How to braid a bottle or vessel with newspaper tubes - master classes for beginners with photos.
We present to your attention a detailed step-by-stepa lesson on how to braid a vessel or bottle with newspaper tubes with your own hands. Surely, every housewife dreams of having all sorts of containers for storing various small items in the house - bottles, boxes, caskets and jars. But usually such items are not distinguished by the elegance of execution. However, they can be independently transformed into beautiful and original items if you approach this process with imagination. At the same time, you can ensure that this will not be expensive for the family budget. In this specific example, we will talk about the technology of braiding a bottle without a bottom. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that a vase, a jar, and a flower pot can act as a braided vessel.Before you start crafting, you will need:• stapler; • clothespins (they can be replaced with binders); • string; • newspaper tubes; • acrylic varnish; • glue or glue stick; • paint (water-based).I would like to give some advice regarding the choicepaper. Experience shows that thinner paper produces thinner tubes, which means the finished product will be more elegant, like a natural vine.For reference:Paper has a density index that determines the weight of one sheet with an area of 1 sq. m. Most types of paper used in offset printing are characterized by a density of 60 to 300 g/sq. m. For newsprint, this index is 45-60 g/sq. m, and for ordinary office paper it is 80 g/sq. m.For our example we used paper.density of 45 g/sq. m. Excellent weaving is obtained from thermal tape (used in cash registers), since it does not need to be additionally painted, and can be immediately varnished. In general, everything can be used for weaving: office paper, magazines, newspapers, fax paper, thermal tape.The paper is cut into strips of width equal to 7centimeters. Let's say a few words about the technology of twisting the tubes. Some people do it with their fingers, while others prefer to use a small-diameter knitting needle. You need to try making a couple of tubes in different ways and choose the most convenient one. Since you will need quite a few tubes, be patient and twist, twist... We braided the jar and bottle without a bottom.We take a tube and extend it with another one (for thisinsert the thinner end of the tube into the thick one, not forgetting to drip some glue there), close it with a ring that matches the diameter of the vessel. After that, the posts are attached to the ring. This is done with glue or a stapler. In this way, the entire space of the ring is filled with an indentation between the posts of 20-25 millimeters. The amount will depend on the weaving option. We braided the bottle with a “rope” in two tubes, and the jar partly with a “rope”, and partly with a regular “chintz” weave. Keep in mind that “chintz” weaving requires an odd number of tubes.After this, the ring with the tubes is put onbottle and fixed with an elastic band. Next comes one of the most difficult stages - weaving the 1st row. Here you will need to develop the skill of holding all the tubes at the same time and weaving tightly. Each time you will get better quality. The following rows will be easier to weave, starting from the 2nd-3rd row the tubes will no longer run away. Building up the working tubes will not cause you any difficulties: insert the thin end of the tube into the thicker one, not forgetting to secure it with a drop of glue. After this, weaving continues. Particular care must be taken to ensure thatthe posts were in place, without moving to the side. To do this, try to make markings on the bottle using a pencil or marker. Make sure that the weaving is tight. Do not forget to pull all the rows by the post tubes. However, it is important not to overdo it, so as not to allow the tubes to break. Otherwise, you will have to glue them, and this will take time and effort. As a result, the weaving is brought to the base of the handle. Next, you need to leave 2 tubes where you are going to create handles (in our example, there are two). Then you need to glue 1 tube made of thicker paper, and then proceed to wrapping the tube (before that, you can slightly crush the tube, then it will become flat). Then apply another layer for greater density of the handle, thereby making it very durable.Once the handles are completely braided,you should return to the main work. Weave until it becomes narrower in the neck part. In this case, you need to weave the edges of the handles, create a few more rows, and then reduce the number of tubes-stands. Then you need to weave through 1 (upon completion, those that will not be needed can be cut off). Weave must be brought to the edge of the neck, wrap it with a tube, and fix the end of the weave with glue. To make the neck look more attractive, we wrap it with a rope. That's it! The decorated bottle is ready.Now it needs to be painted and varnished. We offer another option for braiding a bottle using newspaper tubes. The braiding here begins as with a regular round bottom. Eight tubes will be enough for the base of the bottle, so we immediately built them up. First, you should braid two tubes in 2 rows. Then you need to spread them out and braid one by one until you reach the desired diameter, trying on the bottom of the bottle. Weaving should be done“rope”. We recommend filling the bottle with water and closing it – this will give it additional stability. After you finish weaving the bottom, lift the posts up and put a piece of straw under the first one. This is done to make it easier to close the row.Now you need to put 3 tubes, weave onea row of "rope" from 3 tubes and then close the row. After that, weave with a regular "rope", stop and then use multi-colored ones. Now put a light green tube behind the weaving and do the "chintz" version of weaving almost until the end of the row. You will run into working tubes of brown color and here you should unfold the light green tube and weave in the opposite direction, using the "chintz" technique.Once you get to the starting partrow, you need to reduce the weaving by 1 rack. In other words, weave using the "chintz" technique, back and forth, each time reducing the row by one rack, until you get a kind of mountain.The end of the tube is hidden behind the weave.The second illustration shows what the ladder should look like. Next we move on to weaving the "rope" with brown tubes, which we braid around the resulting hill.After you “rope”weave one circle, stopping at the very top of the weave, find the lowest point and substitute a yellow tube. Again, we do the "chintz" weave back and forth, but in reverse, increasing the row, each time capturing a new stand on each side.Having completed the weaving with yellow tubesthe required number of rows, again you should close the rows of "chintz" weaving with one or two rows of "rope" weaving in brown. And then we act in the same way, adding new shades. In our case, we used unpainted newspaper edge. Again we make a hill with "chintz" weaving.Then the hill is closed with rows of"strings" are brown. To create an asymmetrical pattern, change the number of braided posts in any direction, as your imagination tells you.Again, you need to find the lowest place,change the color and start building up the braided posts. Everything is pretty primitive here – for the colored inserts we use calico weaving, and with brown tubes we always do the “calico” weaving around the circumference. We decided to make a handle for the bottle, so we added it between the rows, pushing 2 tubes through 2 posts from behind, through one row of weaving. Then continue as in the previous case – close the colored rows with a “rope”, etc. to the top of our bottle.At the top, the weaving should be straightened.Here the weaving becomes not very convenient, due to the fact that the posts are too dense, since we are already weaving at the neck. You can cut out every other post. Those who wish can weave the neck to the very top, but we preferred to close the upper part with posts, for which we cut them off and tucked them inside.A simple fold will also work. It should look something like this:Let's move on to the handle.We build up the tubes and fix them with glue, since the handle will receive a certain load when you fill the bottle. Next, we make a loop like this. Now it needs to be put on the neck, aligning it well, and fixed with a rubber band for money. The handle is braided in a figure eight and it is ready!Finally, we prime and varnish. Now that's it, that's it!