Our hands are not for boredom: a master class on newspaper weaving from members of the forum

Needlework with virtually no investment: how to turn old periodicals into crafts for the home

Do you start the day out of habit with a fresh newspaper? Do not rush to send it to the trash after reading it, because the love of the press can be the beginning of a new hobby - weaving from newspapers.

Our members of the forum tell us how to weave useful things in everyday life from waste material - old newspapers and yellowed magazines, and at the same time with interest to while away the unexpected "holidays".

Member of the portal with a nickname Right-handed She decorated her kitchen in African style with a tall jug. By its appearance, you will never guess that a forum member weaved it not from cattail, but from hundreds of newspaper tubes.

How to turn a newspaper into an original wicker accessory, which, according to Pravoruchka, took her one evening to create? The member of the forum says that this is not difficult.

Step 1: twist the tubes

Right-handed

Havemember of FORUMHOUSE

An A3 strip of newspaper must be cut into four equal parts. Wind each piece from the corner onto a thin knitting needle, glue the tip. There are a lot of such newspaper tubes to make. We weave like a vine. Cover the finished product with water stain or acrylic paints, fix it with varnish on top.

Forumchanka tat 2013 believes that for small crafts like a photo frame or a jewelry box, you can make the tubes thinner. She winds newspaper strips 7-12 cm wide by 1.5 mm knitting needle. But the stands for weaving needlewomen, on the contrary, are advised to make them more dense - from coated or glossy paper, so that the structure does not fall over.

To make the frame of the future product more rigid, newspaper tubes for racks can be replaced with wooden skewers or thick plastic cocktail tubes.

Step 2: choose a weaving technique

Newspapers can be braided into beautiful things in different ways - in a box, in a circle, in a spiral, with a string, in a chessboard, and so on. These are all the same techniques that have been tested over centuries that are used in weaving products from reeds and cattails.

If you are going to weave a hot stand, casket or handbag, you need to start by creating the bottom.

This is how the author of Dry Herbs: The Basics of Crafts describes one of the simplest types of plaid weaving. Gennady Fedotov (instead of cane stalks, our needlewomen use newspaper blanks):

Gennady Fedotov

Author of the book "Dry Herbs: The Basics of Art Crafts"

Six cane stalks are placed parallel to each other on the table. For clarity, take three green and three white reeds. From above, the stems are pressed with a plate and three green reeds are turned up. Then, a transverse reed is placed between the lying and raised reeds. At the next stage, green reeds are lowered, and white ones are raised. A second transverse reed is placed between them. White reeds are lowered, after which it is the turn to raise green ones. Weaving in this sequence continues until all six transverse reeds are woven.

Depending on the planned size of the future product, the number of newspaper blanks also varies. But what if you are not satisfied with the square shape of the bottom, and you need to weave a laconic circle? The weaving pattern of a round base is shown in this figure:

To make the tubes easier to connect together, before starting work, they can be slightly rolled out with a rolling pin.

When the bottom of the future product is ready, we move on to weaving the walls. For convenience, our members of the forum advise to place a solid form made of ordinary cardboard or plastic on the bottom during work. We lift the ends of the tubes from the bottom up - these are the racks of our product.

Participant of our forum Maryasha91 When weaving, advises not to forget to press each row to the previous one so that the racks are not visible. If the product is small, it is better to make the distance between the risers no more than 2 cm.

Maryasha91

Participant FORUMHOUSE

I saw the Chinese braiding large boxes. They attach each rack with a clothespin to the form along which they weave. It turns out perfectly even, the racks do not fall over.

When the product is almost ready, you need to decorate the edges. One possible way to do this is to gently push the end of each rack into the lash next to the next one using an awl-lacing.

Step 3: paint

There are several ways to color newspaper items. Forumchanka Natalia Kim Coats finished products with a dark water-based stain, PVA primer, and then with yacht varnish. She weaves not only cute plates and practical baskets from newspapers, but also solid furniture - paper stools withstand the weight of an adult, and at first glance, a coffee table cannot be distinguished from an analogue from a fashionable rattan. Even the cat is pleased - the handicraft mistress has woven him a cozy couch.

But what about the letters on the newspaper tubes, which shine through even through the dark stain? IN the topic "Weaving from newspapers" needlewomen share one more secret: so that the letters are not visible, you need to roll up the tubes so that the text overlaps with the margins of the newspaper, then they turn out to be white. Or you can follow suit Maryashi91 and not divide the newspaper strip into four parts, but cut off wide strips from the sheet on both sides, where there are margins, and discard the middle.

In addition to stain, acrylic paints (an inexpensive acrylic color from a hardware store) are suitable for staining - if you apply the color thicker, in several layers, it will block the letters.

You can paint with "folk" means - potassium permanganate, brilliant green or blue. In this case, it is better to paint not the finished product, but the tubes themselves before weaving. Depending on the concentration of the potassium permanganate solution, the intensity of the color can be varied: 3 grams per 500 ml of water - brown color, 3 grams per 1.5 liters of water - the color "pine". Zelenka also needs to be diluted with water: a beautiful emerald hue is obtained at a ratio of 5 ml per 100 ml of water. Blue is taken in a proportion of 50 ml per 100 ml.

What else can you weave from old newspapers?

Baskets, plates, trays, furniture - this is not all that you can turn old unnecessary newspapers into. Although, you see, it looks much more attractive than cheap plastic.

It is easy to build a stylish shade or an original watch from free material:

Or a colored wall panel and mirror frame:

And you will definitely not be left without attention if you put on designer ballet flats and take a handbag from newspapers with you.

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In one of the previous materials also some interesting ideas for crafts. They will add chic to the interior of the product using the shabby chic technique, see our video for details.