Sunday, October 12, 2014

Faux Wheat Stalks With Twine

 Hello World and Happy Sunday to You!

Well I am three weeks into knocking off pumpkin making from my two year old list, and doing a bit of Fall decorating. In my surfing the net for some decorating ideas, I came across a lady who I admire from a far. I'm sure many of you know of her. Her blog is called Craftberry Bush, her name is Lucy. She is one very talented lady and I love her mind and ideas and her creativity.

In this post I was looking at this very cool chicken wire pumpkin she made, along with this amazing idea of making wheat stalks with twine. I immediately thought the wheat stalks would look great in my vase of pretty colored Fall leaves.

So I searched her site to see if there was a tutorial for it. I didn't find one but she did mention using a "Fishtail" braid to make them by. I didn't know what a fishtail braid was so I did a search on the net and tried to figure it out myself. After playing around for a while I finally figured it out! Yea! I made twenty stalks and added some to my Fall leaf arrangement and it was just the right of something to give a little interest to the arrangement...I thought anyway. I also added some to my basket of faux veggies I have on the table in the breakfast nook. They were fun and fast to make once I got my rhythm going, and I was tickled pink to conquer the challenge of making them. The only thing left I want to do is to take the shish kabob skewers and rub some coffee grounds on them to age them just a tad.

I made a tutorial for creating them if anyone else thinks them pretty cool too. There are pictures and steps below! I hope you don't get confused by anything, because I confused the tar out of myself trying to come up with an easy way to explain and show how I did it! Hopefully it came out ok, but the pictures I think show it well enough for you to be successful. If not just ask me to explain further on what ever you might not understand. I have to give thanks to Ms. Lucy for the whole idea. It was a great one!
  



Now let's make some wheat!

Supplies Needed:

Twine
Scissors
Glue Gun
Glue Sticks
Wooden Shish Kabob Sticks


Cut two pieces of twine 16" long. Find the middle and
fold in half to look like the photo above.


If your right handed, take and hold with your left hand
the top center of both pieces of twine making sure to
keep one piece over the top of the other. Now take your
the left outside strand of twine and lay it over the left
inside strand of twine. (over one strand)


Next while still holding the top and now the strand of
twine you just laid over with your left hand, take the
strand of twine on the right outside and lay it over the
right inside strand AND the left outside strand you
just laid over in the first step. (lay over two strands)
(A note to keep in mind. When laying over from the
left, you will always lay over just one strand, and
when laying over from the right, you will always be
laying over two strands.) Hope that makes sense.


 Now again take your left outside strand and lay over the
one strand next to it.


Now take the far right outside strand and bring it over
two strands and to the left....(it will end up being the
left inside strand.) Stay with me!


Again, take the left outside strand and lay over just one
strand....the one right next to it which would be the left
inside strand.


Again, the right hand strand over to the left and over the
two strands to the left of it. Got your rhythm yet? Hope so!


Keep doing this until you get to the length you want
your wheat stalk to be. Mine measure about 4" to
4 1/2" long each give or take.


This is what it should look like when you get to your
finished point. Now make another one to complete
our one stalk of wheat.


When you have your two pieces of wheat made
take a wooden shish kabob stick and lay it at the
top of the wheat where we started our braiding...
which now is actually our bottom of the wheat now.
Take your glue gun and glue the stick to the wheat
like in the photo above.


Lastly, take your second piece of wheat and lay it
over the first piece of wheat with the stick in the center
and glue it just like you just did with the first. Now
spread some glue all down the strip of wheat to glue
both pieces of wheat together and press the wheat
together keeping them both straight and even on the
sides. At the bottom where the stick goes in between the
two pieces of wheat, when gluing on the second piece
press it real tight together and pinch the sides together
so you don't see the stick in between. And then your done!

You can also take and cut some of the strands at the
top in different height variations to give it a more
natural look if you like so they aren't all even across.
There will probably be some variation in lengths
anyway when you are finished with the braiding.

   
Well there you are! Make some more stalks and use them
in your Fall displays, or basket of pumpkins, or veggies
or whatever you may think to use them for!

That was fun! Enjoy!

Thanks for spending your time with me and I hope
you have a great and blessed week!

TaTa Till Later!

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3 comments:

  1. Your wheat stalks are cute and very quirky! My personal criteria for undertaking a DIY decorating project is pretty much two things - has to be unique and fairly quick to execute! These fit that bill. I have a large outdoor entryway vase that I like to change out with the seasons. These will be a great seasonal addition to it. Love your creativity :-) Colleen

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Colleen! Happy to know you enjoy the idea and were inspired. And yes I am like you......quick projects are much more fun! But, it seems I am always finding inspiration in projects that are lengthy most of the time but in the end I'm happy to have spent the time because I'm usually happy with the result....taking my patience to new levels lol! Thank you for the visit and your comment! :)

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  2. Thanks! This was really helpful! Had to make fake wheat for a school project, and this was perfect, easy, and super simple!

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