Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Stalk and Husk Scarecrow
- 6 November 2012
- click to send Christine a smile
This was one of my all time favourite things to make when I was a child. I always used corn husks to make dolls or scarecrows (some dressed in gown others wearing pants) but you can also use dried leaves as I did here
Soak leaves or husks in lukewarm water
Soaking the leaves make them more pliable
Blot the leaves dry.
Set two leaves aside for the arms and stack the rest of the leaves so that all the stalks face in the same direction,
For the head:
Tie the leaves with raffia
Variation:
It you want the scarecrow to have bushy leaf hair
Rip the leaf ends with a pin.
Soak a cotton ball in tea to stain it brown. Set aside to dry
Open the leaves just below the knot and slip the cotton ball in
Tie the leaves just below the ball for a neck.
Variation:
It you want the scarecrow to no hair or want to glue on hair
Roll the leave ends (no need to rip them) into a ball and open the leaves just below the knot. Fold the leaves over the ball.
Gather the leaves together to shape the head.
Tie the head with raffia.
The body:
Divide the leaves into two and separate.
Place the two leaves that was kept for the arms on a flat surface.
Roll the leaves length wise.
Slip the rolled leaves into the leave stack
Tie the body with raffia
Tie the wrist with raffia.
The legs are next.
Variation:
You must now decide whether you want a doll or scarecrow. For a doll:
For the doll just cut the leaves straight and fluff out to create a skirt.
Variation:
For a scarecrow wearing pants
Divide the leaf stalks into two
Tie the legs with raffia.
Tie a cross-over pattern at the arms and body
Cut the leaves shorter to create hands.
Rip the end of the leaves with a needle.
Fluff out the ripped leaves to give the hands volume
That is how you make a basic Scarecrow
But I wanted my scarecrow to be relaxing in a field of grass...
Place the scarecrow on a flat surface. Fold the legs at the "knees". Cross one leg over the other and secure it with a drop of glue. I used butterfly hair clips (see Tutorial below) to keep the legs in position while the wood glue dries
Fold the arms up and secure with glue. Again, clip the leaves with butterfly hair clips while the glue dries
Set aside while the glue dries
For the tiny book:
Use the left-over bits of leaf that was cut away when shaping the hands to make the book. Cut a few rectangles with a thick vain in the middle
Pour out a few drops of glue in the middle vain line
Layer the leaves
For the little woven grass hat:
Roll the raffia...
into a tight coil
Secure the end of the raffia with glue and press the coil to spiral out.
For the brim of the hat:
Pin a section of raffia to Styrofoam
Spiral the raffia around pinning the strands as you go
Pour out a few drops of wood glue and spread it to secure the spiral. Set aside to dry
Remove the pins.
Lift the spiral and carefully remove it from the Styrofoam
Wrap a raffia ring.
Glue the tiny hat
Place the book and secure with a drop of glue
Glue in a tiny grass for the scarecrow to chew on.
Glue snippets of raffia for hair
Fluff out and roughen up the raffia hair bits to look wind blown
Add a few seedpods for the eyed and nose
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Tutorials
Butterfly hair clips are the perfect little claws to help you hold tiny items in place while you wait for glue to dry
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