Now in the decoration of the premises often use topiary. These are small artificial trees created from various materials. The history of this art originates in the distant past, during the time of the Roman emperors, who greatly encouraged gardeners to form various shapes from the crowns of bushes and trees, both geometric and animal images.
Nowadays, the topiary acquired a slightly different meaning, most often called small trees made of natural or artificial materials. The method of manufacturing such crafts is identical, they differ in the decoration of the components of the structure.
In the article, we will consider how to make a coffee tree with your own hands, what you need to get for this, how to work consistently, how to decorate the crown of the tree and its trunk, how to hide the base so that it looks aesthetically pleasing.
Topiary components
Each craft can differ significantly in both materials and decoration. However, there are certain canons of standard manufacturing that apply to every job.
- Flower pot. It is advisable to use a ceramic product for crafts. Pots of non-standard shape look interesting, for example, in the form of a teapot or square shape. However, even if you use an ordinary clay pot, you can always decorate it yourself or decorate it with hemp rope or burlap. Design can be a creative process, because this is an important component of the craft.
- The trunk of the future coffee tree. Any material is selected, depending on the shape of the barrel. It can be short and thick, long and thin, twisted, like a spring, multi-stemmed or resembling a bonsai. They use tree branches, a wooden stick, metal rods, a cardboard sleeve for napkins, etc.
- The basis for the crown. If earlier, a spherical shape of the crown was used to create a coffee tree, now a variety of options are possible: the shape of a heart and a ringlet, a flower and a cone. Often before gluing the main decor for the crown, the foam base is wrapped with thread, rope, glued with paper napkins or other materials, but this is not necessary.
- Crown formation. Here you can use a variety of materials. These are paper and satin ribbons, artificial flowers and small fruits made of polystyrene foam, cones and bows, beads, coins and even pasta. In our article, we will talk about creating a crown from coffee beans.
- Decoration crafts. In this part of the work, the master can realize any bold ideas. There are coffee trees with a fairly common design, for example, a satin ribbon bow at the top of the trunk. But there are real designer masterpieces. Indeed, in the decoration you can use sisal, dried fruit, organza and crepe paper, attach flowers made of polymer clay or "lightning" with a scattering of coins. It all depends on the master’s fantasy flight.
Necessary materials for work
In order not to be distracted in the process of making a tree from coffee beans, you need to prepare all the necessary materials on the desktop in advance. Think over the shape of the tree and, depending on the chosen option, choose both the base for the crown and the stem for the trunk. Foam products are used due to the fact that parts are easily attached to a smooth surface. You can use either a thick PVA or a glue gun to connect. For applying the grains themselves to the base, PVA will be sufficient.
Do-it-yourself coffee tree is set in a pot. However, to keep it well, it is best to create a filler of gypsum. Also prepare a kneading spoon, a convenient bowl, and a container of water.
Place coffee beans and decorating material in separate bowls for easy handling. Next, we consider the types of bases for the crown of a coffee tree.
Foam base
Now on sale there is a huge assortment of products for needlework. It is convenient to use them in the manufacture of topiary, since they can easily make a recess for the shaft of the tree.
For the crown of the tree from coffee beans, you can use any foam base. This is a traditional ball, cone, heart, both whole and hollow, a flower, etc. In the article we tried to pick up examples of tree samples of different shapes so that the reader had an idea about the result of the work.
DIY coffee tree : a master class step by step
First of all, the basis for gluing grains for the crown of the tree is selected. Having determined, painstaking and scrupulous work begins. Coffee beans are glued on the rounded side, so the glue should be strong enough. You can use D-3 - this is a professional PVA glue. If the master’s assortment has a glue gun, then you can use it.
The ideal placement of grains is double gluing. The first layer is attached with the even side of the coffee, when the whole base is covered with grains, another final layer is applied, but the grains are already turned over. They look so beautiful because of the recess in the middle. Coffee grains are staggered so that the white foam base is not visible on the finished product at all.
Stalk preparation
To make a coffee tree with your own hands (see the photo of the step-by-step process above), you need to select, according to the plan, the core. As mentioned above, it can be absolutely any form. The stem is branched and even, narrow and thick. However, in order for it to look aesthetically pleasing, it must be decorated.
For wrapping a stick or branch using strips of fabric, satin ribbons, hemp rope, artificial twine, knitting yarn. Start winding by attaching the edge of the selected material. Then the glue is no longer applied, and the winding simply wraps around the core. All turns should be tight so that the wooden or paper base is not visible.
From above, the topiary trunk of coffee beans is inserted into a foam ball or other base. To do this, you need to leave a small unglued area on it. The stick is inserted into the hole and sits on a strong glue. It is necessary to give some time to harden the glue, and then apply coffee beans to an empty area.
The bulk of the work has been done, there remains work on the flower pot and strengthening the trunk into it. Learn how to make a coffee tree so that it is level, learn further from the article.
How to strengthen a potted tree?
Since the crown of the coffee tree (photo of crafts, see the article) is quite heavy, the trunk will not be able to stay in the pot with a simple filler. Usually, craftsmen use a solution made of gypsum and water. In any construction market, you can buy gypsum powder by weight. One kilogram will be enough. For a batch, take an old bowl. The solution can be kneaded with a small spatula or a banal tablespoon.
The powder is poured into a bowl and a small depression is made in the middle, where subsequently cold water is poured. Everything is thoroughly kneaded to a thick sour cream. Then, on the bottom of the flower pot, a circle is cut that has been previously cut to the diameter of the bottom, the purpose of which is to cover the existing hole in the standard product.
It remains to pour gypsum solution into the container and after a short period of time insert a stick of wood. Care must be taken not to miss the right moment, since the mixture sets quickly enough.
Useful advice!
In order not to miss the necessary moment when the gypsum mortar hardens, you can use the lid on the flower pot. They make it from thick cardboard, you can use packaging corrugated material. On it, the upper part of the pot is circled with a pencil and a circle of a slightly smaller size is cut so that it is freely inserted into the container.
Then, after pouring the gypsum mixture into the pot, you need to insert a cardboard stand for the trunk, and insert the made tree into the hole. The stand will help the craft to maintain a vertical position. After complete solidification of the mass, it remains only to remove the cardboard ring, cutting it to the side.
Types of trees
The troparia, decorated with coffee grains, differs not only in the form of the base for the crown of the tree. We have already touched on this topic earlier in the article. Let's look at how you can modify the barrel options. If you want your tree to wriggle beautifully, then for the manufacture of the stem take a thick wire and with the help of flat-nose pliers give it any curved shape, for example, a wavy line or a curved hook down.
If two topiaries with different branches are combined in one pot, then they must be of different heights so that the crowns do not interfere with each other. There are original crafts with one trunk, which at the top has a bonsai-type branch.
Such a tree looks spectacular and takes up a lot of space, so in the apartment you will have to allocate a large space to this craft, for example, a coffee table or a mantelpiece.
The trunk of the coffee tree is decorated mainly with natural materials. This is a hemp rope of various thicknesses, but in some cases artificial wrapping is also used.
Pot decoration
Capacity for the topiary can be selected in any shape. It can be square, and unique, design. Often decorate a pot for wood with burlap, cloth, ribbons, on top of which lace and braid are glued. On the base of the tree you can see flowers and balls collected from sisal, attached dried pieces of lemon or orange, an asterisk star anise or cinnamon sticks.
There are a lot of options, for example, sea pebbles and shells collected during a vacation on the sea coast. You can wrap the crafts with hemp rope and stick an ornament from the same coffee beans.
Be sure to hide the surface of the gypsum mass. The easiest option is to paste the surface with coffee beans. However, you can fill the top of the pot with sisal threads or corrugated wrinkled paper.
Crown decoration
You can decorate a tree of coffee beans with your own hands by any means of decor, however, you need to consider that when making crafts from natural material it will be appropriate to decorate the crown with natural material as well. Although many masters even experiment with plastic butterflies or flowers from ribbons.
Since coffee beans give the craft a smooth structure, it is quite acceptable to attach volumetric elements.
Tips for Beginners
- If you want to save coffee beans, you can apply only one layer, and paint the foam base with brown acrylic paint.
- If you did not find a foam base for sale, then from a variety of paper sheets you can twist a tight ball of crumpled paper, tie it around the circumference with a thin hemp rope, and only then start gluing.
- It is possible to glue such a ball initially with several layers of torn tissue paper like a papier-mâché.
- A wooden stick can be replaced with cardboard twisting, filling the middle with a crumpled newspaper for strength.
The article describes in detail the manufacture of coffee tree with their own hands, gives advice and recommendations for independent work. After reading, you can easily do the craft. Good luck and success in your work!