The popularity of wood crafts in the world is growing every year, which is especially noticeable during the holidays.
Increasingly, photos of wood crafts show the work of creative and courageous people who express their ideas in the form of children's toys and Christmas tree decorations, sculptural figures for landscape decoration and apartments.
Species for wood crafts
For handicraft work, wood is divided by hardness into soft, medium-hard and hard varieties. The hardness of wood is determined by its specific gravity and resistance to planing.
Soft trees include linden, aspen, poplar, willow.
- Linden has a whitish wood with a subtle texture and a distinct shimmer. It is soft and therefore suitable for wood carving.
- Poplar has a white-yellow wood with a brown core, it is quite unpredictable and therefore it is difficult for a beginner to work with it.
- Aspen is a white-white wood, fine-grained, smooth, shiny, splitting, easy to plan. Suitable for making toys.
- Willow is known in several varieties, it is very common and is suitable for weaving baskets, pots.
Trees of medium hardness include pine, spruce, fir, alder, birch, sycamore, meadow, mulberry, apple, plum, cherry, pear.
- Pine is yellow-brown, elastic, moisture resistant (due to its high resin content). This is the most common material for school work. But the spruce is unsuitable for making wood crafts with children.
- Alder is reddish in color, pricks unevenly, flows down smoothly, but not durable, as insect pests like it too much. However, it is widely used in joinery, lathes and woodcarving, as it is suitable as a substitute for walnut, because it dyes well in walnut color.
- Birch is bluish in color, quite resilient and durable. Suitable for the production of veneer and plywood for turning, burning. We make stylish white furniture from it, including garden furniture. Easy to paint.
Hard varieties of wood are not used in the manufacture of handicrafts. But for working with a jigsaw, hevea is ideal, which does not grow in our latitudes, but cutting boards from it come across in stores.
Woodburning
To make a drawing using a pyrograph, you will need:
- Wooden plank;
- Sandpaper; prepared pattern on paper or photo;
- Tracing paper;
- Pencil;
- Scotch;
- A finishing product such as oil or wood varnish.
Well-dried hardwoods such as birch, beech, sycamore, maple or oak are best used for firing because they have a better fiber structure than softwood and are less resinous and will not “cry” when burned.
To start your pyrography adventure, we recommend plywood first.
- The first step in how to make wood crafts is to prepare the wood well. To do this, the entire surface of the edged board should be carefully wiped with sandpaper to get rid of irregularities.
- When the board is perfectly smooth, you can start preparing the pattern. Apply tracing paper to the selected drawing, photo or inscription and carefully trace with a pencil on tracing paper, keeping all the details in mind. Then turn the tracing paper over and place it on the patterned wood.
- Secure it at the top and bottom with adhesive tape to keep it stationary. Then carefully trace the drawing with a pencil in such a way as to apply it to the tree.
- The next step is to use a pyrograph.The picture was made by neat and accurate burning of the drawn lines and the gaps between them. A burner with a power regulator works best, which allows you to control the depth to obtain different shades of color.
- After applying the contour, you can proceed directly to burning. It is necessary to adapt to each specific board, but after it becomes clear at what angle to place the pyrograph, how to adjust the pressure and other nuances. In addition to the pyrograph, beginners can try their hand at burning with an ordinary soldering iron.
Working with a jigsaw on wood
Often, children tend to make their own Christmas tree decorations, doll furniture or small boxes for little things. A modern jigsaw is usually electric, with different sets of saw blades to handle all types of wood.
After drawing a picture or drawing on a wooden plate, as was done for burning, the piece of wood is fixed and sawing begins. Safety rules must be strictly followed, eyes and mouth must be protected.
Wicker making
Gif.webpt baskets, flower pots and other products will be an excellent gif.webpt for your grandmother, but this type of creativity is not suitable for everyone.
It is not enough to pick willow branches, they must be properly dried and sanded. Not everyone can do this, especially given that certain types of willow must be prepared for up to six months.
Therefore, it is better to buy a ready-made set and weave a simple product according to the instructions.
An interesting kind of creativity was the weaving of young willow seedlings into living pavilions, when they are fastened at a certain angle around the country furniture, forming natural tents.
Finishing wood crafts
When the drawing is burnt out or the Christmas tree toy has been successfully cut, the fun begins - coloring, toning or varnishing.
Wooden crafts for children are usually painted with special paints, but decorative elements that are inserted into a frame (including homemade ones) are usually varnished.
A stain or varnish with a tint, which can be bought at any hardware store, will help to give the necessary shade.
Photo of wood crafts
