The diversity and availability of natural materials provides great opportunities for handicrafts and creativity. You can make interesting and useful things for home decor from almost anything you can get your hands on, and besides, such accessories fit perfectly into the now fashionable style of eco-interiors. So, for example, while walking in the forest, the idea came to me to weave a basket from pine needles. It turned out to be not at all difficult and it worked the first time, and the result looks very neat and nice. Do you want to create an eco-interior or decorate a room in a rustic country style? Feel free to start creating decor from natural materials! In this article we will tell you how to make a basket from fresh and dry pine needles.
Features of creating crafts from tree needles
Before starting work, you should take into account that dry needles are more prickly than fresh pine needles: it may be worth giving your child thick gloves so that he does not injure his fingers when assembling a complex figurine. In addition, when picking needles from branches, you can get dirty with tree resin.
Material for crafts is collected on a walk near the Christmas trees (you can also find cones there) or a few branches are left for creativity after the New Year holidays.
Crafts from cones and needles can be made not only in a natural style: the material painted with paint or shiny varnish will become an original interior decoration.
Which tree needles can be used in crafts?
The choice of material for work depends on its subject:
- Fir needles are good for making small crafts, decorations for a candlestick or holiday table - they are short, easy to work with and have a strong smell.
- Pine spines are suitable for creating large and voluminous compositions or weaving.
- Fir needles are plastic and small in size, but at the same time they have no smell, so you won’t be able to create a fragrant craft from it for the New Year’s mood.
How to make a basket
Coniferous trees with long needles, such as cedar or pine, are better suited for weaving, since the longer the needles, the easier it is to work with. I decided to check which needles, dry or fresh, are easier to weave from. Practice has shown that there are practically no differences, so the product combines both types of material at once. Fresh pine needles do not require special preparation; they are quite elastic, clean and cut off without scales, so the only thing that needs to be done with them is to put all the needles in one direction. Dry needles need to be further sorted, leaving only whole needles and discarding broken ones. After this, place it in a bowl of hot water and let it stand for about 10 minutes, so it will become softer and more pliable, and will also be washed away from dust and debris. Place the pine needles out of the water on paper towels or newspaper and tear off the scales, as they slightly spoil the appearance of the finished product.
You can simply tear off the ends with your hands or tweezers. Let the needles dry, leaving them in a warm place for a while.
Let's start making the base. To do this, take a small bunch of needles, about 1 cm in diameter, and fix it by tying it with a knot of threads. Next, we wrap the thread in a spiral around this bundle, about a third of the length of the needles, then bend it and roll the needles into a tight “snail”.
Next, we gradually add new needles so that the thickness of the tourniquet remains the same in all places and we also wind it to this “snail”.
The threads must be strong enough, since you have to tighten the needles tightly so that it does not fall apart, and match the color well with the pine needles, for example, white, black or green.
The shape of the bottom of the product, more round or oval, depends on how you roll the rope. It turned out that making a base from fresh pine needles is a little more difficult than from dry ones, since it is more elastic and more force is required to roll it into a tight “snail”, so for the first time it is better to take dry needles.
We gradually make circles around the base, wrapping a new row of needles and sewing it to the previous one. For a stronger product and an aesthetic appearance, you should capture about a third of the finished row.
You should take the longest thread that is comfortable for you to work with; when it runs out, attach it to the tail of the remaining one and make several knots, trim the ends and hide them between the rows, carefully covering them with the needles of a new row.
When the base is large enough, you can correct the “snail” look in the very center and close it with more beautiful stitches.
The diameter of the base depends on what kind of product you plan to make. When it is large enough, you can move on to making the walls. To do this, raise the next row of weaving a little above the base, so the work will proceed simultaneously in a circle and slightly upward with each new row.
After making 3-4 rows, add fresh green pine needles, until the pine needles dry, the product will look more interesting and elegant, and delight you with a pleasant aroma.
After an equal number of rows, change the color of the needles, alternating dry and fresh.
If you want the product to have the shape of a bowl, then move each row a little away from the center, so its diameter will gradually increase.
When the height is sufficient, stop adding new needles and use regular stitches to close the tips of the previous needles. After the last stitch, bring the thread to the inside of the product and cut it so that it is not visible.
I made a basket for nuts, the children really liked it because it looks like a kind fairy squirrel gave it to them from the forest.
The aroma of pine needles in the house.
A simple and incredibly successful solution for anyone who will only have an artificial Christmas tree in their home. You can create the scent of a real Christmas tree yourself!
You'll need cinnamon (sticks are best, but powder will work) and other Christmas spices, such as nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, and pine or spruce needles. Boil the spices along with the needles and store in a warm place. If necessary, the mixture can be heated. If the house has a fireplace or stove, place the mixture in them. If you can’t get pine needles, just add a few drops of fir oil, which you can buy at the pharmacy, to the broth.
Make natural soap
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If the tree is quite dry, it is better to first soak the needles in water and then grind them in a blender or coffee grinder.
Melt a special soap base or regular baby soap in a water bath or in the microwave and add 1 teaspoon of needles for every 100 g. Stir well until the base begins to harden a little: this will distribute the needles evenly throughout the soap. Then pour the mixture into the mold and leave for a couple of hours.
Essential oils contained in spruce and pine relax, relieve headaches and prevent colds.
To achieve beautiful streaks, buy a special thick base for swirls and divide it into two parts. Add needles and 3-5 drops of food coloring to the first one, and leave the second one white. Carefully pour both parts into the mold, and then use a stick or spoon to draw streaks.
You can use both fir cones and uncrushed needles to decorate handmade soap. The possibilities for using this natural remedy are limited only by your imagination.
How to make natural homemade soap: instructions for beginners →
Another variation on the theme of wreaths...
If you love Christmas wreaths very much, you don't have to limit yourself to just one for your front door. You can hang homemade decorations anywhere, we will decorate them accordingly. For example, a composition of wreaths made from different coniferous branches looks very harmonious.
Instructions:
- Select branches from different coniferous trees that are approximately the same size.
- Make a ring out of thick wire and paint it white.
- Secure the branches to the base with wire or a glue gun.
- Hang the wreaths on a wide red ribbon at different heights.
- If desired, you can add decor from ribbons and balls to the wreaths.
Mistletoe for kissing.
According to tradition, if a single guy and girl accidentally end up under mistletoe branches, they must kiss. Sometimes lovers can wait for hours for their other half under the Christmas decoration... You can make your own Kissing Ball instead of relying on luck!
Instructions:
1.Choose a base for your ball. It is more convenient to work with special balls from a florist store, but you can simply make a wire frame.
2. Attach the pine needle branches to the base.
3. Complete the composition with mistletoe leaves and other greenery of your choice.
4. You can decorate the kissing ball with pine cones and dried flowers.
5. You can complement the ball with a gold or scarlet flyer, which, among other things, can be used to secure the composition in the right place.
