Foil is traditionally used in cooking, especially meat and fish, as well as packaging for various products.
Foil weaving as art
But creative personalities found her another use, namely in children's (and not only) crafts. This type of art is called foil weaving.
This activity is very exciting, but requires increased accuracy, since the foil is very torn.
Works of art made from foil will be a wonderful decoration for your home, a gift or decoration for different holidays. Such crafts from afar can be mistaken for silver figurines.
What can be made of foil
Crafts made of foil for the New Year are beautiful, for example, snowflakes, snowmen, Christmas balls. All this will give your home a festive atmosphere. In addition, you can weave anything you want and that’s enough for imagination: berries and fruits, flowers, animals and even people. You can make whole compositions.
Before you start weaving, you can purchase a special set for weaving, which includes detailed instructions, foil and a ruler of cardboard. However, if there is no way to get such a set, you can use the tips given here. All of them are very simple, and you should have no difficulties to master the weaving of foil. The instruction will help you with this.
If you ever tried to knit or embroider, then quickly catch the principle and understand how to weave it with foil with your own hands. And after several attempts, when you fill your hand, you will be able to create crafts more complex and large.
Subtleties in foil weaving
Here are some guidelines for beginners foil weaving.
- Do not use heat-resistant or very dense foil. It will be hard to work, your fingers will quickly get tired, and the products will turn out to be too stiff.
- Use long scissors with straight blades. Open the scissors wide to avoid tearing the foil and causing unevenness. If you are creating with a child, then make notes with a pencil and ruler before cutting strips.
- The width of a standard roll of foil is 30 centimeters. Build on this by determining the length you need.
- The most important thing is to learn how to weave flagella. To do this, simply crumple the cut strip of foil along. Continue to squeeze it with your fingers until you get a segment with a diameter of 4-5 mm. Squeeze the flagellum with two fingers and start rolling it, slowly walking along its entire length. As a result, a wire with a thickness of 1.5-2 mm should form.
- Twisting such flagella is a mechanical task, so your attention is not required. Spin a few of these tubes while watching a movie or phone conversation. And then you just have to twist them, following the instructions.
- Fix all parts with the same number of scrolls so that the symmetry of the object is not broken.
- If you are weaving with a child, select patterns of crafts, in accordance with the age of the child, so that it is not too difficult or easy for him.
And now on an example we will analyze how to make some crafts from foil for the New Year. Let's start with a beautiful and original candlestick.
Materials for the manufacture
Prepare the following materials and tools for the job:
- ordinary food foil;
- scissors;
- a candle for which, in fact, you will make a candlestick;
- tape centimeter;
- tin lid of medium size.
Making a Christmas candlestick together
When everything you need is prepared, you can start weaving foil.
- Take the lid; its diameter should be slightly larger than the diameter of the candle. Wrap the lid with foil.
- Measure on a foil a strip 10 centimeters wide, and about 5 centimeters longer than the circumference of the base of the candlestick. Cut the resulting strip.
- Twist this strip of foil into a thin dense tube, like a flagellum, and connect the ends to form a ring. Tighten the junction well.
- Cut another 5 strips of this width. The length depends on the height of the candle that you have chosen. For example, 50-60 centimeters.
- Twist the same tubes from the cut strips as before.
- Take one flagellum and attach it to the ring, twisting in half so that a loop appears on the main ring.
- Do the same with the rest of the tubes. It turned out something like the sun.
- Connect all the flagella with each other, doing three twists each time. The result should be a grid.
- Insert the ring into the cover.
That's all, your New Year candlestick is ready.
What will be required for weaving snowflakes
Let's make another decoration on New Year's theme. And it will be a snowflake. Snowflakes have long become a symbol of the main winter holidays. They are traditionally cut out of paper, cardboard, weaved from thread, made papier-mâché. All this can be replaced with foil weaving. The snowflake will turn out brilliant and quite realistic. In addition, it will look harmoniously with the same candlestick and with Christmas-tree decorations.
You will need:
- scissors;
- plain foil;
- ruler.
How to weave a foil snowflake yourself
You can get to work.
- Cut strips 2-3 cm wide.
- Twist them into tight tubes.
- Make a few more of these tubes, depending on how many snowflakes you want to make. 5 tubes will go per unit.
- Cut one tube in half. Twist a small circle at the end of one of the halves so that the index finger freely enters into it.
- Divide the remaining half of the tube into two more parts. Take the next flagellum and cut it into 4 equal parts.
- From one quarter, do something like a hook, bending one edge.
- Put the hook on the circle and fasten the end of the hook by wrapping it tightly.
- Repeat this process with the remaining quarters.
- At the ends of the beams, form and fix the loops.
- Divide 2 flagella into four equal parts each.
- Bend one quarter in half and attach to the beam at a distance of 1-1.5 centimeters from the place of attachment to the central ring. Lock the quarter with one turn around the beam.
- In the same way, fix the remaining quarters on each beam.
- Cut a long flagellum into six identical parts. And fix them on the rays, one and a half centimeters from the outer ring.
The snowflake is ready. With the help of the rings, you can hang it on a Christmas tree or elsewhere. And from several snowflakes you can build a whole garland.
There are other ways to make a foil snowflake. For example, such a nice snowflake, as shown in the figure below, is an alternative to the previous one, but here the design is performed without loop rings, and the rest is the same procedure.
As you can see, a very pleasant and interesting way to pass the time is weaving from foil. The workshop on the above products is simple and straightforward. With its help, even children can make such crafts.
How to decorate foil crafts
And with the help of weaving, you can make beautiful floral arrangements. It is not necessary that they be silver, the finished craft can be painted with acrylic paint, giving the desired shades to the resulting figures.
In any case, the ideas for foil weaving are endless, and, probably, every day there are new patterns and instructions for this fun activity.