Furniture from the vine with your own hands

Description of the furniture

Description of the furniture

Some lovers of natural furniture dare to completely fill their house with interior items from the vine. It can be not only rocking chairs, but also wicker cabinets, tables and racks. In any office or living room, on the veranda or summer terrace, such decor elements become the main leitmotif of the entire interior. At all times in Russia people were engaged in the manufacture of household goods from the vine. They were bast shoes, vases, baskets, boxes and furniture. By its structure, the vine is very flexible and pliable, besides it holds a wonderful shape. Masters from Europe also intercepted this craft in many ways because of the environmental friendliness of the raw materials, thanks to its plant origin.

Stylish armchairs and tables look great in combination with glass, metal and wood.

Weigh sturdy furniture from the vine quite a bit, while it can withstand quite large loads - up to 200 kg. It is resistant to moisture and, with appropriate treatment, to the sun's rays even in the hottest heat. This allows you to use such furniture by the pool, in the sauna, at the cottage by the river and so on.

With proper care and operation of wicker furniture, it can serve its owners for more than a quarter of a century. Traditional and most common models of furniture from the vine you can see in the photo.

Technique of weaving

Modern craftsmen learned how to weave a vine in the most unusual ways. In many ways, the style of weaving depends on the elasticity of materials, as well as the personal preferences of customers or craftsmen. Products from the vine are mainly weave in several ways:

• simple weaving, in which the rod bends all the risers, both from the outside and from the inside;
• staggered;
• weaving with two rods;
• weaving in three rods;
• forging the sides with a pigtail;
• layered weaving, when the number of rods corresponds to the number of risers.

Advantages and disadvantages of furniture from vines

Advantages of furniture from vines:

• ecological compatibility of raw materials;
• unique style of wicker furniture;
• combination of furniture from the vine is absolutely with any interior;
• use of natural materials in the manufacture of furniture;
• practicality and strength;
• durability( about 20 years);
• pleasant woody odor;
• no pests due to pre-treatment of the vine;
• furniture well "breathes" and is ventilated.

Disadvantages of wicker furniture:

• no matter how you try to protect the furniture from the vine, under the long exposure to sunlight it is able to burn out, and sometimes even crack;
• furniture made of artificial rattan is destroyed in the rain;
• over the years furniture( especially homemade) can be unraveled;
• The main drawback is the high price of furniture from the vine.

Choosing the right rod

A quality rod for weaving relatively shallow delicate furniture must have a thin core. Rods with a thick core will be useful for making gazebos or fences. Another criterion for selection is the size of the willow leaf. The wider the leaf, the worse the vine will bend, and vice versa.

Popular raw materials for making wicker furniture is rattan or tropical liana. Very pliable for weaving material, as it has increased flexibility, a strong bark with softwood and a hard core. Rattan branches are smooth and do not have unnecessary branches. Sometimes their length can reach 300 m.

Preparing the vines for weaving

Taking into account such parameters as the quality of raw materials, its price, durability and practicality, for the plaiting of furniture specialists mainly use rattan or vine. Since rattan is a southern plant that can rarely be found in our region, and it is not very profitable to buy it in the store, then the craftsmen use willow branches to make furniture from the vine with their own hands. Any kind of willow is suitable for this craft. It is necessary to prepare raw materials from the end of autumn and until the end of winter, in view of the fact that in this period there is no sap flow in the trees, thus it becomes possible to prepare extremely high-quality material. A special pruner for wood is to cut straight, unbranched and long rods.

If in the future your wicker furniture will be on the street, then it is better not to clean the cut branches from the peel. If your decor element is intended solely to decorate the room inside, it is better to clean the vine. For this, boil freshly cut branches in water for 2 hours. Try at the same time to use large and deep dishes, so as not to bend the branches several times. After 2 hours, the peel from the branches will be easily separated.

Rattan sofa with own hands

To work on creating a rattan sofa you will need:

• vine;
• pruner;
• pencil;
• knife;
• ruler;
• screws, screwdriver;
• jigsaw for wood;
• varnish;
• stain;
• wooden poles for the frame( 2 cm thick);
• drill, drill bits.

Rattan Sofa Making Technology:

1. Before proceeding to weave, carefully sandle the sticks for the frame of the sofa.
2. Vine also prepare. After the cook and remove from her skin, wait until the materials dry completely.
3. To make the sofa seat frame, take 4 prepared sticks: 2 - 60 cm, and 2 - 40 cm each. Fasten them together with a screwdriver and screws so that a rectangle is obtained.
4. Then prepare the front legs. There will be 3 of them, with the height that you yourself define. But the standard height is 40 cm.
5. To the prepared frame in the corners, attach the sticks: two - at the edges, one - in the center.
6. If the height of the back of your couch is 25 cm, then along with the height from the floor to the seat, the rear sticks should be 65 cm. Measure and cut with a jigsaw just this length.
7. Screws the 3 rear legs to the rectangular frame using the same principle as the front legs.
8. If desired, you can connect the rear frame sticks with a common arc. So, the back of your sofa will have a rounded shape. The length of the stick is about 100 cm, it must be screwed with screws to the tops of two rear poles in such a way that an arc is formed.
9. For greater strength, fasten the legs of the sofa with additional sticks.
10. The main frame is ready, now the rattan branches should be planed for obtaining flexible ribbons.
11. You can cut a chip with a knife. Gently cut down the long branches of the vine from top to bottom.
12. When everything is ready, it remains to make a frame. In this case, you can use a variety of techniques, but it's easiest to apply a simple weaving technique through one rack with two or three bars on the outer and inner sides.
13. Envelop one rod at the front with the rod, the next stand - at the rear, until the circle closes. In this case, to make the circle closed, the racks must be an odd number.
14. When we begin to weave the next row, do not forget to go around the first post from the opposite side, fixing each post in the correct position.
15. In case the rod ends at its base, place a new one behind the same rack and tuck its ends inside.
16. After finishing the weaving of the frame, the sofa needs to be covered with stain and then with varnish. And when the design dries - it can be decorated with a foam seat, trimmed with a beautiful cloth.

Coffee table from the vine with your own hands

In order to make a small wicker coffee table, stock up on a set of necessary tools:

• plywood sheet;
• 4 boards for the frame and as many bars for the legs;
• plates for plywood upholstery;
• 4 rods for fastening the table legs;
• rods and braided straps.

Manufacturing technology:

1. From a thick plywood sheet, use a jigsaw to cut a rectangle of the correct size.
2. With the help of ribbons and twigs from the willow weave a fabric that is suitable for the size of the plywood table top.
3. Gently and imperceptibly nail the canvas to the table top with small carnations and set it aside.
4. Now start making a podstolya. From 4 boards make a frame of the table, to it nail 4 bars - legs of a design.
5. With additional branches, fasten the legs approximately in the middle crosswise. After that, wind the structural parts with willow ribbons.
6. Nails nail the frame to the frame.
7. Dry the wicker table and then cover it with a layer of varnish.

Grocery basket from the vine with your own hands

On a picnic and on a hike, a compact basket of vines will always be useful, besides, such a simple product can be made even for beginners by such forces. On the technology of basket weaving will be described in order:

1. To begin with, make a hoop from a thin willow twig. Bend it to the desired diameter, tie the ends together with the willow ribbon, and cut off the excess with a knife.
2. To create a foundation, start in turn to twist the vertical bars-racks to the hoop at the same distance from each other. Observe the right angle.
3. Circle the tail of the rod around the hoop and the riser rod, press with your fingers.
4. Observe the sequence, weave the next rod-riser. As an example, the technology of weaving at the initial stage resembles the weaving of a wreath of flowers.
5. The approximate skeleton of the future basket has turned out. Begin to braid it, using the rods. Rows of bars press each other tightly.
6. When you reach the bottom - bend the riser rods and trim extra excessively long ends.
7. After that, braid the bottom of the basket with a thin vine.
8. The handle of the product is made of woven with each other several rods. The base of the handle is a thick rod, it needs to be wrapped with thinner rods.
9. Tie the ends of the bow and bend them on both sides of the sides of the basket.
10. As an additional decoration, you can use willow ribbons of different colors to weave them in the process of making the walls of the product.

Openwork bread loaf from the vine with your own hands

You need to prepare one woven round bottom( diameter 15 cm), a cross( 4х4), 55 cm long sticks( 19 pcs.), Thin rope-rods, template-blank( diameter 20cm), plywood stand( diameter 14 cm).From the list of tools, take an awl, a screwdriver, 20 mm long screws, a string, a varnish.

Stages of manufacture:

1. Finish the bottom to prevent damage to the weave and fix it with screws to the disc. The height from the bottom to the bar can be determined independently. Presumably, it will be 6 cm.
2. Thick ends of rod-risers sharpen with a knife and insert into the bottom next to the sticks.
3. with pliers squeeze the stanchions at the base, lift the crowns up and tie.
4. Then immediately at the bottom of the basket, snap the rods into three rods with a rope, and make the walls into a single rod 60 mm high.
5. Bends bend in the form of an arc and weave extra ends together.
6. When working with the vine, do not forget to wipe the twigs with a damp rag so that they do not break.
7. Align the height of the sides of the breadcrumbs and the bending of the stanchions along the upper edge of the template, attached to the bottom at the very beginning.
8. When you finish the weaving of the sides, the disc can be removed.
9. Finish the finished product for strength with a varnish.

To take into account all the nuances in the manufacture of wicker furniture, as well as remember the sequence of performing the procedure of weaving from the vine of different furniture, you can by watching the video.

Furniture care from the vine

The durability of wicker furniture made from natural materials is directly affected by the correct care. There are three basic rules that must be observed when caring for furniture from the vine:

1. To prevent cracks in such furniture, it should be slightly moistened about once or twice a month. Just cover the chair or table with a wet coverlet or sheet.
2. If your wicker set is wet in the rain, leave it overnight in a dry and preferably ventilated place until it dries completely.
3. Clean the vine regularly. This can be done with a usual soft, dry or damp cloth.
4. The greasy and dirty places are simply removed by any soapy solution. Fat can also be removed with talc.
5. Do not load anything with wet wicker furniture. Otherwise, it can change its shape.