In the world of matchbox fantasies, any miracle is possible: from an uncomplicated children's applique to the most complex layout. Both a three-year-old baby and a gray-haired old man can feel like a wizard in the process of creating crafts from matches with his own hands, because there are a fabulous set of options for self-realization in this type of creativity. Choose the one that suits you according to the topic and level of difficulty and get to work!
Craftsmen who have experience with other similar materials (toothpicks, straws, etc.) will easily understand the principles of matchstick modeling. And for those who are taking their first steps in creativity, it is better to start by studying special literature, books containing recommendations on the choice of materials and tools, and describing the procedure for making a particular craft.
Very useful technique
A fleeting glance at the photo of handicrafts made of matches is enough to understand that "an easy walk" will not work - there is painstaking work that requires maximum concentration and accuracy.
Even the application "House", which is a contour image of an object created with the help of several glued matches, is elementary already for a schoolchild, will make the kid sweat a lot.
But this is the meaning of all handicrafts associated with the use of small parts! They require the utmost concentration of attention, the ability to act in a planned and consistent manner, to choose and use certain materials and tools. Thus, the need to develop and maintain in good shape is formed
- Fine motor skills
- Memory
- Constructive thinking
- Spatial vision
- Associative thinking.
That is, the qualities and functions that will not let the brain cells "get bored and lazy", providing years of active life, filled with the joy of creativity.
Crafts from matches: types and features
Despite the simplicity of the utilitarian purpose of matches, their use in applied art is diverse. This material attracts artists not only for its accessibility, but also for its size, shape, texture and ease of processing.
They can be stuck, glued to the base or to each other, connected to each other, using the principles of wooden architecture, without the use of adhesives.
Based on this, the following types of match crafts can be identified:
- Applications on a flat base
- Panels and pendants on a flat figured base
- Volumetric crafts created by sticking matches into the base
- Constructions and layouts based on glued blocks
- Models designed without the use of glue
They have different levels of difficulty. In each type, you can choose an option that is accessible to a beginner and interesting to an experienced master.
The peculiarity of the applicative technique, unlike, for example, panels and pendants, is in the fragmentary filling of the base, repeating the contours of the drawing. The surface of the panel and the pendant, as a rule, is completely filled with matches, by analogy with the straw technique. In addition, pendants are often made double-sided.
For crafts created by sticking, a voluminous base with a viscous or relatively dense consistency is required:
- Plasticine,
- Clay,
- Foam,
- Vegetable or fruit.
Its shape, as a rule, suggests an idea for crafts from matches. It can be a Christmas tree on a foam plastic cone, a potato or pear hedgehog, a plasticine or clay dinosaur, etc.
It should be noted that clay products combined with matches cannot be fired, since these two materials can only be combined before the clay dries, and matches can burn out during firing.
Matches in blocks for prototyping can be glued to the base or to each other. In any case, a strict calculation of the elements and the production of drawings of the future product is required. But models designed without glue sometimes do without a drawing. Although in both cases, the complexity of the product and its shape matter.
Turning to any of the techniques, it is worth adhering to the principle "from simple to complex": first, form and consolidate the skill of working with the material, and then move on to the next level, performing more complex and effective work. So, step by step improving your skill, you will rise to its heights without unnecessary stress and torment of disappointment.
Applicative techniques
Do not think that applique is only for kids. A serious artist can create a true masterpiece in this way, drawing on his imagination and experience.
However, its acquisition is a process that does not tolerate fuss, requiring painstaking work, starting just from the most elementary.
"Little Christmas tree"
This applique is a Christmas craft made of matches for children of younger and middle preschool age. To make it you will need:
- Colored cardboard base
- 13 - 15 matches
- PVA glue
- Glue brush
- Ruler and pencil
- Decorative elements, paints
Before starting work, children need to be explained that glue must be applied to the base carefully, with a thin strip, because it will be difficult to remove excess glue from the craft. Older preschoolers can be given cotton swabs for these manipulations, with which they can correct their work.
Children 4 - 5 years old can paint matches first:
- 3 pieces - brown paint (barrel),
- The rest are green.
At home, for this purpose, you can use brilliant green and iodine to demonstrate the possibility of using any materials at hand for creativity.
Kids can be offered to make an applique from unpainted matches - during one lesson in kindergarten, they will not have time to prepare the material and finish the work - or prepare them on their own, as a handout.
- Prepare working materials, paint the matches with gouache or watercolors. To do this, they need to be laid out in a row on a sheet of paper and, applying paint on one edge, gently rotate and repeat the procedure.
- While the matches are drying up, prepare the base: on a sheet of colored cardboard, draw perpendicular lines, one of which, horizontal, located at the bottom of the sheet, will mean the border of the base of the tree (ground), and the other, vertical, located in the center, the outline of the trunk.
- Prepare decor. These can be small pieces, scraps of white or colored paper, sequins from cut "rain", confetti, etc.
- Getting started, apply a strip of glue on the vertical line and glue brown matches to it with the sulfur heads up.
- Attach 2 green matches to the upper head on both sides of the barrel so that an arrow forms.
- Move the green matches up 1 - 2 mm without changing the angle between them.
- Apply glue to the original location of the matches (the matches themselves, lying next to each other, will help determine the length of the glue strip and the angle of its inclination).
- Move the matches onto the glue strip, press lightly against the base so that they stick better.
- Spread subsequent pairs of matches evenly along the trunk and glue in the same way.
- Decorate the work by pasting the area of the base of the tree with the prepared decor. You can also make a kind of frame by gluing these elements around the perimeter of a sheet of cardboard.
- If glitter, confetti and other material consisting of very small particles are used as decoration, you can apply glue to the base, sprinkle decorative material on it and shake off the excess after drying.
Panel "Christmas Star"
This work is much more painstaking, but technically not very difficult. It can be handled by a young artist who has sufficient experience in appliqué and working with small details.
To make it, you will need several boxes of matches, which you need to check and remove defective, twisted or noticeable defects.
In addition, you will need:
- Thick cardboard (can be corrugated)
- Pencil, ruler, scissors
- Glue
In certain cases, tweezers can be used for work: it is easier for them to grab matches and you can adjust their position during the gluing process.
- Choose the shape of the base (equilateral polyhedron or rays), draw it on a piece of cardboard or apply using a template, cut it out.
- Draw the lines of separation of the rays (from the center to the vertices of the polygon).
- Cut 1 match head and glue in the middle
- Apply glue to the first line of separation of the beams and glue the matches to it with the heads from the center.
- Draw out the other dividing lines as well.
- Fill the inner corner of one of the beams with glue.
- Glue the first match vertically so that the head rests on the center of the star.
- On both sides of it, glue 2 more matches with their heads down, so that they fit snugly against each other, and the heads rest against the line of separation of the rays.
- Gradually adding glue, glue a row of matches, first along one, and then along the other line of separation of the rays so that the tip of the last match is at least half above the edge of the base.
- In the same way, glue a few more rows of matches, gradually filling the entire area of the beam.
- Decorate the other rays of the star in the same way.
- When the glue is dry, turn the panel over and glue the loop with which the product can be hung on the wall. The loop can be secured with a piece of paper or a piece of cardboard.
As dividing lines, you can use not only matches, but also long skewers, and sticks for sushi and rolls. In addition, if you paste over the craft with matches on both sides, you will get a decorative pendant for a festive interior decoration.
"By typing"
No, this is not about experiments in which the result is achieved as a result of a lot of trial and error. This is about crafts created by sticking matches into a volumetric base.
These can often be found at exhibitions of children's crafts. Plasticine figures, fruits and vegetables are used as a basis here.
And the most popular character in both cases is, perhaps, the hedgehog.
- To make it into a plasticine ball with a formed elongated muzzle,
- A potato or a pear is stuck with matches,
- Imitating hedgehog needles.
- Then the nose is formed, the eyes are glued.
But in the same way, you can make a porcupine and a dinosaur, and imitate the fur of any animal with the help of matches of different lengths.
Interesting and varied crafts of this type are obtained using a foam base. For example, a cone and matches will make a wonderful tree! A foam circle (not a ball!) Can turn into a sun, a wheel, a clock. For work, you can use both whole matches and shortened ones.
"The sun came out"
The task is designed for kids. Executes fairly quickly. May have design options.
- For work, you need a circle cut from foam, the thickness of which is at least 5 mm.
- Matches are stuck into the end of the circle with the head outward, until the "solar circle" is closed.
- It is desirable that there is more or less the same distance between the matches.
- The sun, together with matches, can be painted yellow or orange.
- You can also draw a face or leave the sun unanimated.
- The eyes, nose and mouth are drawn with paints or a special marker.
- But you can also form them with the help of shortened matches, sticking them into the foam, like parts of a mosaic.
"Tick-tock - watch"
This craft, at first glance, is easier, in fact, somewhat more complicated than the sun.
- Mark the middle on the circle you cut out of the styrofoam. Determine the location and outline 12 divisions - this is perhaps the most difficult part of the work for children.
- To complete it, you will have to use rulers and pencils, and clearly follow the step-by-step instructions of the teacher.
- In the middle and at the points marking the location of the divisions, stick the shortened matches with the heads up.
- Take one whole and one slightly shortened match, apply a little glue on them and glue to the center, with the heads from it, so that the resulting arrows form an angle - indicate the time.
You can complicate the task a little by indicating to each pupil or student exactly what time his clock should show.
Construction from glued blocks
A method that allows you to create three-dimensional models and even complex layouts cannot but attract attention. And although a glance at a photo or illustration may not be enough to understand how to make such a craft from matches, you should not refuse to master this type of modeling.
It allows you to vary the levels of difficulty, or with the help of small tricks to make the work easier.
So, if it is difficult to make a glued piece consisting of matches at the initial stages of creativity, you can replace it with a piece on a paper or cardboard basis. Even a junior schoolchild can master this method.
"Small house"
To master the technique, start with a lightweight method - modeling using paper-based blocks.
- Draw and cut out of paper or cardboard details: 2 rectangular walls, 2 side walls with a triangular top, 2 rectangular roof slopes.
- Cover the roof slopes tightly with matches. The heads of matches can be located both in one direction, and be glued in a checkerboard pattern. The main thing is that the edges of the slopes are the same.
- Paste over the side walls of the house. For a triangular top, use a shortened match with a cut-off head. Draw out the side edges in a checkerboard pattern: 1 row - the head of the match slightly protrudes beyond the edge, 2 row - the empty end of the match fits snugly against the edge, etc.
- The rectangular walls of the house are also pasted over in a checkerboard pattern so that, when connected to the side walls, the protruding heads find themselves in the openings formed by the empty ends of matches from the adjacent wall.
- In the process of working on rectangular walls, you need to consider the way doors and windows are decorated. If they are overhead, then the matches are glued in a continuous layer.
- If the window and door are "built-in", you need to glue the matches so that the vertical sides of the window and door openings are lined with match heads along the contour. This may require a combination of shortened matches of different sizes. The horizontal sides are laid out with cut match heads.
- As a second option for embedding, you can use the mosaic technique. That is, leave the door and window opening not pasted over, and then lay it out with match heads around the perimeter.
- In the built-in doorway, matches are glued vertically, tightly to each other, with their heads down.
- Finished blocks are connected and glued.
- If you want the house to be colored, the blocks need to be painted before they are connected.
Such a craft can be either an independent work or part of a decorative composition that includes other elements made from matches and other materials.
"Country table"
This model requires gluing matches to each other. However, it can be considered a work of basic difficulty level, suitable for beginners.
- Take 17 matches, remove sulfur heads.
- Lay them out on a flat surface tightly to each other, forming a rectangle. This is the base of the countertop.
- Step 2 - 3 mm from the ends and apply 2 neat strips of glue.
- Place 1 match or a toothpick with cut sharp ends on each, press, maintaining the density and shape of a rectangle.
- When the glue sets, you can gently grease the small gaps between the matches - this will add strength to the product.
- Take two more matches, cut off the heads and shorten them so that their length is less than the length of the tabletop by 3-4 mm.
- Take 4 matches and glue them in the middle, forming 2 crosses so that a prepared match is placed between the diverging ends.
- Glue the prepared matches into the upper part of the cross (the heads of the matches that make up them are directed downward).
- Connect the crosses together by gluing a match with a cut head. Its ends should adjoin from below to the junction point of the cross.
- Apply glue to the matches glued into the crosspieces, place the countertop on them and glue.
If the work uses not PVA, but universal instant glue, you can connect the tabletop parts without additional matches.
Or form and glue the cross without taking into account the length of the match connecting the tabletop elements.
Match lace
This is how I would like to characterize the models made without the use of glue. Although glue models can also be delicate. But this work surprises with its filigree and precision: matches are intertwined in it as if they were threads or a flexible vine.
To create such a masterpiece with your own hands, you need to be an advanced master or carefully study and scrupulously repeat the recommendations of master classes on creating crafts from matches.
After all, in this way you can make not only a house, a tower, a palace, but also a model of a car with wheels, a figure of an animal or a fantastic creature, and even just a fabulous model.
Details of such structures are often made on stands that require accurate marking. The work requires accuracy and refinement of movements, understanding of the structure. As a rule, it takes not hours, but days and, sometimes, months, depending on the complexity. But the result surprises not only the inexperienced viewer, but also colleagues.
The path to the heights of excellence
Acquaintance with the types and technologies for creating crafts from matches confirms once again: if you wish, you can master any technique and achieve perfection in it.
The main thing is to properly organize the educational process, consistently take the peaks one after another, not be afraid to learn new things and repeat the past.
Adults should remember that teaching children to work with matches must be under strict supervision. Be sure to explain the safety precautions to them! And children should understand that real success in applied art can be achieved only by hard work! And then man-made beauty will really save the world!
Photo of crafts from matches
