Crafts from straw

Making products from straw is one of the most ancient directions of folk art. From the straw they made dolls, decorated the salaries of icons, made appliqués from straw on objects of interior and kitchen utensils.

And now the pictures of straw are not uncommon. Such exquisite decor can decorate a casket, an album with photos, an elite greeting card.

For crafts, you can use straw wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet or rice.

Straw preparation

The raw material for crafts made from straw is the even lengths of the middle part of the stems. Kolenza is cleaned, and the leaves can be useful for creating a background. Stems are formed from the stems, of which appliqués are made. Straw can be painted in any color using aniline dyes for the fabric. Noble natural shades of straw ribbons can be given with the help of experienced folk remedies. With the help of a hot iron - brown, by immersion in hydrogen peroxide - silvery-white, using a boiling solution of baking soda - yellow-golden, using boiling in potassium permanganate - pinkish.

Ways of making straw tapes

Cold way

It is necessary to cut the stems along and strongly smooth the scissors with rings. With this method, the strips remain elastic and shiny.

Hot way

The second method of harvesting tapes from straw for crafts or appliques involves preliminary steaming of stems at a temperature of 70-80 degrees, followed by cutting along and ironing with a hot iron. The tapes are wide, shiny and pliable in work.

Tools and materials

In addition to the raw materials, for making paintings from straw, you will need:

Plots for beginners

If you are on the verge of creating your first straw applique, it's easiest to get inspiration from children's coloring books. Uncomplicated pictures in stylish straw execution look elegant and refined and pretentious. The same ingenious simplicity needs to be adhered to when creating your own sketches.

It is convenient to arrange ready-made tapes in shades, and then choose the ones you need from the resulting palette.

A tracing cut is cut from the tracing paper, then it is sealed with straw strips, so that they go beyond the contours of the fragment. Dry the workpiece must be under the press. After drying, excess straw is cut along the contour.

It is important to correctly position the direction of the straw. For example, it is better to divide the leaves along the longitudinal vein in half and strictly observe the angle under which the straw strips are arranged, of which the article is made.

To make it easier to reproduce the composition, the drawing is done in two copies. One of them is cut into constituent fragments, which are subsequently pasted with straws, and the other serves as a scheme for collecting the entire composition.

When all the constituent fragments are ready, that is, dried and cut off at the edge, we decompose the whole picture on the background entirely. If you are satisfied with the fitting, you should smear the back of the fragments with glue and dry them under the pile of the complete collection of works of one of the classics.

It happens that some small details lack persuasiveness, this annoying defect can easily be corrected by an incinerator or a soldering iron. Created with such love and hard work, a straw wonder wants to be preserved for descendants, and to protect against imminent vandalism of dust and time. The best way to do this is to place the creation under the glass.