Reed is an incredibly cheap material that you can prepare yourself if you want. But few people know that a huge number of all kinds of household items can be prepared from reeds: baskets, vases for bread and sweets, hats, trays for small patients of the Biokontrol veterinary clinic, and much more.

If you are going to make a product in large sizes, you should choose a special reed cattail. Its stems are arrow-shaped and are of sufficient length. But for small boxes and vases, a special arrowhead is prepared, which makes it possible to make the weaving more refined.

If you've never weaved reeds before, it makes sense to start with a simple bread plate. It is important to be very careful when working with reeds. When separating the leaves from the stem, try not to wrinkle them, as this also deteriorates the appearance. To make the leaves separate from the reeds quickly and easily, soak the material for work in water for an hour and a half before weaving, and then wrap it in a damp cloth for the same period of time.

Leaves for weaving must be taken through a cloth, flattened and only then pulled between the fingers - this will make it possible to remove moisture and air from the sheet, which will be superfluous in your work. After preparing the reeds, it is worth choosing what size plate you want to weave. For the template, you can use a real plate of similar size or a saucepan.

Focusing on the diameter of the future plate, and also taking into account its height, cut the required number of reed leaves, starting from the part that is closer to the stem - it is much wider than the top. Also keep in mind that the leaves should be a few centimeters longer than your template so you can tuck in the tips.

The first four leaves of reeds are laid out close to each other - they will serve as racks for your future craft. Step back to the right of the beginning of the leaf about 1/3 of its length and bend the first and third leaves upwards in this place. Then, between two pairs of horizontal leaves, one vertical is pushed. After the sheet is pushed in, place your palm on it with an edge. Now bend up the second and fourth horizontal sheets and in the same way insert another vertical one under it.

Repeat this procedure two more times, so that you have a square in the middle, which in its shape is somewhat reminiscent of a chessboard. Our racks are ready!

Now, in the leaves of the reeds, thinner sheets should be selected, which will be necessary for weaving. For weaving, the leaves of the very rack of the future plate are slightly moved apart so that they resemble the rays of the sun (at the same distance from each other). A loop and a prepared thin sheet is thrown onto one of the racks, which closes crosswise. Next, we begin to gradually "wrap" all the ends of the rack in a circle. Weaving continues until the thin sheet ends - after that, a new sheet is placed in its place and weaving continues. As a result, you get a plate that resembles a basket of thin flagella. When you have reached the required height for the sides of the plate, the remaining ends of the rack are tucked in such that they do not protrude from the outside of the plate.

To fix the weaving and make it more symmetrical, you can use a thin, sharp wooden stick, which can be used to move or slightly widen the loops. At the end of the work, leave the plate to dry thoroughly!

My weaving master class.

For many years in July, I have been inviting my entire department to our dacha to celebrate the Accountant's Day. The places we have are very beautiful, and at the dacha itself there is something to see, so the girls are always looking forward to this trip.

And for so many years, we have already developed certain traditions. My girls are mostly very young, and therefore mostly do not drink. Drinking in the heat, of course, is hard, and I myself do not like it when they insist, but for fun I wanted it to be at least a little, but that's it. So we came up with the idea then to meet the guests with a loaf on a towel and a horseradish cooked by my husband. And what was our surprise when my youngsters began to ask to repeat. Since then, horseradish has become an indispensable attribute of the holiday.

So I decided this year to give my girls souvenir gifts. She braided little bottles with reeds, filled them with crap and presented them to each pair of those present.

Most of the contents of the gift have not yet touched, the bottles decorate their kitchen interiors, and I am pleased.

During work i shot a master class this weaving. Few weave from reeds, but I think that to those who are carried away by weaving from newspapers, it will probably be interesting, because the principle is the same. I myself began to weave with newspapers.

More photos and a Master class on weaving can be seen by clicking on the picture:

Many owners of country houses and garden plots prefer to bring building materials for decoration and repair from the city. Meanwhile, not everyone realizes that good building material can be collected from the nearest river, pond or any swampy body of water. We are talking about reeds and its closest relatives - cattails and lake reeds.

It has been established that reed was successfully used for buildings in the ancient city of Khara-Khoto, located in Central Asia. Researchers were able to establish that the stems of the reed lay in the clay masonry for more than 2000 years and during this time did not even decompose!

Of course, reeds have long been used for numerous home crafts. And you can use the stems of the described plant to make a roof for a summer gazebo, barn, or, say, a garden house. Here, your imagination is not very limited.

Reeds should be collected in winter. It is at this time that the stems reach their maximum size, and dry leaves and tops with seeds are removed without any problems. In addition, in winter, on hard ice or frozen ground, it is more convenient to get to the reed "plantations" from the water side. It should be remembered that only mature plants with a characteristic yellow color should be cut.

After collecting the stems, they must be thoroughly dried. This usually takes 2 to 3 weeks. Before using the reeds, once again carefully examine the plants for rot. For construction needs, stems with a minimum of mechanical damage are most suitable - they are the ones who are able to well retain moisture and resist the ubiquitous insects.

For the roof, beams of approximately the same size should be formed from the reeds. It is best to tie the stems with galvanized wire. Initially, reeds are poorly permeable to moisture. This is facilitated by the presence of flint deposits (just in the yellow stems) and the presence of wax deposits in the plants. It is clear that dense reed bunches (fascines) will transmit moisture even worse. In terms of fire, the reed roof is quite safe. Tightly tied bundles, even in the presence of an open fire, will smolder rather than burn, like a thick book. The wire, which was mentioned earlier, at high temperatures will not allow the fascines to crumble and contribute to an increase in the fire.

Reed has excellent sound and heat insulation properties. This is mainly due to the presence of a hollow tubular stem, poorly conducting air. It is known that a 10 cm thick reed wall is equivalent to traditional brickwork. Moreover, it has been experimentally established that a house with reed walls 20 centimeters thick or more can successfully endure northern frosts with only two furnaces per day!

Reeds can be used to make something like sofas or beds. In this case, it is advisable to use the longest stems placed in a special cover. Who has not tried it - try it. It is very pleasant to rest on soft reed stalks. In addition, it is in this case that one can not be afraid of mechanical damage to plants. Your reed "bed" is likely to be located indoors, and there it is not threatened by moisture or an abundance of voracious insects.

You can use not only the cane stalks, but also its waste. By mixing vegetable raw materials with clay, cement or other suitable binder, you get a material with interesting properties. Then, using simple wooden or plastic molds, you have every chance to make building blocks with characteristics that are not inferior to traditional ones.

Of course, the scope of application of reeds and its derivatives is diverse. The best advisor in this case will be your personal experience or the experience of your loved ones. After all, what is already working is certainly worthy of repetition and improvement.

Harvested during the flowering period. At this time, the leaves gain sufficient strength, but still retain their flexibility. You should go to the collection not earlier than mid-summer. The reed is cut with a large knife or sickle.

When properly dried under a canopy, the leaves retain their natural olive green color. It is better not to dry the material under the sun, as it loses its strength and acquires a golden-fawn hue. If you don't plan to start weaving right away, keep the leaves tied in bunches. If necessary, the leaves can be dyed and bleached with synthetic dyes. Leaves 1 cm wide are suitable for weaving, if the leaf is too large, it is cut in half.

Using the weaving method, you can create unique and useful things: trays, baskets and decorative vases. To weave a tray, pick 15 leaves and make "racks" out of them. Take 6 reed leaves, which will be equal in length to the diameter of the bottom, 6 more leaves should be the same in width and length. Add new leaves as you weave the bottom.

When the diameter of the bottom reaches the required size, weave the "string" into two sheets and lay on the bottom, continue to weave the walls of the future tray. Once you have reached the required height, complete the braiding with a double rope. Using an awl, straighten the rows of weaving.

Reed curtain

If weaving is difficult for you and you are used to getting results quickly, make a curtain from reeds. For the curtain, you need a stem of reeds, it is cut into its component parts with a sharp knife, carefully scrolling.

Each link is pierced with a knitting needle and the line is pulled. You can decorate the curtain with multi-colored beads and plastic rings. The length of the curtain should be equal to the height of the doorway. After completing the assembly work, tie the resulting threads to a bar with drilled holes.

Reed paper

This paper is perfect for decorating a notebook. For cooking, cut the reeds into pieces, discarding the joints. Place the stems and lye in a suitable container. Caustic soda can be used as alkali. After the stems are soft, rinse them under running water.

Add flax seeds to the resulting milled mass. Thanks to this, the liquid will become more liquid and viscous, convenient for casting. Prepare the fabric stretched over a wooden base and pour the mixture through a sieve to form a sheet. Smooth with a knife and press with a cloth. Once dry, the sheets can be used.

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

Learning to make a variety of reed crafts with your 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 stems of reeds (or cattails), as we have already said, require proper attention. Its harvesting is carried out in June-July or at worst in the month of September. It is better to choose plants without peduncles. Make cuts with a well-sharpened knife as close to the root as possible. Before tying the stems into bunches, be sure to trim off the thin and weak ends.

It is better to dry prepared stems in natural conditions before storage. Remember that reeds cannot be stored in plastic bags, as this will cause black spots on the stems 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-wet stems must 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 accommodate the required amount of moisture. An old bike blanket works best.

Remove the reed stems prepared for work from the bunch only a few pieces at a time (this is necessary so that they do not have time to dry).

So let's start simple. We will 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 newspaper.

So, for a stand, the size of which will be 15x15 cm, we need 20 stems, the width of which should fluctuate in the range of 12-15 mm, and the length in the range of 40-50 cm. An awl and sharp scissors are also useful. We are starting our master class.

1. We put 5 peeled and well-flattened stems along the table. Do not put all the thick ends to one side, it is better to alternate them. Now we press the stems with our left hand slightly 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.
2. We take another reed stem and put it across those that remain on the table. Next, we swap the longitudinal stems, that is, we press the bent ones to the table, and those that are on the table, on the contrary, we fold them. Now place 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, we need to pull them to the left.
3. In exactly the same way we put all 5 transverse stems of reeds.
4. Add one stem on each side until we end up with a 10x10 checkerboard, as in the photo below. Now we cut off the ends of the stems at an acute angle to facilitate their embedding.
5. We turn over our stand and alternately bend the racks to the wrong side, passing the ends under the weaving. You can help this process with 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 overnight. Our hot plate is ready!

Weave a reed rug.

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

For example, you can weave a rug from dry reeds. You will get a very beautiful, effective and reliable product.

1. In order to weave a rug, we first 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 the twine threads onto the frame (while the number of threads should remain even) every two centimeters.
2. Now we take the stalk of the cattail and carefully stretch it under each even strand. Accordingly, we pull the next sheet of reeds under the odd one.
3. 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.
4. Next, we strengthen the long edges of our rug. To do this, take another stem and sew it with large stitches from the inside out parallel to the last thread of the base.
5. We remove our rug from the frame, and cut the threads between the screws and carefully tie them together in pairs. All that remains is to decorate our handmade seam. To do this, from the front side, we sew a suitable braid on a typewriter. The rug is ready!

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

What else can you weave from reeds?

Almost anything is woven from the reed in shape. The shape can be, for example, a bottle or a jug that is wrapped around. You can use a saucepan to weave the hat. 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:

Related videos

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

Interested in the question of how to make paper reeds? Check out the simple idea presented with a step-by-step photo tutorial.

The work used:

• Brown cardboard;
• Green double-sided colored paper;
• Green corrugated paper;
• BBQ stick;
• PVA glue;
• Felt pen for creating a rocking chair;
• Milk lid and plasticine to secure the craft upright.

How to make paper reeds?

Making a rocking chair

You will need a triangular piece of brown cardboard for it. It should be quite long so that the rocker of the reed turns out to be quite voluminous, and not thin like a kebab stick. Based on the size of the kebab stick, the approximate dimensions of the triangle may be as follows: the narrow side is 8 cm, and the two long ones are 25 cm, and even across the entire length of A4 sheet.

Using a felt-tip pen, pencil, pen or any thin tube, make a rocker, turning the triangle into a paper-like bagel. Simply wrap the felt-tip pen in paper until you reach the very tip. Start from the side where 8 cm.

Remove the rocker, if necessary, release it a little to make it looser and fix the tip with glue.

Stem and leaves of paper reeds

Cut a long strip of green corrugated paper, place a drop of glue on the blunt tip of the stick and start wrapping the corrugated strip around it, periodically securing it with glue. You will also need glue on the very tip of the stick.

If there are no shashlik sticks and corrugated paper, you can make a stem from a sheet of green paper by rolling it into a thin roll.

Glue a reed rocker to the resulting stem, not forgetting to leave the sticking tip sticking out on top. If you wish, so that the stem of the reeds is in the center of the rocking chair, and not on the side, wind some more paper in the upper part of the kebab stick, apply glue to this thickening and put the rocking chair on top.

Thus, the sides of the rocking chair will be at the same distance from the stem.

Cut two long leaves out of green paper, almost the size of a kebab stick.

Glue the leaves, securing them with glue at the bottom. Leaves can be corrected with a pencil, make a beautiful curvature or even fold on one sheet.

Now you know how to make paper reeds, all that remains is to place the craft in a vase. Alternatively, glue plasticine into the lid and stick reeds there.

Sometimes ideas for a garden are so simple to implement that they practically do not require time and materials to create crafts from plastic bottles.

Well, or the very minimum. However, such crafts are often not only impressive, but also extremely useful. For example, reeds are required to decorate a decorative reservoir. Not near every site does a river flow or there is a lake where you can simply dig up reeds for further transplantation.

And you can always find several plastic bottles that are suitable in size and shape: if not at home, then at friends. In the end, for the sake of such a garden craft, you can buy some products in the store (and get double the pleasure).

So, a complete list of materials that will be needed to create a reed bush:

Small narrow plastic bottles for heads-inflorescences-ears of reeds, bottles with a capacity of 1.5-2 liters for leaves, twigs, narrow tubes (plastic, metal) or strong wire for stems, brown paint for coloring the heads of reeds, green - for coloring the stems ...

1. We paint small plastic bottles brown.

2. Cut out narrow leaves from green bottles.

3. We paint the stems with green paint.

4. Connect the stems and leaves (you can make holes at the base of the leaves and screw them with wire to the stems).

5. Make a hole in the lids of small plastic bottles. Turn them over and plant them on the stems.

6. Combine individual reed stems into bushes.

The creation of crafts from plastic bottles - reeds - is completed.