Variety of chestnut crafts

Chestnuts for all kinds of crafts are a material with an excellent reputation. Affordable, consider it free and enjoyable to work with. Do not dismiss the chestnuts, thinking that all of them have seen the men and caterpillars a million times. There are more original ideas.

Chestnuts need to be dried, not everyone knows about this. Fresh fruit will not be stored for a long time, only 3-4 days (maybe a week in the refrigerator). Then it will inevitably start to deteriorate, mold may appear on it. Some of the harvested chestnuts do not even have time to deteriorate, but simply dries up: they wrinkle, become ugly.

Here's how to dry chestnuts properly.

• Remove excess moisture... If the fruit was harvested after rain or washed with water, dry it thoroughly with a paper towel.

• Ventilate. It is best to do this in a box with many holes (wire mesh). Only the chestnuts are laid out in one layer so that air can flow to them from all sides.

• Place under a canopy... This is ideal, but you can also just in a room with good ventilation. Chestnuts will need warm air currents (but not direct ultraviolet light).

From time to time they need to be shifted, checked if they are moldy, if rotting has begun. Sometimes they are even hung high, and a fire is made under them: this is a little dangerous, there is a risk of overdrying the chestnuts, and then they will begin to frown anyway.

With natural drying, the nut inside the chestnut will decrease: a free space will form inside the peel, you will hear how the nut knocks on the walls.If you can hear this, it means that the drying is over, the chestnuts are suitable for creative manipulations.

So it is better to know what gets into the hands, whether there are any defects, and such samples will have to be dried less. If going out to the park / forest pursues several tasks at once: cones, branches, flowers and seeds, and not just chestnuts, you need to take several types of containers with you at once. At home it will be more difficult to sort the collected items. Chestnuts can be collected in a plastic bag or container.

Snails, caterpillars and hedgehogs are most often made on the theme of "Autumn". And it is very likely that such characters will not be the only ones at the exhibition in the kindergarten. As well as chestnut spiders, mushrooms and other popular images. But if you want to bring something more unusual to the autumn exhibition of handicrafts made from natural materials, it can be chestnut beads.

1. You need to take dried, beautiful and clean chestnuts, as well as fishing line (you can take a silk thread instead), beads and paints (or a white marker that draws not only on paper).

2. Better if the chestnuts are the same size... They must be pierced with an awl, the line should be inserted into the hole. If this is not a fishing line, but a thread, it can only be threaded through the chestnut through a needle.

3. Chestnuts in beads will lay beautifully, if you alternate them with small beads.

4. And to make the necklace even more beautiful, every chestnut tree can be painted. The patterns are arbitrary. A white marker will do the job best. An alternative to painting can be glitter and golden, silver stickers (for nail design).

The beads can be simply hung on a stud / hook, put on a doll, or otherwise presented at an exhibition. Sometimes for kids in the garden, they arrange autumn fashion shows, so a child can demonstrate beads on himself.

And here's how to make a light owl from chestnuts.

1. Take a few chestnuts, toy movable eyes, 2 acorns, a twig and superglue.

2. From acorns, you will only need hats: you need to take them off, drop a little glue inside, put a toy eye there. This will give the owl eyes. They join the chestnut.

3. The beak is just paper or made of a blade of grass - here you can come up with something impromptu.

4. Two chestnuts must be connected to each other - the wings are made from the prickly shell of the fruit, the thorns are somewhat reminiscent of feathers.

5. It remains only to plant the owl on a twig so that it is stable.

Very cool idea - chestnuts with alphabet. It is already more difficult to make them with children, rather it is a craft for children. Although if you use stencils, you can do everything together. You need the chestnuts themselves and acrylic paints. Instead, they sometimes take a permanent marker (which is very convenient) or nail polish. Even a school proofreader is good enough. And it is better to pick chestnuts flat, otherwise they will roll on the table. Each fruit needs to write its own letter - this is how the whole alphabet will be assembled. It is assumed that it will be possible to form words from chestnuts, to use them in literacy classes in the garden (there are such in older groups).

Here, as a rule, something more complicated is meant, and older guys are able to do work of a more serious plan.

Chestnut craft ideas for school contests.

• Whole familyeven the dog became the characters of this chestnut composition. It's simple, the child will cope with this task himself.

• And with the help of plasticine, you can create cute beasts, even a whole zoo.

• Horse rider - quite an interesting option, where chestnuts are used, and practically only they.

• Lovely house - to do it for a long time, the composition turns out to be complex and very beautiful. There is a tree near the house, it is fenced with a fence, all this can be beaten and beaten.

• Mushroomsthat sit on green leaves can also be made with plasticine, or use dough for modeling.

• And these are cute sheep, instead of legs that have toothpicks, and a white fluffy pompom can be used for the calf. Well, the chestnut is a pretty head.

• In this case chestnuts become candlesticks in this autumn composition.

• Make from chestnuts owls and turtles not difficult, painted bugs may not seem so simple. It all depends on the skill of the artist, his skills. And, of course, materials.

They also make abacus from chestnuts (branches, awl are used), glue baskets (but nevertheless, they are more effective from cones). Chestnuts are often used to make watches - fruits will be instead of numbers, and hands can be formed, again, from branches.

If you want to make a big craft, grandiose, you can shape a bear out of chestnuts. Only it will initially have to be made of something durable, for example, papier-mâché, and then glue the chestnuts with hot glue. All that remains is to form the eyes of the bear (beads or modeling dough).

And you don't even need to bring some crafts to competitions - it is much more profitable to leave them at home so that a pleasant natural touch appears in the interior.

We decorate the house with our own hands from chestnuts.

• The whole autumn composition will turn out: a chestnut heart (wire-based) and a candlestick filled with brown fruits. Moreover, the candlestick can be improvised, even a transparent vase, or even just a bank, will do. And here on the window such chestnut lyrics look great.

• By the same principle, you can make a pendant that will decorate the wall. Here it is supplemented with a bow and a heart, such additions are always individual, the choice of an accessory depends on the characteristics of a particular interior. Instead of a neutral heart, there can be maple leaves processed in glycerin or a bunch of acorns, or a beautiful pair of pine cones on a string. Or the same chestnuts, inside which laces are threaded (as in the second photo in the collage).

• And this is a combined wreath, because, in addition to chestnuts, there are cones, and acorns, and nuts, and bark... Usually such things are often impromptu, everything that is on the table is simply laid out, the autumn gifts of nature are synthesized.

• An example of how easy it is to make such a frame for an autumn photo with your own hands. Chestnuts, acorns, berries, leaves and small cones are simply glued onto a solid cardboard base (but it can also be plastic).

• And this is a laconic mono, in which chestnuts are the only characters. They need to be glued close, in several rows. Only a small bow will not spoil the soloing of brown fruits. Such minimalism looks great on the front door, it can also hang on the wall, on the kitchen cabinet door, above the fireplace. And if you just put it on the table, and put a thick candle inside, it automatically becomes a natural candlestick - a good option for serving an autumn dinner.

• A basket of acorns filled with chestnuts is, consider, packed autumn in the interior. It will look good in the hallway on a dresser or shelf, from the threshold creating the right mood in the house. If the basket is not small, it can be placed in the living room on the floor, near the TV stand or somewhere else, in the media zone area. And also such structures are placed on the windowsill, they look very atmospheric.

• And this is also a basket, in which there are even more gifts of autumn, and even withering leaves look natural and convincing.... It is noteworthy that it must contain both “naked” chestnuts and their peeled cousins. So the decorative composition looks richer.

• And again the basket, this time with a handle. Rowan twigs, rose hips, a couple of spruce twigs look good in it (they can be replaced with thuja). On any horizontal surface in the house, you can place such a basket, and take it out every autumn season.

• It is quite possible to make topiary, beads and ribbons from chestnut fruits, as well as artificial green leaves slightly enliven its brown head... It looks laconic and elegant. Suitable for bedroom and living room.

• The easiest option (as they say, for the lazy) - it's easy to find a cute container and fill it with chestnuts. This in itself is artistic, especially if it fits into the general background. An autumn touch in the interior will definitely appear.

• Another variation of wreaths, small bumps in it will not interfere with the overall picture... Can be used both horizontally and vertically.

• Branches sticking out straight from the wreath can be beautiful. As in this slightly brutal, but therefore even more interesting example. Nowadays, such not quite slicked beauty is in fashion.

Doing something with your own hands is like catching up with two birds with one stone, and the result can be beautiful, and the process will give you pleasure. Chestnut mood!

For more on the variety of chestnut crafts, see the video below.