore, a lot depends on what touches children will not leave them one day.
The child runs to his mother with an armful of different flowers, perfect in their shape and unique structure. Be surprised by their combination, admire their beauty, but don’t limit yourself to that. Be upset that, once plucked, they will quickly lose their beauty; your child should also feel your disappointment, so that he takes away from the walk not only the joy and enthusiasm for what he has learned and seen, but also the desire to preserve this beauty, save it for others.
Natural material itself is a storehouse for fantasy and imagination. And if you combine it with sleight of hand, then everything can be revived, given a second life, as it were.
You pass by an oak tree, and the ground near it is strewn with barrels – acorns. Stop, don’t rush. Look closely. After all, these are not acorns, but small gnomes – some of them are thin, others are denser. And here is the little gnome. Give him legs, paint his face, and he will smile at you and become your walking companion.
In the forest, the top of a spruce tree is visible high, high. And up close you have to tilt your head back very far to see it.
What’s under the tree? Her bumps. Cones? Yes, this is an owl, no, just connect these two cones, and there will be a fox. But the fluffy tip of a pine twig, still quite fresh, smelling of resin – apparently the wind had just accidentally torn it off. And if you connect it to a neighboring cone, will you recognize it? Yes, it’s a hedgehog!
How many different secrets a child will discover, looking at the gifts of nature with a curious glance. But they may not open, and even they may not be detected.
You are a teacher! Raise a child’s subtle and sensitive soul so that he can see the unusual in the ordinary, the possible in the impossible. We adults are all educators, but sometimes we forget about this. When you go out for a walk with your child, even if you are busy with your thoughts, you must not forget that you just have to bend down to the ground with your son or daughter and you can help children see another world – the world of insect life. Remember the fairy tale about the Ant Kingdom, and for a child this walk will be very interesting, because it will bring you closer together through shared experiences.
Working with natural materials will help introduce little ones into a natural workshop, where the unusual smell of frozen nature is preserved: Christmas tree cones smell subtly of resin, straw sparkles with its sunlight, shells shimmer like mother-of-pearl. Every natural material that now lies in boxes or on shelves in your natural workshop awakens a child’s memories of a warm sea wave that ran onto the shore and brought with it beautiful shells, or of the summer coolness of the forest, or memories of inexhaustible warmth and a special smell steppe dust mixed with the delicate smell of wheat in the places where you brought the straw.
But our task is for children not only to see this workshop, but, once entering it, to never leave it again. How to do it? This methodological guide will try to help you find the answer, in which you will meet fairy-tale characters already familiar to children, book characters and completely unfamiliar residents of the country of the unknown.
They can be brought to life by the deft hands of adults and children, as well as imagination, which will lead you to an amazing country where you can know and experience one of the most wonderful feelings – the joy of creation, creativity.
II
. INTO THE INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN IN THE PROCESS OF WORKING WITH NATURAL MATERIALS.
Working with natural materials contains great opportunities for bringing a child closer to his native nature, fostering a careful, caring attitude towards it and developing his first work skills.
So that children are not guests in a nature workshop, but become masters in it, let’s think about what their meetings with nature in this workshop are – fun, filling free time or an interesting activity. Making toys and crafts from natural materials is painstaking, exciting and very enjoyable work. In order for children to engage in it willingly, it is necessary to develop their imagination, good feelings, and with mastery of skills, dexterity in work will come. A. S. Makarenko drew attention to the importance of using natural materials in a child’s activities. He pointed out that materials (clay, wood, paper, etc.) “are closest to normal human activity: from materials, man creates values and culture. There is a lot of good realism in the material toy, but at the same time there is room for imagination, not just imagination, but great creative imagination.”
Children often bring acorns, cones, and branches from their walks; from the excursion to the pond – beautiful pebbles and shells. The guys spend a long time looking at the collected material, sorting through it, feeling it, and examining it. This helps to remember the shape, colors, and properties of each type of material. For example, children learn that nuts are round, brown, and have a lumpy surface; acorns are oval, shiny, yellowish-brown; cylindrical cattail, with a soft velvety surface, brown, etc.
Meetings with nature expand children’s understanding of the world around them, teach them to look carefully at various phenomena, and maintain the integrity of perception when creating crafts from natural materials.
Making crafts requires dexterous actions from the child, and if at first he often damages the toy with an inaccurate hand movement, then later, in the process of systematic work, the hand gains confidence, accuracy, and the fingers become flexible. Manual labor contributes to the development of sensorimotor skills – consistency in the work of the eye and hand, improvement of coordination of movements, flexibility, and accuracy in performing actions. In the process of making crafts, a system of special skills and abilities is gradually formed. V. A. Sukhomlinsky wrote: “The origins of children’s abilities and talents are at the tips of their fingers. From the fingers, figuratively speaking, come the finest streams that feed the source of creative thought.”
Working with natural materials has a great influence on the mental development of the child, on the development of his thinking. If you trace the path of working with children to make crafts from natural materials, you will notice that first the children examine the sample, analyze its structure, manufacturing methods; then, after mastering this process, the tasks become more complicated: children are shown a drawing or photograph of a toy that needs to be made, and finally, without preliminary analysis, they make a craft according to the instructions or according to their own ideas.
During such work, conditions are created for the development of not only the planning function of speech, but also speech regulation of behavior. However, as A.R. Luria emphasizes (see: Zaporozhets A.V. Selected psychological works: In 2 volumes – M., 1986. – T. 1. – P. 149), the role of speech is not limited to this. The increasing influence of verbal regulation of a child’s behavior is also manifested in an increase in the level of his orientation in the outside world and in himself, in the development of new knowledge and skills.
The entertaining nature of making toys from natural materials contributes to the development of attention in children – its stability increases, and voluntary attention is formed.
Crafts made from natural materials greatly satisfy children’s curiosity. In this work there is always novelty, creative quest, and the opportunity to achieve more perfect results.
A favorable emotional mood for children during the making of crafts, the joy of communication during work, and the pleasure experienced in the process of creating a beautiful craft are very important for overall development. How much sincere joy and delight simple crafts made from shells bring to the children! Children’s favorite toy becomes some funny, cheerful little man made with his own hands. Positive emotions are an important incentive to cultivate hard work.
The work of making crafts from natural materials contributes to the development of the child’s personality and the development of his character. It is not so easy to make a toy: its manufacture requires certain volitional efforts. When a child encounters difficulties, he tries to solve them on his own. Sometimes a child is unable to immediately complete some work: select pine cones of the desired shape to create a donkey, piles of acorns for hats, or connect parts of a toy in a certain way. Under the guidance of an adult, the child learns to identify the causes of failures and overcome them. Gradually, he develops such qualities as determination, perseverance, and the ability to complete the work he has begun.
In the process of working with natural materials, positive conditions are created for the formation of social motives for work, which in older age acquire significant motivating force. Each child gets the opportunity to feel and experience the joy of personal participation in a common cause.
In this type of work there are real opportunities to develop in children control and assessment of their own activities. So, when making crafts, children are faced with the need not only to analyze a sample and plan a sequence of actions, but also to control themselves as they work, to correlate their results with the sample.
Work on making crafts from natural materials can be individual and collective. Collective work brings great joy to children with its coherence and clear organization. The guys show a desire to help each other and an interest in the results of a common cause. It is advisable to use various types of collective work of children to develop their skills in planning their activities taking into account a common goal and distributing operations. Collective work has a great influence on the formation of children’s friendly, benevolent relationships, mutual assistance, and camaraderie.
The results of collective work, especially those approved by adults, inspire the children and encourage them to do new crafts. They take on every job with great emotional enthusiasm. With proper organization of the educational process, working with natural materials becomes an effective means of comprehensive development and education of children.
III
. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE CRAFTS:
1. NATURAL MATERIAL.
Children should be introduced to the world of beauty as early as possible: draw their attention to the beauty of flowers, fruits of various plants, autumn leaves, the bizarre shape and color of seashells and the inhabitants of the underwater kingdom.
Each plant can have a unique appearance: the shape of the leaves, their color, surface, etc., since when working with natural material, all this must be taken into account. It is necessary at every lesson, during excursions into nature, to remind children that they must treat nature like a steward, protect a flower, shrub, or any plant from senseless destruction.
Let’s look at some types of plant material most often used for various crafts.
Cones
(Fig. 1).
The fruits of coniferous trees – cones – are an excellent material for voluminous toys and entertaining crafts. In shape they resemble parts of the body of animals and humans. The cones stick together well, they are varied in shape, size and type: cedar, cypress, fir, spruce, pine. For making crafts, it is better to use unopened cones, as they are easier to work with.
Fig. 1
It is advisable to collect cones (especially pine cones) on moist soil so that they dry out more slowly and retain their shape longer. After collection, they need to be sorted by type, shape and size and placed in separate boxes.
Needles.
For making toys, for example, a hedgehog, spider legs and cat claws, butterfly antennae, a doll skirt, pine needles are suitable. They can be collected at any time of the year. There are a lot of needles in places where pine, spruce, and cedar trees grow. You can store them in boxes. It is better to use green pine needles in your work.
Fig. 2
Nuts
(Fig. 2).
When making crafts, you can use hazelnuts, walnuts, groundnuts, pine nuts, and pistachios.
Hazelnuts are common in the forests of central Russia. They are used as a material for making the heads of toy men and animals (the head of a cockerel, a hare, etc.). Hazelnuts should be collected ripe in August along with the cap, which can also be used in making crafts. Nuts are dried on boards and stored in boxes.
Hazelnut shells are hard. It is difficult to cut with a knife or pierced with an awl. Overdried nuts are difficult to work with, so it is advisable not to use them.
Pine nuts can be useful as an additional material when making the paws of animals, the fists of forest men; They are easily pierced with an awl and stick together well.
Walnut shells (in the form of halves) are used to make boats, carts, turtles, beetles, etc. Both halves of the shell are suitable for making, for example, heads.
You can crack the nuts into regular halves using a knife, tapping it on top with a hammer. To prevent the nut from jumping and popping out, it must be clamped in a small vice or using pliers. This work should only be done by a teacher.
Groundnuts are very convenient for making toys; They are easily pierced and cut, since their shell is thin. Peanuts are used to make original animal figures (dog, cat). You can store nuts in a dry place, as their shells do not harden when dried.
Chestnut
(Fig. 2).
Chestnut fruits are a good material for making simple toys. They have a beautiful shiny surface and bright brown color. The shell of a fresh chestnut is thin and can be easily pierced with an awl. Whole chestnut fruits can be used to make the heads and torsos of dolls. It is advisable to store chestnuts in a cool place.
Fig. 3
Acorns
(Fig. 3).
Oak fruits – acorns come in different shapes and sizes. At one end they are surrounded by a greatly overgrown cup – the plus. Acorns ripen in the fall, in September – October. They are recommended to be collected when they are ripe and fall from the tree. To make toys from acorns, they should not be collected rotten or rotten. At the same time as the acorns, their cups (pluses) on which they are held are also collected. Pluses are a very good material in addition to acorns; they are often used for various crafts. Acorns should be collected in different sizes and shapes. It is advisable to use fresh acorns for making crafts, as they last longer and are easier to work with (dried acorns easily split during processing).
Acorns are very convenient for making figurines of funny people, animals, and various parts for toys from other natural materials. From oblong acorns they make a giraffe, a heron, a horse, a donkey, and the body can be made from a large oblong acorn, and the head from a small, round one. When making funny little people, pluses can be used as hats for them.
Acorns are stored in a cool and humid place.
Cora
(Fig. 3-4).
It differs in appearance (color, thickness, surface character).
Pine, oak, birch bark (medium thickness) is used for stands in the manufacture of various scenes and individual toys from natural materials. In addition, it can be used as an additional material when making toys. You can make a stump, a roof, or simple punt boats from it.
Coasters and toys made from bark look better if they are varnished, as in this case the brown color of the bark takes on a particularly beautiful shade.
Fig. 4
Birch bark – birch bark
(Fig. 4).
One of the most beautiful and durable materials for making crafts. Products made from birch bark have long been famous in Russian folk art. For work, it is advisable to use the bark of birch trees grown on dry soils, since it is denser, stronger and more flexible.
It is advisable to collect birch bark in spring and early summer, when it is easily removed and has the best color, and only from birch trees and branches that have been felled in a storm or cut down. Birch bark is removed like this: an incision is made along the branch or trunk and around the circumference, a strip 20-25 cm wide. The removed bark is cleaned of dirt and moss, wiped on the inside with a damp cloth, and the outside is cleaned with sandpaper.
Birch bark from fresh trees (cut down by lumberjacks or felled by a storm) easily delaminates and can be processed, especially if it is placed in hot water (steamed). After steaming, strips of birch bark must be placed under a board with a load, it will be level.
Birch bark is stored in a dry and cool place, as it quickly loses flexibility and curls from the sun. This property of birch bark can be used to create some toys. In order for the birch bark to be twisted, it is enough to immerse it in hot water for a few minutes and dry it. As the birch bark dries, it will curl.
Fig. 5
Branches
(Fig. 5).
A variety of branches are used in the manufacture of certain parts of the craft: arms, legs, necks, etc. For this purpose, it is better to use branches of pine, spruce, and lilac. Their branches are elastic and do not break easily when dry.
Collecting branches is a job that requires time, patience, and accuracy. At the same time, it is necessary to constantly remind children that trees need to be protected and that only dry, but not too dry, branches should be collected and used for toys.
Roots
(Fig. 5).
Roots can also be used for crafts. With their bizarre shapes, they sometimes resemble various animals or parts of their bodies. Here, imaginative vision and observation skills, which need to be developed in children, are especially important. Children’s imagination in curved roots will help you see an octopus, spider, etc.
Many old roots or their shoots can be found along river banks. When collecting this material, it is also necessary to remind children that the roots of living trees are inviolable.
The collected roots should be washed and stored in a room with moderate humidity.
Leaves
(Fig. 5).
Leaves are an interesting and necessary addition when making crafts. They can come in a wide variety of shapes and colors. Children use large oak and maple leaves as a sail for a yacht, raft, or steamship. Leaves can also be used to make butterfly wings and fish fins (these toys are made from pine cones and leaves). It is better to collect leaves in the fall, when they are especially beautiful.
To preserve and later use the leaves, they must be properly prepared. To do this, the collected plant leaves are placed between paper sheets and ironed with a warm iron, then they can be covered with thick paper or thin cardboard and a weight placed on top. During long-term storage, the paper or cardboard between the leaves should be changed from time to time.
Seeds.
Seeds of trees, flowers, and vegetables, such as maple and ash seeds, can be a valuable addition to toys made from natural materials. They are known to children as lionfish. You can use them to make wings for a dragonfly, ears for a hare, fins for a fish, and linden seeds make good antennas for astronauts and animal paws; You can make eyes from the seeds of watermelon, melon, sunflower, large seeds of flowers such as dawn, azure flowers. It is better to collect seeds in the fall.
Fig. 6
Rose hip, rowan
(Fig. 6).
Various and interesting toys can be made from rose hips and rowan berries. The valuable quality of this material is the availability of its use in work. Rose hips and rowan berries are easily pricked, so the technique for making toys from this material is not complicated.
It is better to work with the material in the summer, since fresh berries and fruits are easily pierced with pine needles, wires, and matches.
The berries are not suitable for storage, since when they dry they harden and lose their shape.
From rose hips and rowan berries you can make various toys: gnomes and little people, dogs and kittens, a donkey, bright beads, etc.
Water lilies.
The fruits of the water lily are shaped like a pitcher with a narrow neck. Water lilies are used to make animal heads, dishes and other toys and their parts. The collected fruits are dried before work. The stock of this material is stored in a dry and cool room.
Fig. 7
Corn cobs
(Fig. 7).
Corn cobs are also used to make crafts.
Work with this material can be organized if children grow corn on their own plot. The cobs should be used without grains!
Various figures are made from them: birds, horses, etc. For work, it is better to use the cobs during the ripening period of corn, then children will be able to perform all the necessary operations independently, without the help of an adult (make cuts, trim, pierce, glue, etc.). d.). Once dry, this material is more difficult to process, so its use in the manufacture of toys becomes undesirable.
Leaves separated from the cobs will also be useful in your work. They are soft and easy to process. From them you can make a hare, a mouse, a dragonfly, a doll, as well as a variety of handbags, belts, ribbons, trims for a doll’s dress, bookmarks, etc. Before work, the leaves are dried, rolled into a wet, wrung-out cloth (the leaves are laid out in thin layer) for 2 – 3 hours, after which the amount needed to make the toy is removed.
Straw.
Straw is pleasant to work with: it is smooth, flexible, fragrant. For crafts, they use straw not only from wheat, but also from oats and rice. It can be collected during excursions to the grain field after the harvest. The straw stalks intended for work must be uncrumpled. They are cut into pieces according to the existing elbows, which are not suitable for work and are cut out. It is better to sort the straw by length and width and store it until the next summer season. Before work, the straw is soaked in boiling water and left in water for a day in a closed container, after which it becomes flexible and elastic.
Straw toys are made by tying and sewing bundles, weaving from a whole strip, weaving from smooth, ironed straw and gluing. For application, after evaporation, the straw is cut into two parts lengthwise and glued onto tracing paper. To obtain different shades, the glued straw is ironed with an iron heated to different temperatures. Glue the straw carefully, carefully applying one part to the other, leaving no gaps. As a result, whole pieces of straw are obtained. The outline of an image (a bird, an animal, flowers, etc.) is drawn on them with a pencil and cut out, the figures are glued onto some kind of fabric or paper, wood (preferably dark in color). This is the easiest way to work with straw. To obtain a more artistic image, the outline of the selected figure is applied to paper. After this, the image is folded in parts, taking into account the main relief lines, which is achieved by varying the directions of the straw. (With the help of the teacher, children perform all types of work.)
If the straw has shades, then it is necessary to take into account not only the direction of the fibers, but also the shades.
Straws can be dyed in various colors. It sticks well with PVA glue. Straw makes original, colorful and attractive toys: dolls, animals, fairy tale characters, etc.
Fig. 8
Cattail
(Fig. 8).
Many residents of the south are well aware of the bright, brown, soft and delicate inflorescence of cattail, the thickets of which are distributed along the banks of lakes, ponds, and rivers. Cattail inflorescences are an interesting material that can be easily processed. It makes funny animal figurines (bears, kittens, etc.), as well as various objects.
Cattail leaves (narrow and long) can also be used in making toys, but only after processing, like corn leaves.
Decorative pumpkins.
They come in different shapes and shades. Pumpkins are used to make various crafts, such as figurines of Baba Yaga, girls, etc.; This material is easy to process and, when dried, is well preserved.
Grass.
Various herbs can be used to complement the craft, but we must remember that the grass becomes brittle when dried. The grass is used to fasten (bind) the parts of the craft.
Moss.
When making toys, moss is often used to convey a background, image of vegetation, etc. Moss is easily glued with various glues.
Bird feathers.
In your work, you can use bird feathers of different sizes, shades, and any quality (chicken feathers, duck feathers, goose feathers, sparrow feathers, pigeon feathers, etc.). Before work, the feathers are washed, dried and combed to restore their natural appearance.
Shells
(Fig. 11 – 12).
On the banks of rivers, seas, and lakes you can see shell houses abandoned by animals, many of which are interesting in appearance, original in shape – oval, scallop-shaped, heart-shaped, etc.
Collecting shells is done by children together with a leader during walks and excursions. After collecting, the shells are washed with a small brush (or a toothbrush), after which they are laid out and dried. Dry shells are sorted by type and size. They are stored at any temperature.
You can make animal figures from shells (squirrels, dogs, cats, hares, chickens, crocodile, etc.). Shells are also used as additional material (Cheburashka ears, bird wings, flower petals, etc.).
2. D ADDITIONAL MATERIALS.
Fig. 9
When making crafts, additional materials are often used (Fig. 9).
Paper.
There are writing, poster, filter, envelope, landscape, velvet, cover, wallpaper, poster, copying, parchment, and wrapping paper. Types of paper differ from each other in thickness, density, color, and purpose.
Children love to work with colored paper of various shades, which is easy to cut, bend, and glue.
Foil.
This is the name for thin metal sheets (made of non-ferrous metals or alloys – lead, tin, aluminum) used to decorate crafts and bookbindings.
Plasticine.
This material is used for fastening parts of less complex toys (when working with natural materials, glue is often used for this purpose), as well as for sculpting some parts of crafts at the initial stages of work.
Wire.
It is a necessary material for fastening parts of a toy, in particular for making the frame of toys from straw, and for other purposes. The most convenient copper wire (it is soft, flexible and durable) with a diameter of 0.35, 0.29 mm. For the toy frame you need a wire of a larger diameter – 1 – 1.5 mm.
Threads.
It is better to use thick, colored ones (No. 10).
Glue.
You need different brands: white PVA glue, Mars glue, BF, etc.
Colored patches.
O
scraps of various fabrics – also useful for decorating crafts.
The use of each type of additional material will depend on the concept, manifestation of creativity, skill, ingenuity of children, and on the degree of development of their imagination.
Plywood, pebbles, small stones, grape seeds, fishing line, and bristles are used as additional materials.
To store additional material, you need to have a small box with cells designed for each type of material. The box can also be located in a sectional cabinet, on a shelf, next to other materials.
3. AND INSTRUMENTS.
Fig. 10
To make crafts, in addition to the material, you need to have the simplest tools (Fig. 10).
Shiloh.
The length of the awl handle should be approximately 5-7 cm, diameter – 1.5-2 cm; the length of the piercing part is 3-3.5 cm. The awl should not be very thick, but made of durable material.
Scissors.
For work, children need small scissors with blunt ends, with rings appropriate for the size of the child’s hand.
Knife.
Small (but not pen-type) with a blunt end is recommended; blade length 13 – 15 cm.
Needle.
You need a large sewing machine; it must be stored on a small napkin or in a needle bed with a thread threaded into it.
Simple pencil.
Necessary for drawing an outline on paper when cutting out parts or a planned craft, for example, a scarf for a nesting doll, etc. Use pencils of varying softness (preferably 2 M).
Paints.
Necessary for decorating individual parts of the toy (an apron for a doll, a collar for Pinocchio, etc.). It is recommended to use gouache paints (opaque) in special sets or in separate bottles. This thick paint must be diluted with water before painting.
Tassels
(soft for drawing, harder for glue).
For painting, it is better to use squirrel brushes (No. 4 and 6). Before painting, you should remember the working techniques: the brush needs to be well soaked with paint; lines should be drawn once; You can only move the brush in the direction of the pile, otherwise it will become shaggy. In order for the drawing to turn out beautiful, you must remember to dip the brush in the paint in a timely manner, and do not brush over one place several times.
For glue you need special brushes with hard bristles. Glue is used to join many toys made from natural materials; it is especially necessary for joining parts of crafts made from shells.
Stack.
A tool used in the process of modeling clay or plasticine (to process the surface of a product). Stacks come in a variety of sizes; for children, a length of 10-12 cm is recommended. The stack can be easily made, for example, from a worn-out brush: sharpen one end of it, and cut off the other on both sides and round it.
Tweezers.
Preferably manicured or with a flattened twisted front part. They are used for twisting wire when making toys from straw, sponge and other materials.
Pliers, pliers, drill
Only the teacher uses it.
To make crafts from shells, in addition to general tools, you must have a file, a manicure file, gouache of all colors, and light oil varnish specifically for working with this material.
The teacher needs to know well the features of the tools most often used in making crafts from natural materials and introduce children to them.
IV
. METHODS FOR MANUFACTURING CRAFTS FROM NATURAL MATERIAL.
1. SHELL CRAFTS.
In damp places, on plants and in water, you can find various breeds of slugs and mollusks that wear their shell house. The shell is a protective structure covering the body of these invertebrate animals.
The shell consists of three layers.
The first, outer layer consists of organic substances, the second – of lime spar, the third, inner layer – mother of pearl.
Slugs, the so-called “coils,” have almost no inner layer, and their shells can only be used as decorative forms. Shells can be used for play as plates, lamp shades, vases. Small shells strung on threads replace beads.
Mollusk shells are especially interesting for making products, since their shapes and sizes are very different.
Pearl barley is especially rich in mother-of-pearl. That’s why they are called that. Freshwater pearl barley is not common everywhere. They are found in the rivers of Bashkiria, Tataria, Ukraine, Moscow and Voronezh regions, as well as in the rivers of the North Caucasus and the Far East.
Sea pearls are found only in the southern seas and are mined mainly in the Persian Gulf. Red Sea, Indian and Pacific oceans. In pearl pearls of the South Seas, a unique, beautiful, shiny body is often found inside the shells – a pearl.
In the distant past, the shell was widely used in everyday life. Hoes, scrapers, fishhooks and signal horns, various vessels, ironing tools, amulets and jewelry were made from it. In the past, shells replaced money, passed from hand to hand in the form of a written message.
Currently, beautiful iridescent buttons and trinkets are made from a thick layer of mother-of-pearl, and inlays are placed on boxes, furniture and other products.
On the Crimean and Caucasian coasts, the production of caskets, frames and boxes covered with small and large shells is very common. Shell fragments and defective shells are used in crushed form to sprinkle empty spaces in the laid out three-dimensional design.
In China, India and most southern countries, where pearl barley and large figured shells are mined, they are used to make beautiful writing utensils, table lamp shades, ashtrays, paperweights, elegant cups for trinkets, and they are used for inlay.
We will have small river and sea shells at our disposal. Therefore, we will tell you how they can be used.
Start this work from the center of the picture and finish by laying out the border and dusting the background.
Those who know how to draw can come up with and execute a design first on paper, and then use it to lay out shells on the surface of the product.
Place the toothless ones with the convex side up and at a certain angle on top of each other. You will get a ribbed, beautiful edging.
Flowers and leaves made from shells are best glued with the concave side up. You can install them from behind each other, obliquely, as in the rose in the picture.
Combining surface shapes and shell rotations. By adding crushed chips from broken shells and finally tinting some of them, very beautiful finishes can be achieved.
Decorating finished products with shells is not difficult. Boxes or frames of various shapes, made from a wide variety of materials – wood, cardboard, plywood – are covered with a thick layer of casein glue or, even better, a mastic made from chalk, wood glue and a small amount of drying oil. The figuratively arranged halves of bivalve toothless shells are glued or pressed into this mass. Whole bouquets can be laid out from half shells, forming flowers and leaves. They also lay out simple ornaments from shells.
Tint the shells with colored varnish or oil paints in a thin layer.
You can paste over calendar boards, mirror frames, boxes, caskets and many other products with shells.
You can make a shell out of a double-leaf sink by gluing a piece of cloth folded in four between the doors. The ends sticking out are cut with scissors in the form of a fringe.
Belt made of shells.
Collect more shells. Drill through the shells with a thin triangular awl. Then take the braid and attach the shells to it one by one with threads, as shown in the figure, so that the shell slightly covers the other. Make the length of the belt according to your waist size. The belt can be fastened either with an inconspicuously sewn hook or with a button.
Such a belt will be a very good addition to the corresponding carnival costume, such as a mermaid, etc.
2.
COMPOSITIONS FROM DRIED PLANTS.
If you are seriously interested in collecting plants for a herbarium, then it is advisable to acquire a special press. We will need sheets of durable plywood 10 mm thick, 4 threaded steel studs, at least 10 cm long, 4 washers and the same number of nuts, as well as 6 or 8 thin plywood. The size of the press depends on what plants we will collect. For small branches and individual inflorescences, blanks with a side of 20-25 cm are suitable, but for large plants you need to find larger plywood pieces.
Let’s collect all the sheets of plywood in a stack and drill four through holes in the corners at a distance of 1.5-2 cm from the edge.
Drill a large number of holes in each of the thin plywood. This will allow air to pass freely through the stack, which means it will speed up the drying of the raw material.
The main parts of the press are ready, but it still needs to be supplemented with sheets of filter paper.
Preparing the drying device is very simple. Let’s pass the pins through its thick plywood base and string the rest of the press parts onto them.
The dried plants are placed between sheets of filter paper and lined with thin plywood. When the stack is assembled, cover it with a second piece of thick plywood and lightly tighten the press with nuts.
Making a press is not difficult, but this is a real man’s work – let dad, grandfather or older brother take on the task.
There are different ways to make compositions from dried flowers. Dry plants are simply placed in a vase, decorated with wall panels, dried petals and leaves are used instead of paints, “painting” pictures with them that are almost indistinguishable from watercolors. But no matter what method of working with dried flowers you choose, the main thing is to prepare a large amount of plant material.
If making a press for drying plants seems too labor-intensive, you can arrange flowers and herbs with newspapers, and use a thick book as a load. But drying in a real press gives better results – the plants turn out flat and almost completely retain their color.
Having prepared the press, we will go in search of flowers and herbs. For our crafts, we may need not only wild plants, but also cultivated plants. In general, the choice of natural materials depends only on the imagination of the master. But keep in mind that an inconspicuous-looking weed may look more advantageous in a composition than its lush decorative counterpart. This happens because in flat bouquets of dried herbs the shape of each detail is very important. Graceful carved leaves and intricately branching stems of wild herbs look more attractive than the dense, shapeless “spot” of a large flower. But all of the above does not mean that we should abandon the use of large decorative flowers in the composition – sometimes they are what give the panel a finished look. I would like to remind you once again that the collection of any natural materials for crafts should under no circumstances turn into thoughtless destruction of nature. When collecting wild plants, you should not pick more than three or four flowers of each type in one place, even if they seem to grow in abundance. And, of course, do not pick plants listed in the Red Book.
In the process of making panels from dried plants, we will need not only flowers, but also bright autumn leaves. Their rich, rich colors significantly expand the master’s palette. How nice it is to walk through the park on a fine autumn day and return home with an armful of golden, purple, variegated leaves! Let’s take a closer look at our finds – real “masterpieces” can be found among the fallen leaves. Subtle color transitions, intricate patterns of veins and spots, bright borders with unique outlines.
Is it possible to indifferently turn away from such beauty?
You need to collect flowers and herbs all summer and the first half of autumn, immediately dry them and put them away for storage.
It is better to start picking flowers in the first half of the day. If your bouquet turns out to be damp from rain or dew, you must first dry it and then put it under the press. Before placing flowers under the press, be sure to straighten each leaf and stem, giving them the most advantageous arrangement. When starting work, we must remember that fleshy, juicy stems and leaves are much more difficult to dry than hard and dry ones.
When drying watery flowers and leaves, be sure to replace the sheets of newsprint or filter paper several times to help maintain the plants’ natural appearance.
It is advisable to collect autumn leaves in good weather, choosing dry ones that are not stained with dirt. They are dried in the same way as other plants – under pressure or between stacks of newspapers.
Dried flowers are stored in boxes or folders, lined with sheets of thin paper. Dry plants are very fragile material, so it is best to transfer them using tweezers.
We will talk specifically about the colors blue and cyan. Alas, modest “blue-eyed” forget-me-nots or bright, cheerful cornflowers will certainly turn black after drying and lose their attractiveness. Therefore, before drying, they must be subjected to special treatment.
Immerse the raw material for a very short time (no more than one minute) in denatured alcohol. After this procedure, blue flowers will most likely retain their color even when dried.
It’s time to talk about how to make a decorative panel from dried plants.
First of all, let’s think about what its background will be – from felt, burlap, velvet paper or dried plants. The choice of material depends, first of all, on the style in which our craft will be made.
Let’s assemble our flat bouquet. The work is carried out in the following sequence.
First, let’s lay out the background or background of the panel, consisting of large leaves.
Then we will lay out the smaller details of the composition that make up its foreground.
Flowers should be one of the last to be attached to the background – they, as a rule, are not obscured by other, smaller details. Thanks to this, the bouquet will seem alive, “breathing”…
You shouldn’t take on the production of large, complex panels – we don’t have enough experience for this yet. It is better to start with small compositions of one to three flowers and small twigs.
When gluing the inflorescences, do not completely coat the underside of the petal with glue. Flowers and leaves tightly adhered to the background will seem faded and lifeless; over time, the layer of glue can affect their color. Therefore, glue must be applied only to the flower cups and lubricate thick, dense stems and leaf cuttings with it.
Now let’s try to complicate our work a little and replace the sheet of velvet paper with a background made up of dry leaves or flower petals.
First of all, let’s prepare blanks of one type, for example, golden-orange maple leaves or scarlet tulip petals.
Glue them to a sheet of thick cardboard. The blanks must be secured with “scales” – that is, the upper edges of each next petal should cover the base of the previous one, greased with glue.
Having thus filled the entire background plane, let the glue dry and begin gluing the flowers and leaves that form the panel ornament.
The pictures show several options for making flat bouquets of dried plants. We will use them at first, and then we will try to independently develop various compositions for decorative panels.
You should edge the craft either with tape or strips of foil – this will protect it from moisture. Insert the sealed panel into the frame. When choosing a place in your apartment for a picture of flowers, you must keep in mind that dry plants gradually fade when exposed to direct sunlight. Therefore, it is best to hang the panel on the darkest wall.
We have already learned how to dry plants under pressure, but it turns out that there are ways to dry flowers in which they retain not only their color, but also their natural shape. Very original compositions are obtained from such voluminous blanks.
Having stocked up on the required amount of dried flowers, let’s try to make a decorative composition out of them. Such flower arrangements are not uncommon,
called ikebana
Ikebana is the ancient Japanese art of arranging bouquets. To master it, the master requires a deep knowledge of Japanese traditions, because any classical composition has special symbolism and is fraught with a kind of encrypted message.
The basis of the composition is usually three flowers located at an angle to the vertical axis.
Each of the flowers should be clearly visible from all sides and not obscured by other plants.
The absence of unnecessary details, clear lines and thoughtfulness of the composition distinguish a bouquet made in the ikebana tradition from a thoughtlessly collected bunch of plants.
The container in which it is placed is very important for the perception of the bouquet as a whole. Since dried plants do not require water, they can not only be placed in vases, but also mounted on stands. Pieces of pine bark, dry moss, sea shells, intricately curved driftwood, and various household items can serve as such stands.
The choice of materials is very rich, however, when designing a stand for a bouquet, do not forget: any excess can ruin even the most beautiful craft.
The summer months were not in vain – now we have thick folders with herbariums, boxes with voluminous flowers almost indistinguishable from real ones. This means that even in the middle of winter it will not be difficult to return sunny summer, scented with the aromas of herbs, to our homes. Let’s make a lot of crafts from dry plants and give them to our friends, relatives, acquaintances and neighbors – let memories of an unforgettable summer settle in every home.
3.
WEAVING STRAW Ribbons.
To weave straw into a hat, basket, suitcase, bag, wall rugs and other products, you must first prepare a woven ribbon. This ribbon is woven by hand from solid, round straw of the first and second grade. For the finest industrial products, ribbons are woven from split straw. In production, straw is split with a special splitter, and in very large productions even with special machines. Since splitting straw is a difficult process, we will limit ourselves to weaving from round straw. Let us say, however, that the process of weaving from round and split straw is the same.
There are many ways to weave straw ribbons. You will learn how to weave simplified ribbons – from two, three, four, five, six, seven and eleven straws.
For any weaving, the straw must be soaked in cold water 3-4 hours before work. If the straw has been collected for a very long time, it is even better to steam it, just like before smoothing. Before work, remove the straw from the water, shake it off and roll it up in newspaper, spreading it out in a thin layer. This is necessary because dried straws no longer bend elastically, they prick and break at the slightest bend. While working, your fingers should also be moistened from time to time in a basin of water. The straw easily slips out of dry fingers.
When weaving figured ribbons with “four” and “herringbone” teeth, as well as when weaving wide strips of ribbons from 7 and 11 ends, it is advisable to grease your fingers with a piece of lard to give the weaving strength to tighten all sides. In addition, oiled fingers work faster, sliding smoothly along the straw and do not hurt from friction on the bends.
If you don’t have straw, you can replace it with plastic strips. Strips are cut from plastic bottles around the circumference. In this case, you can get a fairly long narrow ribbon, which is quite suitable for weaving.
“Deuce” ribbon.
Two long straws are flattened, laid on top of each other at a 90° angle and tied with thread. The bottom straw bends over the one lying on top and becomes the top one. Then the straw that is now at the bottom is bent onto it, etc. When laying the straws, press one tightly against the other.
Bend the straws upward with your right hand, hold the resulting accordion with your left hand and turn the next straw. When a straw ends, extend it by placing a new straw on top of it.
The drawing will help you better understand the weaving process. Having finished weaving the “two”, tie the ends with a thread, as at the beginning of weaving, and slightly stretch the braid, like an accordion. Double weaving is used only for finishing, for example, a straw wall rug. This weaving can also be used as a finishing cord when edging baskets, handbags and other products.
Three-piece ribbon.
The “troika” ribbon is woven, like a regular braid, from three straws. Each turn of the straw bends tightly. This achieves flattening of the round straw. Starting weaving without extensions, insert two straws one into the other – the narrow end into the wide one. Apply the third straw to the two, with a slight overlap over the top. While working, make sure that the braided ends are pulled evenly on both sides, do not push the straws one on top of the other and do not leave gaps between them. The width of the tape depends on the thickness of the straws taken. To prevent the braid from breaking or getting tangled, from time to time roll the ribbon onto a board or on your hand in the shape of a figure eight and tie it with braid. As already mentioned in the two-piece weave, by placing a new straw of the same thickness on the ending one, with a slight overlap on top, you lengthen it.
Weaving with a new straw continues as usual. At the end of the weaving, the excess ends sticking out in all directions are trimmed with scissors, and the woven tape, soaked again in water, is ironed with a hot iron. Ironed straw acquires the shine lost from soaking; in addition, the tape is pressed and comes out from under the iron flat and even.
“Simple four-ended” tape.
This braid is the most common. It is good for sewing hats and baskets. This ribbon is woven using the same techniques as the “troika” ribbon. Only in this case, take four straws and push two into each other to lengthen them. Fold them crosswise. Then bend one of the ends back, the second from underneath to the top, as shown in the figure. Four ends are formed, from which weaving is carried out. The folds are tightly squeezed with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, and weaving is continued with both hands alternately, that is, the left side straw is bent back with the left hand and intertwined in the middle of the weaving with the neighboring one. The right straw is bent towards itself at an angle with the right hand and also intertwined in the middle. These bindings secure the position of the braid and form the middle part of the tape in a checkerboard pattern.
So, alternately braiding the left side all the time back, and the right side up, and weaving is carried out. While working, make sure that the straws are evenly tightened, that they are correctly bent at an angle at the edges, and that there are no gaps between them. This instruction applies to weaving by any method. As you work, remember to flatten the straw with your fingers, especially at the folds. In all cases, lengthen the ending straws as we indicated earlier – by laying them on top of a new straw. The excess ends are trimmed off at the end.
Ribbon “four ends with teeth”.
This braid is very beautiful and durable. Hats and baskets are also sewn from it; in addition, smooth products are finished with it. Two straws inserted into each other are folded and bent in the same way as in the previous “four ends”. When you make two weaving moves – on the right and on the left, the work will become somewhat more complicated: forward, towards you, there will be no bends in this braid. This weaving is based on bending only backwards. On the sides, cloves are formed evenly, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, consisting of two straws bent at an angle.
The weaving process is as follows: the left straw is bent back and intertwined in the center. Again, the left side is folded back and intertwined with the side on the right, placing it on top. The first clove begins from this tip that extends to the right. By bending it back, we form only half of the prong; to finish it, you need to bend the next, right straw back again. Having finished this clove, the tip of the straw should be brought to the left over the one on the far left, as shown in the figure. All subsequent work will consist of weaving the cloves on the sides and binding the straws in the center. A common mistake for beginners is not finishing the clove and moving to the other side of the weave prematurely, or not interweaving the straws together in the center. By eliminating errors in a timely manner, avoiding gaps and curvature in the weaving, this work is learned very quickly. Even preschool children can weave this braid.
Start with small braids, without lengthening, using the woven strip as a bookmark.
Five-ended tape.
The “five-ended” or “pedal” ribbon is woven in the same way as the “four-ended without teeth.” But the assembly of straws for weaving is somewhat different: two pairs of straws inserted into each other are placed side by side so that the end of one protrudes about five centimeters. This is necessary so that the straws do not have to be lengthened at the same time. In the middle of these two straws, perpendicular to them, a third straw is placed, the tip of which protrudes 2 cm upward above the transverse ones. All three straws are taken with the left hand, and with the index and thumb of the right hand we bend the ends of the two straws up, placing them as shown in the figure. Next, we bend the straw that was placed perpendicularly from right to left. We transfer all the straws to the right hand and with the fingers of the left hand bend the one on the far left onto the next one, and bring the next one onto the third one from the bottom. Thus, we get two straws on one side and three on the other. Having done the same on the right, we will alternately braid the straws further, bending them at an angle on the sides and intertwining them together in the center.
Pedal tape is good for sewing hats, purses, bags, boxes and rugs. Do not forget to wind the finished lash into a skein from time to time, and after finishing the work, moisten it and press it under a hot iron.
Six-ended tape.
The “six-ended” or “herringbone” ribbon is woven like a “four-ended with teeth”. Only in the center the lash is formed not in a checkerboard pattern, but in the form of a herringbone. This tape is used mainly for finishing and edging artistic products and rugs.
Use small educational pieces of herringbone as bookmarks.
The beginning of the ribbon is braided from six straws inserted into each other in pairs. Assemble these straws as shown in the figure. Further, in the center, they are folded at an angle. We bend the straw on the far right onto the second one and bring it under the middle one; then we bend the one on the far left onto the second one on the left and bring it under the third one. All the time, the straws are clearly divided into three on the left and three on the right. The “herringbone” weave differs from the “four-ended with teeth” in that on the left side of the weave, stepping over not one, but two straws at once. On the left side, you get a clear stretch of the straw in the horizontal direction from clove to clove.
“Herringbone” can be woven from both the thinnest and thickest straws, flattening them with your fingers during weaving and, of course, like all braids, after finishing the work, soaking them, pressing them and drying them under an iron.
Seven-ending tape.
In the south, the ribbon woven in this way is called “khina”, named after the city of Hina, where large sun hats, awnings and window curtains are woven from it.
The beginning of the weaving is three straws bent in one direction with a fourth placed perpendicular to them. Alternately, moving from one side to the other, they bend either four or three straws, forming a straight line on the sides at an angle. Those who have already learned how to weave a “five-ended stripe” can easily weave a “seven-ended stripe”, “nine-ended stripe” and the widest ribbon of eleven straws, the so-called “suitcase”, since suitcases are usually sewn from it.
Eleven-ending tape.
The “eleven-ended” or “suitcase” ribbon is woven from five straws bent in one direction and one perpendicular to them. The ends of the straws are divided into five and six in different directions, as shown in the figure, and alternately bent at an angle. Products made from straw ribbons are sewn with threads manually or using a sewing machine. When hand stitching, the stitch is hidden between the straws. When machine stitching, sew with a sparse stitch along the tape. The sewn tape is applied up to half the width to the already sewn one. The tape lends itself well to stretching, ironing and stitching to any shape. Hats are sewn and ironed on a wooden block. They usually start sewing hats from the bottom.
Screw cord.
A screw cord is braided for edging products from four wet straws of equal thickness. The straws are collected into a bundle and tied at one end with thread. Having disassembled the straws into two middle and two side ones, attach the tied end to a table or chair. The two middle straws serve as the base; they are not shortened in length, so they can be taken to the length that the cord is intended to be. The two side straws are continuously entwined, moving first to the right and then to the left. Therefore, from time to time they are lengthened. Weaving begins with a loop of one of the side straws, as shown in the picture.
The opposite side straw, going over this loop, is placed under the two middle ones that form the base and is pulled out into the loop. By pulling the two middle straws, tighten the resulting double knot to the very top of the straw fastening. The next weaving move is the same. A second loop is made on the same side where the first loop began, and the opposite straw on the other side also forms a double puff. The wattle gradually lengthens and begins to twist like a screw around its axis. If it becomes uncomfortable to weave at this point, turn the lash over and continue weaving as if inside out. This is how the cord is woven to the required length. Screw cord is sewn to the edges of boxes, frames, bags, paper folders, and is used for loops and buttons. The cord is usually woven from the thinnest round straws of the first grade.
Round cord.
A round cord is woven around a rod, which can be soft or hard, depending on the purpose of the cord. For a soft rod, take a thick straw with a thick thread threaded through it. The rigid rod is made from a thick straw through which a wire is threaded.
Cords with a wire core are good as handles for various woven bags. They easily take the desired shape, and are firmly attached to the product using the protruding ends of the wire. Taking five longer wet straws, tie them in a bunch to the end of the rod. Then the straws are taken apart around the rod so that a quadrangle is formed. One end of the wire protruding from the rod, bent into a ring, is attached with a nail to the board, and the other end is pulled and secured vertically upward. They braid the rod with straws, holding them tightly in the desired direction and pressing them evenly against the rod.
The disassembly of the straws around the rod is done as follows: one of the five straws is folded over the adjacent one, and the lower one from under it is folded over, through one. Repeating this last movement on all sides forms a quadrangle. Subsequent weaving is done in the same way. It is not recommended to flatten straws because tubular straw makes the cord look neater.
Coloring straw and straw products.
Ready-made ribbons, or even better straw, can be dyed any color before weaving. Straw is easily dyed in aniline dyes for cotton fabric. For uniform coloring, the straw is soaked in soapy water for 24 hours, then, after rinsing well, it is placed in a hot solution of paint of the desired color. Depending on the required shade, the straw is kept in the solution from 1 to 8 hours. After dyeing, the straw is rinsed in salted water. The straw is then dried, and before weaving, it is soaked again in cold water and wrapped in newspaper separately from the undyed one.
Decorating ribbons and cords made from multi-colored straws greatly decorate the product. Straw is also dyed and is intended for flat weaving and appliqué.
4. CRAFTWORKS FROM PINE BARK AND MULBL MUSHROOMS.
Bark is the outer part of plant stems and trunks. In trees it has different thicknesses and a special subcortical layer called phloem. The bark protects trees from excessive evaporation and infection by parasites. Therefore, you cannot remove it from a growing, living tree. If this is done for industrial purposes, it is done very carefully, at a certain time of the year when the trees are least likely to suffer from stripping the bark.
The abundance of forests in our country makes it possible for our industry to widely use the bark of various trees for economic and medicinal needs.
Cork oak provides material for making corks. Household containers are made from the outer part of birch bark and tar is extracted. Black poplar bark makes good floats for fishing gear. The bark of oak, spruce and willow contains a large amount of tannins used in tanning. Siberian fir produces fir balsam. The medicinal quinine is extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree. Bast is obtained from the linden bast cortex. The pine bark at the base of old, large pines has a thick, layered structure. Taken from felled pine trees, it is an excellent material for volumetric cutting with a knife. Prepare pieces of the removed bark for future use by sawing it with a hacksaw into small pieces. Three-dimensional cutting from pine bark is done with special cutters used for wood carving, a semicircular chisel, or simply a pocket knife. Toys, chess, and floats are cut out of bark according to a pre-made sketch or from life.
The shape you want to cut is marked along the contour on a block of bark. The easiest way to cut a simple punt boat. Such a boat, being light, floats well. It is easy to cut out chess pieces and an ink device from the bark. It is somewhat more difficult to cut out figures of animals and people.
The beautiful brick brown color of the bark really benefits from being varnished. The tinder fungus grows on the trunks of deciduous and coniferous trees. The development of this parasite begins on a living tree, then continues on a dead tree. Every year, in layers, the fungus increases in size and, absorbing the sap of the tree, causes the tree to rot, weakens its growth and ultimately leads to death.
Tinder mushrooms are cut from trees, selecting the smoothest and most interesting in shape, and use them for various crafts. For example, you can make a paper press from a single cap of an oval-shaped tinder fungus by sanding it and varnishing it.
Soft, cork-like polypores are easy to cut with a knife. They are cut from them, just like from bark. Harder ones are cut with a jigsaw.
Ink device.
For an ink device, try to find a very large, interestingly shaped tree mushroom. It’s good if you find a mushroom with several overlapping fins that resemble rock ledges. Carefully remove the mushroom from the tree so that no breaks or cracks form on it, clean it and cut off with a knife the part of it that is adjacent to the wood – it will serve as the back wall of your ink device.
Then prepare a stand for the inkstand – a rectangle cut with a jigsaw from thick 5- or 7-mm plywood or from a wooden block. File the edges of the stand thoroughly so that it has the correct shape. The size of the stand should be larger than the size of the mushroom. Draw a pencil in the center of the stand, and then cut out a round hole with a jigsaw. The inkwell will be inserted into it. Cut the same hole with a knife in the corresponding place of the mushroom. Secure the mushroom on the stand with nails by drilling holes in the mushroom in several places and then hammering nails into these holes. Drive the nails into the depressions or wrinkles on the surface of the mushroom, that is, in places that can then be disguised with moss, lichen, or covered with a figurine with which you will decorate the device.
You can strengthen the mushroom on the stand in another way: first make markings on the back side of the stand, then remove a small layer of wood in these places with a chisel to drown the heads of the nails, and hammer the nails in these places so that you can then plant the mushroom approximately up to half.
Now let’s think about how to decorate your ink device. If you have a piece of thick pine bark, you can cut out figures of some animals from it. Let’s say you chose a teddy bear. Transfer the teddy bear design through the carbon paper onto the cardboard and cut it out of the cardboard with scissors. Then take a thick piece of bark, trim it with a knife so that a flat surface is formed, place a cardboard figurine of a bear on it and trace it along the bark with a sharpened pencil. Now place the bark on a wooden board and use a knife to gradually trim the bark around the pencil line.
At the same time, hold the knife vertically so that the edges of the figure do not turn out to be beveled. Also make sure that the entire pencil line remains on the figure, then you will not get gross distortions of the drawing.
So, the bear cub figurine is cut out. But it’s still flat. Gradually cut off the bark from the edges with a knife and give the bear a three-dimensional shape. Be especially careful when cutting out the paws – they are easy to break. In general, thin, fragile figures should not be cut out of bark – the bark will crumble. Bark figurines should not be painted, with the exception of small parts. For example, a bear cub can be painted with black paint on its nose, eyes, etc. It is also necessary to select animals whose color roughly matches the color of their bark.
Figures of animals, animals, birds can be sculpted from plasticine or clay and painted accordingly.
When the sculpted product is ready, let it dry gradually, but not in the sun or near a radiator. If the clay figurine dries quickly from high temperatures, it will crack.
To make the sculpted figures more durable, coat them with liquid wood glue or oil varnish, and then paint them with oil paints.
If you want to sculpt some thin and fragile figure, such as a deer, be sure to make it on a wire frame. Then the deer figurine will be quite strong. Having made a wire frame, cover it with plasticine or clay and then process all the details with a stack or a thin stick. When the deer is ready, use the ends of the wire that you leave on all four legs of the deer to attach the figurine to the mushroom and stand.
Now all you have to do is mask the places where the figurine is attached to the mushroom and the heads of the nails with which you nailed the mushroom to the stand. You can do this with moss, lichen or small bushes made from moss.
Moss bushes are made like this: take several separate branches of long moss, tie them with black thread and attach them to a thin wire, the ends of which twist around the head of a nail, and in some places glue the moss to the mushroom with wood glue or casein glue.
Box for small items.
For the box, try to find a mushroom approximately the same shape as in the picture. In any case, the mushroom should be such that, when mounted on a stand, it has a beautiful shape on all sides.
Having picked up such a mushroom, strengthen it with nails and wire on a rectangular wooden stand. For the box, you can use, for example, a plastic lid of a soft color, preferably beige or brown. Having leveled the place on the fungus where you will strengthen the box, glue the box to the mushroom with BF-2 glue. Now let’s think about how to decorate this little thing. On the mushroom you can make two figures of fawns or a figurine of a fallow deer or roe deer with a calf. In a word, since this little thing – the box itself is smaller than the inkstand, then the figures on it should be smaller than the figure on the inkwell. If you want the figures to be shiny, paint them with oil paints diluted in drying oil. If you want the figures to be matte, dilute oil paints in turpentine. If you make figures from clay or plasticine, the color of which will be in harmony with the color of the mushroom, you don’t have to paint them.
Tabletop paper press.
Select three tree mushrooms of approximately spherical shape, identical in color, but different in size: one large, the second smaller, the third even smaller. Cut the stand out of a wooden block approximately in the same shape as shown in the figure. Treat it with a plane and then with a jointer, stain it with stain so that the color of the stand matches the color of the mushroom. The block can also be polished or coated with colorless varnish.
Now build a “rock” from mushrooms. To do this, take a large nail. The length of the nail should be such that the nail passes through three mushrooms and enters the stand by at least 2-3 centimeters. Then drill through the center of each mushroom with a drill or gimlet, coat the mushrooms where they will touch with wood glue, place one on top of the other and drive a nail through all three mushrooms into the stand. Attach the wire to the head of the nail so that it has two long free ends, which you will use to attach the eagle to the rock.
An eagle can be sculpted from plasticine. In this case, make a strong frame for it: tie two strong wooden sticks crosswise with thin wire. Then wrap each stick with wire folded in half, then stretch the wire along the entire length of the wing of your future eagle, bend it, pull it back and wrap it around the wooden sticks again.
Having made the frame, proceed to sculpting the eagle. Having finished sculpting the eagle on the frame, firmly connect the ends of the wire attached to the nail, firmly pulling the eagle figure to the rock. Having fixed the eagle figurine on the rock, process the sculpture in detail with a stack.
You can make an eagle not from plasticine, but from some natural material: bark, birch bark, wood, etc. This is more difficult, but more interesting and beautiful.
Let’s say you decide to carve an eagle from bark. Remove a piece of thick, dense bark from a pine log or stump in the forest (but do not disfigure the growing pine). Using a knife, cut out two wings from two pieces of bark of the same color. The top layer of bark should be on the upper side of the eagle’s wing, since pine bark is very similar in color and appearance to the bird’s feathers.
Then cut the eagle’s tail, again so that the top of the bark is on the top of the tail. From the thickest part of the bark, cut out the body of an eagle. Then connect all the parts to each other using wood glue and thin soft wire. The hardest part is attaching the wings to the body. Using a knife, make small indentations in the eagle’s body where the wings begin. Drill the base of the wing with an awl and pass the wire into this hole. After this, drill through the body of the eagle in the place where the indentations were made, and firmly pull the wings to the body, having previously lubricated them with wood glue. If the wings are pulled tight, they will hold up well.
The eagle’s paws can be made from small twigs or roots by finding the appropriate shape. Nail the branches to the body with small thin nails and wood glue. Carefully trim the ends of the branches with a penknife and bend them with your fingers, giving them the shape of curved claws.
When the eagle is ready, mask the joints with pieces of bark, giving them the shape of feathers, and stick them in the appropriate places. The joints can also be masked with putty – a mixture of wood glue, fine sawdust and clay, and then these places can be tinted.
Tabletop paper press.
“Goat on the Rock” table press for papers:
1 – wooden outline of the rock; 2 — stand for the ramp; 3 – wooden contour of the slope, mounted on a stand; 4 – strengthening pieces of bark on a wooden contour; 5 – this is how nails are driven in; 6 – holes are drilled in the bark; 7 – wire is threaded into the holes; 8 — fastening; 9 – general view of the tabletop press.
Three-dimensional figurine of a goat made of papier-mâché:
1 – figurine cut out of plywood; 2 – pieces of paper are glued to the plywood; 3 — the first layer of paper is pasted; 4 – gluing is completed.
If you look closely at the stumps of old birch trees, you will see that they are covered with a thick layer of dark gray bark with a whitish coating showing through here and there. This bark is usually cracked, and if you hit it with a stick or hammer, it will fall off the stump in large chunks. Collect pieces of this bark of different sizes and shapes. Old birch bark is very reminiscent of rocks, therefore, by skillfully combining them, you can create the impression of a real rock. Fasten one piece of bark to another using wire, drilling holes in the bark with an awl or drill and coating them with wood glue.
On thick, preferably 5 mm, plywood, draw the outline of the rock and cut it out with a jigsaw. Secure the outline on a rectangular stand with spikes or nails. Make the stand from a block or from 5-7 mm plywood.
Then attach the pieces of bark one by one to the plywood. Make sure that the rock has a natural shape so that large gaps do not form between individual pieces of bark. Fill large gaps with pieces of bark and glue them with wood glue. Then mold a figurine of a mountain goat from plasticine or clay on a wire frame. Using the long ends of the wire remaining from the frame, attach the goat to the top of the rock. Drive several nails into the top of the rock so that they are directly opposite the goat’s legs, twist the ends of the wire from the legs behind these nails and then around the goat’s legs. Check that the figure does not wobble. Glue dried moss to the top of the rock to cover the joints and prevent the wire from being visible. Moss will give the impression of grass growing in the crevices of the rock. Paint the stand to match the tone of the entire rock.
A mountain goat to decorate the press can be made in another way, accessible to everyone, from papier-mâché.
Transfer the goat drawing onto 4 mm plywood through carbon paper, cut it out with a jigsaw and carefully process the plywood along the contour with a file and needle files.
Then tear up pieces of newsprint, moisten them with warm water and place them on the paper spread on the table so that the water drains from them. Prepare a thick starch or flour paste and wood glue.
While the paste is cooling, spread a piece of paper with wood glue and glue it tightly to the figure, then spread the second piece and glue it so that the edges of the first piece are slightly covered by the second piece. Glue the third piece so that it covers the edges of the first and second pieces, etc. So cover the entire goat with several layers of damp newsprint, lubricating the pieces not with wood glue, but with paste. Glue two or three layers along the edges of the figure, four or five layers away from the edges, and in the center make seven or eight layers.
Having finished gluing, while the paper is still wet and easily crumples under pressure, use some metal tool – the end of scissors, the thin end of a file or the handle of a knife, etc. – give the figure the desired shape. Where necessary, remove excess layers of paper. This is also a kind of modeling.
Now leave the goat to dry at normal room temperature. When the goat is dry, putty it using a small wooden spatula – a staple. It is necessary to apply a thin layer of putty, otherwise the putty will crack. After puttying, dry the goat again, clean it with glass or sandpaper and paint it with oil paint. Oil paint diluted with turpentine or drying oil should be liquid. Therefore, you need to cover the goat with it several times, each time letting the paint dry.
5. CRAFTS FROM MOSSES AND LICHENS.
Moss and lichen should be collected in the summer, in dry weather, so that there are no drops of rain or dew on it.
Cuckoo flax moss grows in damp, swampy places, peat moss grows near a peat bog, and short green moss, similar to velvet, grows near the trunks of old trees and stumps. Stock your basket with a wide variety of moss, choosing moss that is bright green. Shake off the soil, clean it of debris and put it in a dry, dark room to dry. Do not dry the moss in the sun: the light will cause it to lose the brightness of its color. It is best to store moss in wooden boxes with large slits in a dark place, such as a closet.
Also collect lichens in the forest: yellow lichen, which grows on tree trunks, most often on aspen, greenish-gray lichen, which is usually found on trees and stones, gray, so-called reindeer moss, which most often occurs in dry pine forest, and others. Lichens are also best stored in a dry, dark place.
Decorative plate.
Saw out of three-millimeter plywood or cut out a disk with a diameter of 35-40 centimeters from cardboard. Glue a loop or ring to the disk for hanging. Transfer the design to the front side of the disk. Select moss that is uniform in color and height and arrange it according to the pattern: fill the entire middle with bright green low-growing moss, lay two borders of grayish-blue large lichen along the edges, and put some light, bright, large flower in the middle.
Then prepare the glue and, lifting the moss, smear the parts of the disk with glue and place the moss and lichen on it, strictly following the lines of the design. When everything is ready, place a sheet of cardboard on top, or, better yet, a lumpy lid, the kind used to cover cigarettes when they are packaged, and place the work under a not very heavy press.
Tablet for wall calendar.
Cut out a base from 4 mm plywood, glue a loop to it for hanging a calendar on the wall, transfer the design onto the plywood and, having made markings, glue moss and lichen, put reindeer moss along the edges of the base, then make a narrow strip of the darkest low-growing moss, cover the middle part with gray short lichen, and in the middle stick either three small bright flowers, or a butterfly, or both.
Photo frame.
Using the same principle as a plate and a calendar, you can make a photo frame of any shape. Select a lichen of two colors: dark and light, and glue it to the frame in the form of an ornament.
First mark the drawing on the frame with a pencil. Before gluing the lichen, paint the frame dark, preferably black. The gray tones of the lichen will stand out very beautifully against a black background.
This kind of decorative work, made from moss, lichen, dried flowers, butterflies, is best covered on top and bottom with pieces of colorless cellophane. Sew the pieces of cellophane together with thread.
6. CHESTNUT CRAFT.
Chestnut is a southern plant. In our country it grows mainly in the Caucasus and rarely grows in other places. The nut-like fruits of the chestnut are edible, tasty and nutritious. In the southern regions, in Ukraine and even further north, the so-called horse chestnut grows. Its fruits are good food for pigs (they are not edible for humans).
Large chestnut and horse chestnut fruits are a very good material for three-dimensional cutting and for making simple toys.
The easiest way is to cut a mushroom from a chestnut, such as boletus or boletus. Having placed a drawing of a mushroom or a mushroom in front of them, they begin to process the chestnut fruit with a penknife. Using the tip of a knife, draw a line separating the mushroom cap from its stem. Then trim off the excess white flesh to create a mushroom stalk shape. Do not remove the top chestnut skin from the cap.
Over time, fresh chestnut pulp darkens, dries out, and takes on a gray, unsightly appearance. Now after cutting, cover the leg with white or cream gouache. Make the environment for each fungus in their family from moss and pine needles.
You can cut a basket with a handle from a large chestnut fruit. By turning the chestnut, find its most stable position and thus determine which side will be the bottom of the basket. Then use the tip of a knife to mark the handle and side of the basket. Excess skin is carefully removed first from one side of the handle, then from the other – up to the side of the basket. All the pulp is gradually cut out, piece by piece. Work slowly, carefully, so as not to cut through the handles and sides of the basket, or accidentally pierce the bottom.
In such a small, light and very beautiful basket you can put moss and mushrooms, which can be cut from large acorns.
In the same way, toys and toy dishes are cut out of chestnuts: saucepans with lids, a teapot, a carved bread box, etc.
Small horse chestnut fruits are used, like acorns, when assembling toys from straw. Chestnut toys are carved in many countries. In Czechoslovakia, for example, chestnut fruits are even used to make dolls with arms and legs made of matches, with a roughly carved face. In China, openwork baskets and other interesting toys are expertly carved from chestnut trees.
7. CRAFT FROM POTATOES.
Many of the children, helping adults collect potatoes, always find interesting shapes of tubers.
You can make a wide variety of incredible toys from potato tubers: animals, small animals, birds, people, adding straws, matches, wood chips and colored threads to the tubers. Potatoes are usually connected to each other with matches or wire. The potato pulp is easily pierced and holds tightly to matches or wire. We must remember that the potato pulp darkens at the cut points, and the toy loses its attractive appearance. Therefore, it is better to paint the cut areas. You can add a piece of carrot to the potatoes. The beak of the bird in our drawing is made from carrots.
Make bird tails and wings from feathers. Pieces of multi-colored wool left over from knitting and disheveled, wavy pieces of old loose wool are good for finishing. They make manes, tails, etc. from it
Potato toys are short-lived, but cause a lot of fun and develop creative imagination.
Toys are made not only from potatoes, but also from other vegetables. For example, based on the well-known fairy tale of the Italian writer Gianni Rodari “The Adventures of Cipollino” – the onion boy – you can create a whole performance. Having made the characters from various vegetables and then painted them, the fshurks are fixed on stands. The individual parts are fastened with wire or matches.
8. CRAFTWORKS FROM NUT SHELLS.
Nut shells are also used to make a variety of interesting toys for the Christmas tree, for games in kindergarten, for a puppet theater or model. The simplest use of large walnut shells is gluing them to figurines of animals and birds cut out of plywood with a jigsaw. In the picture you see such toys. It is best to glue the nut to the plywood using Rapid glue, or carpentry glue. Paint toys with gouache paints. For durability, it is good to coat the finished toy with light varnish.
Make chickens, roosters, geese, ducks from large nuts, cut out tiny chickens for them, using hazelnuts, pine nuts, and pistachios for this purpose. If desired, you can create a large model of a poultry farm.
Crack the nuts into regular halves using a knife, tapping it on top with a hammer. To prevent the nut from jumping and popping out, clamp it in a vise or pliers.
What other toys can be made from nutshells? For example, a car. Cut the spool of thread with a jigsaw at the base to get two wheels. Attach the wheels with wire to the nut shell by drilling holes in it. A nut-wheelbarrow, with a handle and a stick glued to it, is attached to the center of the axle between the wheels. The wheels can be painted blue or red, but the shell wheelbarrow can be left in its natural color.
And here’s another interesting toy – a turtle. The shell of a turtle consists of the nut shell of a large walnut. On the back side of the nut shell half, glue the belly of a turtle drawn on cardboard or cut out of plywood. Make the head from a small nut, and the legs from the scales of a fir cone.
If the toy is intended to decorate a Christmas tree, glue a loop between the shell and cardboard.
The Christmas tree turtle toy can be coated with bronze paint.
You can make a mandolin from half a walnut shell. The neck is cut out of cardboard and glued on top of the shell, the hole is either cut out or painted over with black paint.
The strings are pulled from thin shiny wire. The fastening to the strings is made of nails.
Upon completion of assembly, the entire toy is varnished.
There’s even a song about small boats made of walnut shells:
From nutshells
Ten light boats came out.
Match with red patch –
The mast is in the middle.
And they floated like a stream
Swan boats.
The boats do not require a special description. The pictures make it very clear how to make them.
Simple rigging consists only of a match, a shred and a cross stick. Secure the mast with sealing wax.
A similar flotilla on a spring stream is a very fun game.
You can come up with many more different toys from half a shell and a whole one with the addition of feathers, colored threads, cloth and sticks. There are especially many toys you can make for the Christmas tree. From small walnut shells of hazel, pistachio and pine nuts you can lay out mosaic patterns, paste them over boxes and layouts. When there are not enough beads for carnival costumes, small nuts are strung on threads and brightly painted with colored tsaponas – varnishes or oil paints. Holes for threads are drilled with a hot needle or the smallest drill bit of a hand drill.
9. FOODS FROM PLANT FLUFF.
Applications made from plant fluff are an unusual type of crafts. Works made from fluff turn out beautiful, light, airy. For applications, you can use the fluff of almost any plant. At the end of May – beginning of June, the poplar begins to bloom. You can use air umbrellas of dandelion and cattails (reeds). The brown tips of its fluff give the applique a distinctive hue.
Cotton is also a good material for appliques. It is very easy to find – it is ordinary cotton wool. The work uses thistle fluff, which can be collected in the second half of summer and even in October.
The fluff of thistles, reeds and some other plants does not need to be cleaned immediately. It must be cut off along with the flower head on a short stem.
To make appliqué from plant fluff, care, precision, and perseverance are required. We will also need tools for making appliqués. It is better to take the fluffs and apply them to the base using tweezers. To clean up and adjust the material, a large needle or compass leg is needed. To cut the cotton rope, scissors will be useful. For applique, you may also need a paper cutting knife.
As a basis for appliqués made of fluff, it is better to use “velvet” paper or fleecy fabric mounted on cardboard or plywood.
First, to perform the appliqué, you need to prepare a drawing (Fig. 1 on the left). We place the drawing on the base and, using pencil pressure, trace all the lines (Fig. 2 on the left).
The fluff is very light and delicate, so for convenience you need to use tweezers. To avoid lumps on the base, you must try to lay down the fluff in an even layer in a certain sequence (Fig. 3 on the left). To convey the veins of plants, small details, and anatomical features of animals, the fluff has to be combed and the fibers pulled apart. This work can be done with the leg of a compass (Fig. 4 on the left).
The contours of the drawing will not always turn out smooth. To make a clear outline, you can roll up a loose flagellum from fluff (Fig. 5 on the left).
Bunny. This work can be done from cotton or poplar fluff (Fig. 1 on the right). Let’s prepare the drawing on a separate sheet and transfer it to “velvet” paper or fleecy fabric (Fig. 2 on the right). Apply the material in a thin layer over the entire pattern (Fig. 3 on the right). The outline may be slightly fluffy. We process the eyes, legs and other parts with a compass leg or tweezers (Fig. 4 on the right). The pupils and nose can be drawn with a felt-tip pen (Fig. 5 on the right). The bunny is ready.
10. CRAFTS FROM FIGURED PUMPKIN.
In vegetable gardens and melon fields, an intricately shaped pumpkin grows, basking in the sun. They call it differently in different places: “gourd”, “bottle”, “water lily”. And in Samarkand and Fergana, for example, it was given very unusual nicknames: “the wanderer’s flask”, “the mace of Hercules”, “the wonderful ball”, “the plant stick” and others.
The external shape of figured pumpkins is as varied as their size. Pumpkins range in size from a tiny flask to a colossal bottle used to store kerosene, milk, wine, etc. For example, in Fergana, water carriers still breed a special variety of giant pumpkin to transport water to gardens and fields. And in Ukraine, they sow a special variety of pumpkin, “Stopudovaya,” and pickle cucumbers in it, like in a barrel. Vegetable pepsin in semi-peeled pumpkin gives cucumbers pickled in it a special taste. These cucumbers are called Nezhinsky, and we all know them very well.
Figured pumpkins, apparently, once played a big role in the life of primitive peoples, replacing their vessels.
A special collection of pumpkins has been collected in the botanical garden of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. As many as 300 types of gourds! If you wish, some of you can get to know them.
Pumpkin likes dry, sunny places and does not require much care. Children from Central Asia and China make interesting rattles from shaped, decorative pumpkins to scare away sparrows from gardens, pencil cases and cases for fishing equipment. This type of pumpkin is used to make shaped bottles, snuff boxes, wallets and children’s toys.
Processing a figured pumpkin.
Turning a bottle gourd into a pitcher or flask is very easy. Take a ripe pumpkin, cut it from the root and cut off the top of the neck with the tip of a knife. A long knife is inserted into the pumpkin and turned several times. The seed walls are destroyed, and with them the seeds are shaken out. Drying out, the remains of the partitions compact the top cover. The vessel is well wiped with fine gravel or sand. The traffic jam approaches him – and he is ready. In the Central Asian republics you can often find pumpkin jugs and bottles with intricate monograms and designs. How do you make patterns, silhouettes, shapes, and letters on a pumpkin?
A pattern or letters are cut out of white paper, smeared with paste and glued onto the pumpkin while it is still ripening in the garden. The ripening pumpkin gradually darkens, and the places on the pumpkin that are covered from the sun’s rays with paper remain light. After cutting a mature pumpkin, the pasted paper is washed off, and the design on it appears very impressively.
Pumpkin jugs and flasks are decorated in other ways. The design, transferred to tissue paper, is pressed tightly onto the freshly picked pumpkin, and pricked along the entire contour with a thick darning needle. The gaps between injections should be approximately 1-2 millimeters. The punctures are rubbed with crushed charcoal or soot. The result is a dotted pattern, clearly visible against the background of a light pumpkin. You can transfer the design onto the surface of the pumpkin through carbon paper and then scratch along the contours with a needle. The result is a drawing of a continuous contour. You can use a knife to cut an openwork pattern through a fresh pumpkin. No design is made in strongly curved places on a figured pumpkin. When translating the drawings, one monitors its symmetrical distribution over the entire surface of the form. Any distortion or inaccuracy will spoil the appearance of the work.
The hardened pumpkin can be sawed with a jigsaw along the contours of the design. The designs are the same as for cutting wood and plywood. You should not choose only the very intricate ones. For difficult and very curved pumpkin shapes, you have to saw the entire pumpkin in half. And after finishing the work, glue it back together.
Sometimes, for greater variety of shapes, small shaped pumpkins are artificially flattened. Take two wooden planks, cut them according to the design with a jigsaw, and apply them on both sides of the pumpkin. The planks are tied with strong threads, and the pumpkin continues to grow in its bed. The fruit, compressed from the sides, takes on a flat shape, filling and imprinting on its surface the pattern cut into the planks. Such a ripe pumpkin is painted in dark colors, leaving the convex pattern light. After all the treatments, it is varnished for strength. Strings are glued to the cut top or a cork is adjusted. But this manufacturing method is suitable mainly for pear-shaped pumpkins.
In Africa, for example, in this way, a special variety of pumpkins for pipes is formed on the root, bending and turning the fruit in the garden at their discretion.
From a figured pumpkin, as can be seen from the pictures, you can make flower stands, vases, jugs, cup holders, and lampshades. In China, even masquerade masks are carved from pumpkins.
11. CRAFTS FROM CARROTS AND POTATOES.
Potatoes and carrots are easy to cut and pierce holes, and therefore it is not difficult to make interesting toys out of them.
The deer has antlers made from potato “whiskers”. You can take branches of a bush. Make the giraffe’s neck from carrots, and the body and head from potatoes. Instead of a tail, a blade of grass or a spikelet.
Make chicken eyes from black peppercorns, beans, sunflower seeds, buckwheat grains, etc. Make the boy’s ears from pumpkin seeds, and his legs from sticks or thick insulated wire. The feet are made from potatoes cut in half.
Birds can be made from 2 potatoes – a larger one and a smaller one, or pieces of carrots. Wings – made of leaves, feathers or sticks.
12. EGGSHELL CRAFTS.
Prepare eggshells as follows. Small holes are punched on opposite sides of the eggs. Using a thin rod, stir the contents and blow it out. The shells are washed with warm water and dried.
Hedgehog.
Spout and needles made of plasticine. Eyes and legs made of thick paper. The body is an eggshell.
Piglet.
The snout nose, eyes, ears, tail and legs are made of plasticine.
Duck.
Neck and beak made of plasticine, wings made of paper.
Bunny.
Paper ears, plasticine paws.
Teddy bear.
Head, ears and paws made of plasticine.
Clowns.
All you need is colored paper and eggshells. We cut out half a circle from colored paper and make a cone, first measuring it to the diameter of an eggshell. Draw the face with a felt-tip pen or paints.
Cat.
Birdie.
Chicken.
Fish.
Cockerel
13. CRAFTS FROM STICKY PLANTS.
You can sculpt, that is, create three-dimensional forms, not only from clay and plasticine. Sculptors also sculpt from wax and plastic; carving artists create beautiful works of wood, bone and stone. The molding material can be natural materials. The easily obtained natural material grows near roads, in vacant lots and in parks. We all know it well: it is thistle, burdock.
These plants are weeds. The name “burdock” comes from the Greek word “lappa”, which means “to grab”, “to cling”.
Indeed, who does not know this property of burdock? True, burdock is not a completely useless plant. Burdock oil is extracted from its roots, which helps hair growth. But the burdock’s relatives – sow thistle, sow thistle, and echinops, apart from clogging the field and damaging the animal fur to which they cling, do not bring anything good to humans. All these plants are Compositae. After flowering, their inflorescences form so-called baskets with flying seeds. It is this tenacious seed basket that is suitable for sculpting.
Having collected more fluffy tenacious balls-inflorescences, mold them into a large lump, while tearing each head off the stem. Wrap the lump in a rag to keep it from drying out and start working. Make animals, birds, and baskets from burdock.
First, make a basket. It can be created in the most bizarre shapes. It is more difficult to sculpt animals and birds from burdock. If the burdock dries out, the molded frame will settle. To maintain the sculpted shape, the balls-inflorescences must be attached to a pre-prepared frame. Make a frame from wire with a cross section of 1 – 2 mm. This wire can be easily bent by hand. If the wire is thicker, you will need pliers.
You can also use an old electrical wire for the frame without removing the thread jacket from it.
So, use pliers or just your hands to bend the wire into the intended shape. Firmly connect the individual parts of the frame to each other, for example the head, arms (paws), etc. to the body. Mount the finished frame on a stand: board, plywood or thick cardboard. For strength, wrap the frame of large molds with newspaper and grease with carpentry or any other glue. The first layer of inflorescence balls will thus be attached to the paper and wire very firmly. Subsequent layers cling to each other without glue. It is very important that the shape of the frame is made correctly. The frame will turn out better if someone knows how to draw and sculpt at least a little. A picture depicting the animal or bird that you want to sculpt can help you reproduce the shape of a particular animal or bird.
Molded sculptures or toys can be used to decorate a holiday hall in a camp, at school, they can be given to children in kindergarten, and from sculpted figures you can create a three-dimensional picture of the life of animals.
You can decorate the sculpture with buttons and beads, using them for the eyes; pieces of cloth and leather will be used for the muzzles. For example, a cat’s whiskers can be made from horsehair or thin white wire. Birds’ beaks are made of plasticine, celluloid, or even planed wood knots. Burdocks should not be painted: paints will distort their shape and deprive the inflorescence of its tenacity. And the products will not benefit from painting.
The pictures show possible shapes of figurines and objects made of burdock. Children’s picture books, photographs, and artist’s sketches will tell you many interesting shapes for making toys.
Puppy. Make a puppy frame from thick but soft wire. Then crumple up the newsprint, wrap it around the frame and tie the paper with string so that it is shaped like a puppy. Then cover the frame with pieces of some old, unnecessary woolen fabric, paper or flannel. Sew with large stitches, but firmly enough. After this, attach the burdock to the frame, giving it the desired shape.
Cut out the puppy’s ears from a piece of fabric and sew them to the head with harsh threads. Cut the nose from a piece of old leather, paint it with black paint and varnish it several times. Instead of eyes, attach shiny beads or glass eyes, which are sold in pet stores. These eyes are very convenient to attach, as they are made on wires.
Your puppy will turn out even funnier if you sew on him a tongue cut out of a piece of red cloth. If there is no red cloth, the tongue can be made from any fabric or old leather, painting it with red paint.
Spider. The burdock will make a very scary spider.
Take a large fluffy burdock flower for the spider’s body and a small one for its head. From scraps or black woolen fabric or flannel, cut out two circles: one the size of the body, the other the size of the head. Glue the circles onto cut out paper circles of the same size. Using finger pressure, attach the burdock head to a small circle of fabric and, in the place where the spider should have eyes, sew bright green or red shiny eyes – beads or seed beads – to the edge of the fabric. Then take a straw and cut it into small pieces.
Prepare four pieces of thin flexible wire. Take a circle – the body and on the upper side of it, on the side where the fabric is, make eight holes with an awl and pass all four pieces of wire into the side holes as shown in the figure. These will be your spider legs. Having pulled up the wire – the leg, string the prepared pieces of straw onto it, and twist the wire at the end of the leg. So make all eight legs of the spider. Paint the pieces of straw gray, to match the burdock color. Bend the wires – legs, giving them the desired shape. Attach a large burdock body to a circle of fabric. Attach the head to the body of the spider with wire.
To make the spider even scarier, place it on a web made of gray thread. From such a spider you can make a very interesting toy – a joke.
Select a box of such size that the spider can fit in it freely and so that the label, for example from candies, is kept on this box. Cut a wooden square onto which, using nails, fasten a wire bent into a spiral. A wire spiral is made like this: a wire is tightly wound around a metal object – a bolt, a piece of old pipe, etc. – using pliers – one turn should fit snugly against the other. Having attached the spiral at one end to a wooden square, attach a spider to the upper end of the spiral. Firmly attach the wooden square to the bottom of the spider box and close the box tightly with a lid so that it can contain the wire spiral. Now choose your “victim” and give her your gift. When the lid of the box is opened, a scary spider will quickly jump out of it.
14. CRAFTS FROM CORN CORN LEAVES.
The leaves that wrap around an ear of corn are somewhat reminiscent of straw. They are used to stuff mattresses, they are used to weave rugs, slippers, baskets and many other household and decorative products.
Leaves wrapping cobs in different areas should be harvested at different times. It is not at all necessary that the cob be ripe. If the shell of the corn is not completely ripe, then it is already suitable for weaving. Without a doubt, in the south the cob wrappers are larger in size, stronger and a beautiful pinkish-yellow color.
The wrappers should be separated from the cobs and laid out to dry by the stove or in the sun. The dried, curled wrapper resembles straw. Before use, just like straw, it must be soaked, but in a slightly different way. After wetting a rag and wrung it out lightly, spread dry wrapper leaves on it in a thin layer and roll them tightly into the rag for two to three hours. Gradually, as needed, remove the leaves for weaving in parts and wrap the remaining ones again so that they do not dry out. Each leaf is cut with scissors into even strips, no more than a centimeter wide. Thin, rounded edges of the sheet are unsuitable for work.
Weaving with a bow.
To begin, twist the two prepared strips with a flagellum and wrap this flagellum into a “fork” shape, as shown in the figure. Holding the bent flagellum in your left hand, take a new strip with your right hand, wrap it on the top of the “fork” at the very bend and begin weaving the “bow”. The sequence of weaving with a “bow” is clearly visible in the figure.
Having reached the end of the “fork”, they begin weaving the second row. The “bows” of the second row are woven between the columns of the first, already woven row, as shown in the figure. Having reached the end of the “fork”, turn the weaving again and begin the third row, etc.
So that the turns are not empty, in the place where the “fork” bends, several stitches are made into the same hole, as is done when adding loops when crocheting. This is how the oblong bottom of a bread bin, boxes, wallets, and the soles of house shoes are woven.
Round bottoms are woven a little differently. The first row of weaving is not woven on a “fork”, but on a flagellum ring with a bent edge for the upper weaving ring. The figure shows that the first row, woven in a circle, looks different than that of an oblong bottom. The bottom of each column is slightly squeezed, and the top is loose, just like when crocheting a round napkin.
The second row of the round bottom is woven in exactly the same way as in the oblong bottom (that is, in a checkerboard pattern), with the only difference being that one extra column is added to each hole to increase the outer circumference of the bottom. With each subsequent row you have to add less and less. The amount and location of the additive is determined by aligning the required value in a circle.
When weaving the bottom, you need to ensure that the columns are evenly pulled in. Having finished the bottom with a simple knot, place it under a weight for half an hour, between clean sheets of paper. The sides are switched to weaving by simply bending the row perpendicular to the bottom. So, for example, we form the sides of a bread bin.
Having mastered the basic techniques of weaving with a bow, proceed to making homemade products. Use the woven bottoms as stands for pots and teapots.
Doll.
The picture shows a doll of the Czechoslovak people. Making it is even easier than making it from straw. A knot is made from leaf wrappers soaked in a rag and wrapped twice with the remains of the leaf, depicting a head wrapped in a scarf. New two or three sheets are tied to the bottom of the body, a new sheet is wrapped around them at the waist and crosswise on the chest. The doll is ready. If you take the densest leaves on a stand at the bottom of the doll’s body, placing them with their butts down, the doll will stand very firmly.
Such dolls are installed on an inclined plane. When you tap on the plane, the dolls easily slide down without falling.
15. CRAFTS FROM ACORN.
Oak grows almost everywhere. Oak fruits – acorns – come in different shapes and sizes.
Acorns can be used to make interesting toys for fairy-tale models and for puppet theaters.
Very often, an acorn is an additional material to other products made from natural materials. An example is the head of a straw doll.
It is better to collect acorns when they are completely ripe and easily fall off the tree. In those places where oak trees are large in size and their crowns are inaccessibly high, you can collect acorns that have fallen to the ground. But you should not collect rotten and rotten fruits. At the same time as the acorns, collect their cups, the “pluses” on which the fruit rests. Pluski is a very good material in addition to acorn and is used almost inextricably with acorn in many products made from it.
All acorns should be collected: small, large, round, and oblong.
It is better to start working with fresh acorns. Dried acorns are not very suitable for work; they easily split when pressed and are difficult to pierce.
First, try making the simplest toys. Additional materials for acorns will be matches, pieces of colored cloth, wire, and a needle and thread.
Let’s make bunnies. Mark points on a large acorn with a pencil in the places where matches will be inserted: legs, arms, ears, tails, etc. Then pierce and carefully screw the tip of the awl with a screw so that the acorn shell does not crack, and drill the necessary holes. Make bunny heads from acorns that are smaller and rounder. Draw eyes on them with paint. Stick sharpened matches into the punctured holes of large acorns and attach heads, ears, legs, and tails to the bunnies.
In the pictures you see a heron, a giraffe, a pig, a horse, a little man, etc. From such animals and birds you can make model games “Zoo”, “Our Yard” and others.
Glue the birds’ beaks and crests from pieces of cloth. Having learned how to make such simple toys, move on to more complex ones. Call on your imagination and invention to help, and we are sure you will make many very interesting toys.
Make people from larger acorns.
The base of the human body is a large oblong acorn, firmly connected to its calyx. The strength of the connection is achieved by gluing the acorn with wood glue or attaching it to sealing wax, which connects perfectly.
The heads of the men are also made of acorns, with a cup-cap placed on top. Attach the head and body to a wire. It’s even better if the whole person is held together on a single wire frame.
The arms and legs are replaced by pieces of hollow reeds or straws placed on a wire frame. You can also cut them out of plywood.
When assembling, the acorn body is pierced with an awl, then a wire is threaded through the hole, and straws are put on the wire – neck, arms, legs and acorn head. Thanks to the wire frame, the position of the legs and arms, the inclination of the torso and head can be changed and given any position. Draw the faces of the little men with ink.
V
. CONCLUSION.
Working with natural materials aims to develop in the child the ability to independently navigate in any work, i.e. educational work activity is considered as a means of understanding the world around us and our role in it as a transformer.
The teacher’s task is not so much to help the child understand or make a product or craft, but to provide conditions under which the student’s potential will be fully used. To do this, the teacher needs to remember the peculiarities of the student’s activity during the lesson, which includes both equivalent intellectual and motor components. That is, the lesson should have an organized part aimed at ensuring an understanding of the essence and procedure for performing practical work, and properly equipped independent activity of the child to transform the material into a craft, and three times less time should be allocated for the theoretical part of the lesson than for practical actions.
The relevance of this problem is especially significant in the activities of teachers working with primary-level children, who are largely responsible for the spiritual, mental, moral, aesthetic development of students, without which the activity of the individual is unthinkable, the need for which is so acute in the era of modern socio-economic and cultural transformations.
The process of working with natural materials is very exciting. The child develops a special vision of the natural world, its study and his own transformation.
The method of working with natural materials with primary school children has its own peculiarity, specificity in the selection of technologies and tool materials. Knowledge of the basic theory and practice of this type of work by a teacher allows him to competently plan, creatively and excitingly build the pedagogical process.
These methodological recommendations for studying work with natural materials can be used in the work of primary school teachers, additional education teachers, and student trainees.
VI
. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Applique. Gusakova M. A. – M., 1987. – p. 153.
Selected psychological works: In 2 volumes. Zaporozhets A.V. – M., 1986. – T. 1. – P. 149
“Skillful Hands” club at school. Belyakov N.D., Pokrovskaya A.I., Tseytlin N.E. – M., 1957. – p. 158.
World of toys and crafts. Parulina O.V. – Smolensk: Rusich, 1999. – p. 336.
Materials and techniques of mosaic painting. Viner A.V. – M., 1953. – p. 95.
Unusual souvenirs and toys: Homemade products made from natural materials. Artamonova E. Publishing house: Eksmo, 2005. – p. 64.
Crafts made from eggshells. Pereverten G.I. Publishing house: AST, 2007. – p. 16.
Cute crafts made from natural materials for children and adults. Artamonova E. Publishing house: Eksmo, 2006. – p. 64.
Homemade products made from natural materials. Bubekina G., Goslavskaya T. Publishing house: Young Guard, 1960. – p. 194.
Labor training in primary school. Mayorova I.G. – M., 1978. – p. 147.
What can be made from natural materials: Book. for a kindergarten teacher garden – 2nd ed. edited Gulyants E.K., Bazik I.Ya. – M.: Education, 1991. – p. 175.
Miracles from plant fluff. Pereverten G.I. Publishing house: AST, 2007. – p. 16.