DIY chaga crafts photo

In Germany, it is customary to decorate your home before Christmas with figurines depicting the birth of the infant Christ.

Here you will see New Year's crafts from a cut of wood, chaga mushroom, or in other words, tinder fungus, and wooden cuts with bark.

You don’t have to be tied to the Christmas holidays; you can make your own houses, Christmas trees, figurines, anyone, even the Bremen Town Musicians to decorate your interior!

They can be played with (they fold inwards), they are pleasant to hold in your hands, since natural materials carry warmth and energy.

Section of a log, tree trunk - transverse and longitudinal

The cuts of trunks can theoretically be either transverse or longitudinal, mostly we will talk about the former. You can get many such cuts from one log.

What they don’t do with them, what kind of crafts they do! They are suitable for room decoration - they can perfectly decorate the interior. These are countertops, floors, walls.

For crafts using wood slices, you can take different types of trees, both deciduous (birch, oak, beech) and coniferous. The leftmost one in the photo is a birch tree, as can be seen from the white birch bark on top of the bark.

Decorative vases for the interior - crafts from wood cuts

The cut pattern is generally very decorative. The end cuts can also be of small diameter - thin branches are suitable for work. I have already written about their possible use, in particular for making a large floor flowerpot that will decorate the room. To make it you need a base.

Sections with bark - material for country crafts

We have bazaars on New Year's Eve, where you can see and also buy handmade goods. So this kind of picture is not uncommon. The prices are high because this is an individual work of masters.

I observed such work in another place, I even took a couple of photographs in which the tool is visible, you can see them in this article about knightly wooden castles from wood cuts, chaga, and corks, follow the link. These castles really impressed me.

On the right is a photo of an ancient fortification made from tinder fungus. I even thought then that this could very well be an idea for a small small business, because the person who sold his crafts did exclusively that and nothing else. He has his own small shop. And he does everything very quickly.

Here is a cross section or cut of a birch tree, along with bark and birch bark. Human figures, Christmas trees, a house - everything was cut, naturally, not by hand, but with a special electric jigsaw.

The cut can be of different thicknesses, but for such a product it is better to take a slightly thicker one, then the folding toy will turn out to be more voluminous.

The bark of the tree does not interfere at all, but on the contrary gives a special charm to the products. Now there is a trend - the less processing, the better. A longitudinal cut of a wooden surface is good for crafts such as Christmas trees. The needles look very natural.

The product in the next photo very schematically depicts people, a goat, and a sheep.

Collection and storage

Chaga is collected regardless of the time of year. But in summer, most often it is not noticeable due to the greenery surrounding it. It is best to choose autumn or spring for collection, when there is no foliage on the trees. In winter, it is difficult to collect mushrooms, since there is a lot of snow in the forests.

According to experts, it is in spring that chaga contains more microelements, nutrients and vitamins.

When collecting, it is important not to confuse the birch mushroom with other tinder fungi. You can distinguish chaga from them by appearance

Chaga does not have a specific shape and is black or brown in color. The tinder fungus grows in the shape of a horseshoe, round. Its color is lighter, close to brown.

Before collecting chaga, you should take a sharp knife with you, as it is difficult to remove it from the tree with your hands. The fungus does not need to be removed from trees that are already dead, as it contains no nutrients. Most often, the chaga also died.

You should not cut the mushroom from the bottom of the tree. The higher it is located, the more useful substances it contains. Experts also say that chaga should only be cut from trees that grow in groves, and not from lonely birch trees.

After collection, chaga is dried naturally and stored in a dark, dry place. Before this, you need to remove darkened areas and dirt. Its shelf life is more than 12 months, provided proper preparation.

How to dry chaga correctly

After the chaga is collected, it is cleared of wood in the place where it came into contact with the trunk. The black surface should also be cleaned, leaving only a brown mass.

Chaga is cut into small pieces, which can be conveniently used for making tea and various infusions. This is necessary for convenience, since after drying the mushroom hardens quite strongly, and it will be difficult to divide it into parts.

To dry, chaga is left in a well-ventilated area.

But it is important to know that there is no need to expose it to sunlight, since ultraviolet radiation will destroy most of the beneficial substances

Birch mushrooms should be stored in fabric bags. It is prohibited to use polyethylene for these purposes, since chaga must breathe. Its shelf life is 2 years.

DIY chaga crafts

Baby Jesus immediately after birth. The figures are made separately, but the carved chaga serves as the place where Christ is believed to have been born among the shepherds and sheep.

The dark brown velvety background of the cave sets off the light wood figures very well. It is quite possible to cut out small animals - chickens, dogs, cats, and then place them in a stylized house - the kids will play with pleasure.

These are the photos of crafts made from wood slices that I managed to spy and photograph.