Sea topiary is an excellent decoration for home and office, which, in addition to a decorative element, is also a reminder of a wonderful vacation. Its manufacture is not particularly difficult and is suitable even for beginner needlewomen.
Description
Shell topiary looks like a small decorative tree decorated with seafood. Such an original craft becomes not only the original part of the interior, reminiscent of pleasant days, but also allows you to wisely use all the souvenir “supplies” brought from distant countries. Seashells and sea pebbles themselves are eye-catching, and therefore it is recommended to create a topiary in a minimalistic style to balance the composition. Moreover, such a decision to abandon redundancy will allow you to fit it into any interior.
In the case when the container for the topiary is decorated with shells, the crown of the tree itself is formed using monophonic beads. An unusual option is to create a variety of geometric shapes from shells and sea pebbles. As contrasting elements, bright colored threads are used, which look especially advantageous against the background of pale shells. The main material, ideally, is collected independently on vacation or purchased in the format of sets of decorative seafood, sold in specialized stores. In addition, for decoration, you can use starfish, satin ribbons, twine, beads, pebbles and sisal to mask the filling of the container. If the barrel is planned to be made straight, then ordinary barbecue sticks will do, but for a curved one you have to prepare a thick wire.
The crown of the tree is most conveniently formed from polystyrene foam, but to save money, you can build a ball from papier-mâché. This is done as follows: first, a simple balloon is inflated to the required size and with the help of wound threads it is transformed into an even balloon. The entire surface is covered with adhesive substance, on which soft toilet paper or tissue is applied in several layers.
It is important that each new layer appears only after drying the previous one. When the design is ready, it will be enough to pierce the balloon with a needle, carefully remove it from the mold, and insert the barrel stick into the resulting hole.
Interesting options
A step-by-step master class on making shell topiary will not only make an unusual decoration with your own hands, but also understand the specifics of creating decorative “sea” trees.
The work begins with the fact that several wooden sticks of the same size are interconnected and wrapped with twine - this will be the trunk. A ball of sufficient size is cut out of the foam to form a crown. The inner surface of the container-stand for topiary is smeared with glue, after which gypsum solution is poured there. The tree trunk is immediately stuck in the filler. Further work can only be done when the gypsum has dried.
A small hole cuts through the foam ball. Having poured glue inside, it is necessary to "put" it on the fixed trunk. For more convenient fixation of the decor, it is recommended to glue the crown with blue paper. The topiary is decorated not only with shells and starfish, but also with fabric decor, beads and sea pebbles. They should be placed as densely as possible to each other so that the crown base is not visible. The tank itself for the topiary can be decorated with the same elements as the tree, or limited to blue ribbons symbolizing the sea.
When creating a marine topiary, it is important to consider several important rules. Gypsum, which can be an alternative to putty, dissolves with water until the consistency of the mixture begins to resemble thick sour cream. An ordinary tree branch can be used as a trunk, but only if its thickness is about 1 centimeter. The base of the tree can be not only spherical, but also, for example, in the form of a cone, cube or starfish. The gaps between the sinks are best filled with small golden beads.
The pot or cup, selected as the base, can be coated with white paint, and then apply a blue color on top or draw waves. It will be easiest to mask gypsum with the help of blue sisal fixed on glue. However, you can simply fill this space with small shells, pebbles and beads.
An interesting solution is the use of sand and algae to decorate the "sea" tree. Experts consider the combination of shells and organza used for floristic compositions to be very beautiful. This material will need to be cut into squares, after which in the center of each place a pin and pull the tips up, creating leaflets. The resulting element is glued to the base of the tree.
In the case when there are not enough shells to cover the entire surface of the crown, it is recommended that the foam ball be first decorated with floristic moss and decorated with the largest shells while maintaining gaps. Then small shells are located between them, and the remaining gaps are filled with jute, rhinestones and other decor. An alternative to moss can be a sisal coated in tone with acrylic paint. An ugly pot for such a topiary should be decorated with burlap, tied with a ribbon with beads imitating pearls.
Examples of beautiful design
The sea topiary looks amazing, decorated with smooth gray stones, small shells and mother-of-pearl beads. In the role of the trunk, an ordinary curved branch, painted in tone, is fixed in a very unusual vessel. Instead of a pot for a tree, a glass cup of a simple form was selected, also filled with shells, pebbles and beads.
Another original solution is to combine shells, felt flowers and sisal balls on a spherical crown. All additional elements have a beautiful lilac shade that looks especially advantageous against the background of pale shells.
The pot in which the tree is installed is also decorated with shells.
See how to make shell shell toparia in the next video.
