What crafts can you make from coconut?

Coconut is an amazing natural material that can be used to create many useful, beautiful household items and decorations. The hard shell is processed using conventional tools, and products made from it are distinguished by aesthetic appeal and durability.

Now coconut fruit can be bought in the food retail chain in many cities. Eating it in food should be started by punching a hole with a knife or screwdriver in order to pour out the liquid inside. Having eaten the delicate and tasty contents of the nut, its shell can be used for various types of amateur art.

For crafts from a whole nut, a large fruit of a symmetrical shape is chosen. It is better to exclude attempts to split it, since it can break into several pieces of irregular shape, so you can cut the shell using a regular small hacksaw, which is used for metalwork. It is possible to use a jigsaw, including an electric one. Depending on the type of product, the coconut is cut in half or the top is cut out in it, which should not be thrown away, as it can be useful for making a lid for a box, saucepan or other purposes.

After cutting the nut, all the inner flesh should be cleaned out of it. Then the coconut must be properly dried.The outside of the shell can be sanded with a coarse sandpaper to remove the fibers and then polished with a fine grain. If the future product provides for fastening the handles on the sides or on the lid, then they can be attached using superglue. In containers intended for storing dry contents, holes should be drilled for screwing in small screws.

From a beautiful and strong coconut shell, children, with the help of adults, can make many interesting crafts for kindergarten and school. You can connect the shell with fragments of other materials using such gluing and stitching agents as:

• plasticine;
• wax;
• threads and twine threaded through drilled holes;
• rubber or other glue.

For example, on the theme of "Autumn" you can make a decorative basket filled with colorful leaves, decorative mushrooms and seasonal picks of ripe berries. To do this, cut the coconut in half. The outer wall can be cleaned and painted, but the basket will also look interesting with natural fibers. The handle of the product can be made from any twig or braided cord, and its ends should be attached with glue or small bolts. Inside the resulting container, you need to fold the beautiful autumn leaves of different colors and shapes collected in the park or in the forest. If desired, they can be drawn on colored paper and cut out.

In addition to the autumn crafts, you can come up with other interesting coconut products. The fibrous outer side of the shell is perfect for portraying a small fluffy animal. You can put it in a small box or on a plank made of a saw cut from a tree. The collected and dried leaves from trees, dried flowers or moss are beautifully laid on the substrate. Two walnut halves are placed on the substrate with the holes down, attaching them with plasticine. The ears of the animal are made from scraps of shells or acorns, which are fixed with wax, as well as plasticine pieces. The eyes are cut out of white paper with black pupils painted on it. The spout can also be made of black colored plastic materials.

It would be interesting for a child to make a winter bird feeder out of a coconut by hanging it outside the window. It is also useful to make a house for a hamster or a grotto for an aquarium together with adults.

You can make many different products from coconut fruits with your own hands - from the simplest to the rather complex. It can be a vase made of half walnut or a lamp of an original shape, which will cast unusual shadows and look mysterious.

Among the handicrafts made from coconut, there are such unexpected ones as a small saucepan with a lid, designed for storing bulk products. To make it, you need to pick up a large and symmetrical nut, which should be cut along the top so that you get a small lid. On the sides, you can attach handles cut out of wood and then attached with screws or glue. On the smaller part, which acts as a cover, you can also glue or screw a small handle. The outer surface is sometimes painted with acrylic or enamel paints, and also varnished.

A food vessel will be more hygienic, the inner and outer sides of which are properly sanded and dried. A beautiful cup is obtained from a shell, sawn into two even halves, if you glue them to each other with the tops of hemispheres. You can make the lower part, which acts as a stand, with a smaller volume compared to the bowl.

Most often you can see original boxes made of coconut. They are very durable, since the shell does not lend itself to the influence of dampness or temperature extremes. They are made from fruits that have been cut into equal parts or with one smaller piece for the lid. The walnut is well dried and polished, and then decorated with shells on the outside, beautiful pebbles collected on the seashore. It can be embossed with a large syringe filled with paint or painted with brushes. Then the product is varnished.

For everyone who knows how to saw or carve interesting wood products and has the necessary arsenal of tools for this, working with coconut shells will not be difficult. Useful: hacksaw, jigsaw, drill, electric engraver, sandpaper and file. With their help, you can do such delicate work as, for example, a turtle carved from a walnut shell, sawn lengthwise. On its shell, an engraver with attachments of different widths makes various patterns, and the legs and head are cut out with a jigsaw.

In the homeland of coconut trees, the local population makes national souvenirs from their fruits, which are called maracas. They can be made at home to please children or adults with an unusual gift. To do this, you will need a small coconut, a hacksaw, decorative twine, wood putty, decorative parts, superglue, two types of sandpaper and paint. Having cut off the top of the nut, and taking out the contents, you can proceed to peeling and drying it. At the top, you need to drill a hole for the twine. By inserting the lace and securing it from the inside, you can glue the coconut back to its original shape by sealing the seam with putty. After sanding the dried layer, start painting and surface finishing.

To make a lampshade for a chandelier or a table lamp from a coconut shell, you need to apply a certain skill to cut beautiful through patterns in its walls, and also insert an electric lamp holder with a cord into the upper part.

For information on how to make a craft from coconut, see the next video.