Crafts from reed leaves with their own hands. Weaving from reeds: a master class for beginners. Learning step by step weaving from reeds for beginners

As you know, cattail loves dampness, it grows along the banks of rivers and lakes, in swamps, flood meadows, wet peat bogs, abandoned quarries, damp ditches and ravines. Is any cattail suitable for weaving, how to prepare it?

No matter how much I searched for information about the harvesting of cattail on the Internet and literature, I could not put together a whole picture. It was for this reason that an irresistible desire was born in me to receive a master class from a real craftsman.

Now I am comparing what Vasily Nikolaevich told me with what various authors write, and I see a complete discrepancy. For example, in the book "Weaving from straws from grandfather Vasily" ( http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/140113/Sergeev_-_Pletenie_iz_solomki_-_ot_deda_Vasiliya.html) I read: "Before drying the cattail, it needs to be peeled - to separate the leaves from the stems. The basal yellowish-cream areas of the cattail shoots are soft and not suitable for weaving."

And Vasily Nikolayevich taught me the opposite: it is not necessary to peel the cattail either before drying or during storage, and it is the basal part that is suitable for weaving.

I will not go into an analysis of inconsistencies, but simply tell me about what Vasily Nikolaevich taught me, whom, without detracting from respect, I call grandfather with great love. So, the secrets from the real master of horn weaving, Honored Master of Folk Art of Ukraine Kaznovetsky Vasily Nikolaevich, first hand.

PREPARATION OF CATTLE.

Cattail can be broad-leaved and narrow-leaved: the former has an olive-green leaf color
a lilac or grayish tint is added, in the second it is rather yellowish. You can weave from one or the other. In narrow-leaved, the useful part is shorter, but when weaving, any cattail can be used and even mixed, since there are no more significant differences.

For weaving, that part of the bottom of the sheet is suitable, which covers all the other intra-seated leaves. This part of the sheet has thinning at the edges (see the figure), everything above this place becomes brittle after drying, and therefore is not used.

Cattail leaves are harvested starting in the second half of August and continue until the end of September. October depends on the weather, cattail may begin to dry out, but you still need to have time to dry it before frost.

You can harvest cattail from a boat or in wading boots. The main thing is that it grows in water. It was in this that the main secret of the unsuitability for weaving of the cattail that I had prepared before turned out to be.

I cut it in a water meadow, where the water is only in the spring and dries up by the middle of summer. Cattail there grows densely and rather high, but when weaving it is hard and brittle, no soaking helps to soften it. Now I'm exploring the surrounding area in search of thickets growing right in the water, and the longer the underwater part, the better.

They harvest only those plants that do not have the so-called "eskimo", grandpa says that those with cobs are not suitable.

I searched the Internet for which plants without cobs are male or female. And here's what I found out.

It turns out that cattail is a monoecious plant. The inflorescence consists of female (lower) and male (upper) cobs, located, as a rule, on the same shoot, the size of the gap between them is different, and sometimes they are in contact with each other, therefore, inflorescences are sometimes considered as one cob, divided into male and female parts. http://fitobaco.ru/informatsiya/sotsvetie-rogoza-2.html

Thus, I come to the conclusion that the cattail that has not bloomed at all is suitable. Apparently young.

They reap with a sickle, which instead of a handle has a long stalk like a shovel, which allows you to cut the plant as close to the root as possible, even at a decent depth.

DRYING AND STORAGE OF CATTLE.

Dry cattail without splitting into leaves, standing in sheaves. The question does not arise in the sun or in the shade, since Grandpa's entire yard is lined with them, and even behind the gates along the street everything is lined. Thus, some sheaves are in the sun, and some are in the shade. So, it doesn't matter.

When the cattail dries, and this is after 2-3 weeks, cut off the excess length (as a rule, this is the entire green part) and store it right on the street. I tried to store it in the apartment (I brought a bunch for current crafts), it dried up a lot in a week. So it's better outside.

Lay horizontally on a wooden pallet. At the same time, be sure to under a canopy in case of rain.

The photo to the right of the sheaf shows how this is done. Two vertical sticks - that's the whole simple design for winter storage.

PREPARATION OF CATTLE FOR WORK.

Splitting into leaves is not done in advance, only immediately before weaving and in the amount necessary for work at the moment.

If the material crunches in the hands when squeezed with fingers, then the grandfather sprinkles it with water from a spray bottle and leaves it for a while.

He does not do soaking in water with immersion, and there was no need for this.

The leaf is cut with a knife lengthwise, usually in half. For small items, or if the sheet is very wide, then into three parts.

It practically does not weave with a whole sheet, except perhaps if it decides to make some place thicker or stronger.

But in the manufacture of handles for baskets and bottles, just whole leaves are used.

WEAVING FROM CATTLE.

What impressed me most about this process was Grandpa's desire to make the weaving process as comfortable as possible.

I started weaving at any product and the fields at the hat, I always performed on the table, which means standing, and even bowed, I'm not talking about the fact that I occupy the entire table.

Grandpa does everything while sitting, placing a chair with a hard seat in front of him. Rigidity is needed in order to ensure pressing while the product is not dressed on the form.

Everything is woven according to the form, and no skill matters.

The bottle or jug itself serves as a form when they are braided.

For weaving a hat, a pan is used, matched to size.

For weaving bast shoes, wooden blocks are used, which are cut to fit different leg sizes.

For weaving baskets from boards, forms of different sizes are knocked together.

The use of forms for weaving is due to the need to tighten the weaving, which achieves density and uniformity.

I’ll tell you the basic principle using the example of a basket. First, on a solid support, we weave the bottom with a "string", with each row of a separate reed, and leave their ends, they will be the basis for weaving the side walls of the product. Then we put the bottom on the form.

We press it with a board of the size corresponding to the bottom, which we either tie or nail. Now you can lower all the ends and continue to weave in shape.

This principle is always used. When weaving bast shoes, the board is nailed to the sole of the shoe; when braiding bottles, caps of the appropriate size are used instead of boards, which are tied to the bottle.

Without a form, only flat things are woven, the bottom of any product or, for example, the brim of a hat. In this case, the role of the form is played by the table itself or another plane, on which weaving is performed.

Grandpa adapted a board for weaving the brim of hats, which he puts on his knees, and rests on the table with the upper edge. Thus, the work is done while sitting and with a flat back. How grateful I am to him for such ergonomic solutions.

If in the process of work the cattail begins to dry out, and this becomes clear from the characteristic crunching when the sheet is squeezed, then it should be wetted.

For these purposes, grandpa uses a spray bottle, while after spraying, he leaves it for several minutes so that the cattail absorbs water and softens. With the same procedure, he begins to weave the work left earlier, but not completed.

And in his work, grandpa uses the so-called puff in the form of a wire with a curved loop. True, before that we ourselves thought of it and even went further.

I have been using this puff with a handle for a long time, which my husband built for me, seeing how I suffer, if necessary, to thread or fill the reeds.

Grandpa varnishes finished products. He says that lacquered ones are more willing to buy. Although I personally like it better in its natural form.

And only one secret grandfather did not reveal to me. This is the painting of cattail. And not because I didn't want to.

He painted with powders, which he now ran out of. He always bought them at the market, but now no one sells them and there is simply nowhere to buy them.

I think that the powders that grandfather was talking about are aniline dye, which is used to dye fabric. It is not produced in Ukraine now, but I already found a place where they promised to bring me.

So I'll send it to my grandfather, I'll make him happy.

EPILOGUE.

That's all the secrets from Vasily Nikolaevich Kaznovetsky. In the theoretical part, everything is now clear, it remains only until August to find a place where you can harvest the "correct" cattail.

In the meantime, I have a bunch of dried cattails that my grandfather gave me as a parting gift. Now this is a very precious material for me, each sheet is registered, each is worth its weight in gold.

During the master class, we shot a lot of videos so as not to miss anything important and not to forget. One video I wanted to insert into the post to amuse you. There, my grandfather put a stake for my bast shoes. But something didn’t work out in the post, so who cares, watch the video in the first comment.

A funny plant is a reed ... you probably don’t even suspect how many interesting things you can create from it, having a small amount of materials at hand, a bit of patience and, of course, inspiration. So, let's see what are the reed crafts that we make with our own hands.

We learn to make a variety of crafts from reeds with our own hands

You can weave all sorts of interesting and necessary things not only from beads, but also from reeds. Just before that, they need to be prepared.

So, the stalks of reeds (or cattail), as we have already said, require due attention. Its preparation is carried out in June-July or, at worst, in the month of September. It is better to choose plants without flower stalks. Make cuts with a well-sharpened knife as close to the root as possible. Before tying the stems into bunches, be sure to cut off the thin and weak ends.

It is better to dry the prepared stems in natural conditions before storage. Remember that reeds should not be stored in plastic bags, because in this case, its stems will be covered with black spots and become porous.

In order to prepare the stems for work, you need to hold them in water for about 10 minutes. Then the well-soaked stems should be wrapped in a wet cloth and held in this way for at least two hours. In this case, the tissue matter must be dense, otherwise it will not contain the required amount of moisture. An old flannelette blanket is best.

Take out the reed stems prepared for work from the bundle only a few things at a time (this is necessary so that they do not have time to dry).

We weave a stand for hot.

So let's start simple. Let's make a stand. This option is almost completely similar to weaving from newspaper tubes, but the strength and color of our material have a number of advantages over a newspaper.

So, for a stand, the size of which will be 15x15 cm, we need 20 stems, the width of which should vary in the range of 12-15 mm, and the length in the range of 40-50 cm. An awl and sharp scissors will also come in handy. Let's start our master class.

We put 5 peeled and well flattened stems along the table. You should not put all the thick ends in one direction, it is better to alternate them. Now we press the stems with our left hand a little to the left of the middle of the stems. We bend the second and fourth stems, grabbing them with the index finger of the same left hand.
We take another reed stalk and put it across those that remain on the table. Next, we swap the longitudinal stems, that is, we press the bent stems to the table, and bend those that lie on the table, on the contrary. Now we put the second transverse stem using the method described above. We try to lay the transverse stems as tightly as possible, for which, when bending the longitudinal stems, you need to pull them to the left.
In the same way, we lay all 5 transverse stalks of reeds.
We add one stem on each side until we end up with a 10x10 checkerboard, as in the photo below. Now we cut the ends of the stems at an acute angle to facilitate their termination.
We turn our stand over and alternately bend the racks inside out, skipping the ends for weaving. You can help this process with the help of an awl. We cut off all excess.

Now it remains to wrap the finished stand in paper so that it absorbs excess moisture, and put the product under the press at night. Our hot pot is ready!

Weave a rug of reeds.

If crafts made of paper, plasticine or something similar have not been of interest to you for a long time, we recommend trying something more complicated.

For example, you can weave a rug from dry reeds. It will turn out a very beautiful, effective and reliable product.

In order to weave a rug, first we will make a kind of loom. In fact, such a machine is a rectangular frame made of wood about 70x100 cm in size. On the short sides of this frame, screws must be screwed in every centimeter. After that, you need to pull twine threads onto the frame (while the number of threads should remain even) every two centimeters.
Now we take a stalk of cattail and carefully stretch it under each even thread. Accordingly, we pull the next sheet of reeds under the odd one.
The result should be a checkerboard weave. We cut off all the extra stems at a distance of about five centimeters from the last thread.
Next, we strengthen the long edges of our rug. To do this, take another stem and sew it with large stitches from the inside parallel to the last thread of the base.
We remove our rug from the frame, and cut the threads between the screws and carefully tie them together in pairs. It remains only to decorate our hand seam. To do this, on the front side, we sew a suitable braid on a typewriter. Carpet is ready!

By the way, you can cut ribbons from plastic bottles (of different colors) and weave a rug out of them. It will be no less effective.

What else can be woven from reeds?

In the form of reeds, almost anything is woven. The form can be, for example, a bottle or a jug that is braided. In order to weave a hat, you can use a pan. You just need to choose the right size. For weaving shoes, that is, bast shoes, you can use wooden blocks cut to fit the desired foot size.

The principle of weaving will always remain the same:

Video on the topic of the article

For those who still have questions, we have prepared a series of video tutorials with useful tips and step-by-step instructions.

Very unusual crafts, as well as home decor items, can be made using simple natural materials such as reeds.

They have a very recognizable specific structure. Many people who often played close to water as children recognize it immediately.

Crafts from reeds - vases

You can make interesting crafts from reeds, decorate objects not only using the stems of this plant, but also many others that grow along the banks of reservoirs - in the shallow water of ponds, rivers, lakes, swamps.

It can be reed, cattail, calamus. The stalks of marsh plants are also widely used for weaving - they braid vessels, weave baskets, hot coasters, make souvenirs, mats, even wicker furniture.

Cattail is sometimes erroneously called reed. Its leaves are pointed, a velvety brown "sausage" appears at the end of the stem.

There is also such a swamp plant - rush, he loves to grow in flood meadows, wetlands. It can also be used to create crafts.

Harvesting reeds

The reeds rustled, the trees bent,
And the night was dark...

Reeds are harvested for crafts in the summer, from the beginning of its flowering to the beginning of autumn, because the shoots are still relatively tender and juicy, but have already become elastic and durable. The plant is cut close to the ground with a knife, sickle, or simply cut off with scissors, immediately separated from unnecessary leaves, collected in small bunches, sorted by size and diameter, and then dried.

Be sure to dry in the shade, without heaters, otherwise they will lose their natural color. The attic is the perfect place for this. It is impossible to store dried stems in plastic bags - they will go dark spots. The reed should be stored in a dark, cool room.

Decorative vases - reeds

Immediately before starting work, dry reed stalks are slightly soaked in water, wrapped in a wet cloth. You can’t keep them wet for a long time, only for a short time, about a day.

It should be noted that the blanks of marsh plants lend themselves well to coloring, for example, with aniline dyes. Take dyes that are used to dye fabrics. You can also bleach raw materials in a solution of hydrogen peroxide.

Anything can be decorated with such reed trim, in this case it will be decorative vases. It is best to take something as a basis. It can be either porcelain or glass, even plastic.

Decor with natural material - reeds

Oblique cuts of reed stalks are glued with good glue to the base with an overlap. Of course, a glue moment will do, as well as a glue gun, take what you are used to, it is more convenient to work with.

Which vase will eventually turn out from natural material largely depends on the shape of the base. Here are examples of round, oval, as well as bowls as flower pots.

Such a vase will be good for dry twigs, flowers, whole compositions made from natural materials.

The only significant drawback of the vase is that it is possible that dust will accumulate between the stalks of the reeds. I think that this can be partially prevented by covering the surface with several layers of varnish on top, which will both protect against moisture and mechanical damage, and from dust. In addition, it will be easier to care for - occasionally wipe lightly with a damp cloth.

I often met various crafts made of reeds in the form of animals, birds. Here, for example, is a hen sitting on a nest.

In a post about wise night birds made from natural materials, there is also one interesting individual, in the manufacture of which reed stems were used.

Flame retardant treatment

Reed (aka reed) is combustible, but does not support combustion very much. Panicles burn the most - they are the main source of danger. The stems contain a significant amount of calcium and minerals, and even when dry, they do not burn much. In the old days, the roofs of houses were made of straw or reed; reed ones burned a little less often and were safer.

However, if you want the fence to last longer and not create a fire hazard, you should treat it with flame retardants. Most of these substances are also effective against the formation of fungus, bacteria that infect stems, and insects. By the way, insects also do not like reeds very much, but rodents can cause trouble - for them it is quite edible.

Processing can be carried out before, however, it is much easier to process after the erection of the fence - it is much more convenient to cover the stems with a brush or roller and you do not have to worry about allocating a special place for coating and drying.

An alternative treatment method is watering. The stems are laid out on some non-absorbent base with a layer of 5-10 cm and watered from a watering can with an anti-burn composition. When they are well saturated, they are collected and left to dry.

Before you build a reed fence with your own hands, a master class on flame retardant processing will not be superfluous. Consult with experienced people whether the treatment will be effective, which compounds are best to use and how to prepare them correctly - they are usually sold in the form of concentrates.

Assembly of the base and installation of stems

The base for the fence may not be very strong. The fact is that reed (reed) is one of the lightest building materials that you can imagine. It has a hollow stem and a very small specific . The total weight of the fence will be less than the wooden one made of glazing beads.

After installing the pillars, they make a base on which the stems will stand. Two technologies are used - a traditional fence on poles or trellis wire or a base in the form of a chain-link mesh with a very wide pitch.

When using a chain-link, you need one in which the cell will be about 10 cm wide. It is stretched as usual, placing poles every 2-3 meters. You can use an ordinary construction mesh with a mesh of 10 cm. Then reed stalks are threaded into it, alternating them - one is placed upside down, the other down. In this case, the area is filled evenly along the entire height of the fence. They try to make inserts at the same height, especially carefully align the top. If something didn’t work out, then you can simply cut off the top along one line after assembly.

The advantages of this design are the low transparency of the fence and high rigidity, it is difficult to pull the stems out of the fence.

Flaws:

It is required to put the pillars quite often, since the chain-link will sag with rare pillars, especially of rare weaving. To put the posts less often, you will have to use additional wire trellises, and only then put a chain-link on them.
The second drawback is that it takes a lot of time and effort to thread the stems into the chain-link. Considering that it takes a lot of them to fence, it will also take enough time to work.

It is much more practical when using a chain-link to weave the stems horizontally - as with a classic wattle fence. In this case, the rigidity of the fence is achieved with vertical pressure, the stems play the role of reinforcement, you can install support posts less often and additional wire trellises are not required. However, such weaving will require experience.

If you have a skill in weaving baskets, it will come in handy, otherwise there will be constant distortions when weaving along the height of the fence. The main disadvantage of such weaving is that it will take even more time and the ends of the stems will stick out in and out, they will then have to be carefully broken off or bitten off.

The second option is a classic fence. At the same time, poles are installed less often, poles are nailed to them at an approximately equal distance parallel to the ground. There should be at least three poles, it is advisable to make 5 pieces for a fence 1.5-2 meters high. Their number must be odd. Instead of poles, it is allowed to use wire trellises - the wire must be well stretched with the help of tensioners and firmly fixed.

During installation, the stems are inserted vertically between the poles, intertwining them. When weaving, there is an alternation - one stem is braided in one direction, the other in the other, as in weaving baskets. The top and bottom of the stem are also alternated, as when weaving a fence on a chain-link mesh. Weaving this is much faster - you do not need to insert the stem from top to bottom, you can start it from the side and then twist it along the entire length with poles or trellises.

How to make a fence out of reeds on your own - in the video:

Once upon a time in Rus', weaving from reeds, cattails, reeds and other similar plant materials was a flourishing craft. Masters in bast-mat huts made mats, coolies, sails, seats for chairs, and much, much more.
In our time, such an occupation has become not a profession, but rather a fascinating activity, the result of which are pretty slippers, coasters for dishes, covers for flower pots, "unbreakable" bottles braided with reeds, etc.

Coasters for hot dishes.

Coasters for hot dishes, woven from reeds and cattails, are distinguished by strength and longevity. You can safely put hot dishes on them without fear of damaging the oilcloth or tablecloth: cattail leaves and especially the porous trunk of reeds do not transmit heat well and are excellent heat insulators. In addition, the dishes are placed on such a stand without that annoying clang that metal coasters make. It is also important that a hot kettle or pan does not slip off the stand, even if the table suddenly tilts for some reason. The service life of a reed and cattail stand, of course, with careful attitude to it, is not less than ten to fifteen years.

They begin to make a stand using simple checkered weaving (Fig. 6).

Rice. 6 Weaving coasters for dishes: A- fastening of reeds for "rope"; b And V- the formation of a "rope"; G- sealing the sides with a lacing awl.

Twelve reeds are intertwined at right angles to each other. Then they take a new reed, bend it around one of the extreme racks of a simple lash (Fig. 6, a) and form a “rope” around the last one, braiding all 24 free ends (racks) in turn, trying to form the correct circle as a result (Fig. 6, b and c). In order for the "rope" to be caught in a circle, they try to pull it as tight as possible at the corners of the lash. When you finish the first turn of the "rope", and it is the most difficult, the second row is much easier to weave.

When you make three or four turns with a "string", it is not forbidden to move on to simple weaving. But in order for the rows of such weaving to go continuously in a spiral, it is necessary to have an odd number of racks. In this case, the stand has 24 posts fanned out in a circle, so simply cut off one post or add another.

Decide for yourself what to do: if the racks are too tight, then it is better to remove one rack, and if it is free, add it. To insert an additional stand, a new reed is pushed next to any original stand using an awl with a special hole at the end (we will talk about the design of the awl a little later).

Now all the racks, including the additional one, if it is provided, pass in turn with a "circular" reed, circling it sequentially around each of the racks and forming as many rows as the size of the stand requires. Unlike weaving with a "rope", here the reeds are not twisted, but only they try to lay them in fairly dense rows. But for strength, the last turn is again made a "string".

Having finished weaving, proceed to the sealing of the sides. With the simplest method of termination, the end of each post is simply pulled into the whip next to the adjacent post. The lacing awl "from the center" is pushed along one of the racks (Fig. 6, d), insert the end of the adjacent rack into its hole and pull it inward. Then the awl is directed along the next rack and the end of the previous one is pulled into the whip ... All the other ends of the racks are closed in the same way.

Racks can be pushed into the whip and not to the end, but leave small loops around the edges. Moreover, the loops are optionally made either rectangular or triangular. By the way, for the decorative design of the stand, it is effective to use both loops at once. To get a loop, the rack is smoothed with an awl handle so that it becomes flat, and the end is sharpened with scissors. Having inserted an awl along the rack, insert the sharp end of the rack into the hole of the latter and pull it into the whip, leaving only a small loop, which is straightened so that a triangle (Fig. 7) or a rectangle is obtained.

Rice. 7 Embedding the sides of the lash: A- work with a lacing awl; b- triangular loop.

Oval stand for "goose".

Weave the same way as round. The only difference is that at right angles to each other weave not the same, but a different number of stems. For example, in order to weave a stand, in which the width would be half as long as the length, the number of reeds located vertically must be twice as many as horizontally. But back to our awl. Firstly, it is easy to use lacing instead, which used to be used to lace footballs and volleyballs. They are also sold in sporting goods stores. Secondly, such an awl-lacing is not so difficult to do with your own hands (Fig. 8).

Rice. 8 Lacing awls.

A nail is driven into a wooden handle, a hat is chopped off and the end is flattened. Having heated the flattened end red-hot on fire, let it cool slowly and cut a slot along the center line with a chisel. Then the punched hole is expanded and filed with a file. The finished awl is polished with a fine-grained sandpaper. A simpler design of an awl is also known, which even those who do not have the skills to work with metal will make from improvised materials. The knitting needle is heated in the middle, and when the metal cools down, it is bent in half. The ends connected together are sharpened and driven into a wooden handle. With the help of such an awl, it is not only possible to thread new racks, but also close up the sides of various products woven from herbs.