DIY crafts autumn from Manchurian walnut. How to crack a Manchurian nut. Walnut shell figurines and toys

Hard Manchurian Nut How to extract the Manchurian nut kernel Have you tried the Manchurian nut kernel? No? Try it. It is very tasty. Definitely tastier than walnut. But you are unlikely to succeed. This nut cannot be cracked with teeth, crushed with tongs, smashed with a hammer. After being hit with a hammer or stone, the shell and the core scatter to the sides in small crumbs. In the village of Altaisky, Altai region Altai Territory there are walnut plantations in the form of windbreaks in the old orchards. The trees have long reached fruiting age, and the total harvest annually is about 10 tons. Despite such an abundance of harvest, the local population practically does not collect it and does not use it for food, although the kernel in the nut makes up 30 percent of the total weight and is a valuable food and dietary product. The reason for this is the very thick and hard shell of the nut, and its rather thick internal partition. In one note, I read that in China, nuts are somehow successfully cracked, and the resulting grains are used in nutrition, including for the production of high-quality nut butter. After many attempts, I finally managed to find a reliable way to crack the Manchurian nuts. The method is quite simple. I will share my secrets. I usually harvest the nuts themselves at the end of September. At this time, the juicy upper shell of the nuts becomes dry and it is more convenient to collect such nuts, they weigh less. I crack nuts in December. Until that time, I store the collected nuts in bags in the underground. To extract the core, you need a high birch log 30x70 cm and a medium-sized hammer. Logs, both hard and softwood, are not suitable as a stand. Birch is the best. On the end section of the log, we make a small depression into which we insert the nose (sharp part) of the nut and with a hammer, without much effort, we make several blows to its rear part. When splitting with the fingers of the left hand, it is necessary to hold the nut in a vertical position. Do not try to crack the nut with one blow, the result may be unexpected: the nut will be crushed into small pieces, and the fingers of the hand may suffer greatly from such a blow. From several moderate blows with a hammer, the nut shell cracks, but does not fly apart, but collapses, simultaneously collapses and internal partition nuts, after which it is no longer difficult to get the core. As strange as it may seem, time, or rather, the physical condition of the nut during the removal of grain, is also of great importance. The fact is that the core of a freshly picked Manchurian walnut occupies all the space in the shell and fits snugly against the walls. When the nuts dry out, it is much easier to remove from the shell. It is also impossible to overdry the nuts, because then the kernel of the nut crumbles into small pieces at the slightest blow. In order for the nuts not to dry out, they should be stored without peeling from the soft outer shell until splitting. And one more note - about the hammer. The working surface of the hammer should not be rounded. Hammer with rounded working surface on impact, it often slips off the nut and can injure fingers. Good luck in mining the golden core!

In appearance, Manchurian nuts resemble walnuts. But the resemblance is purely superficial. Unlike walnuts, they do not have partitions dividing the core into two halves - it is located inside intricately curved channels. The inner part of these nuts is a embossed incomparable symmetrical (as a rule) pattern resembling lace or the finest wood carving.

Many interesting things can be made from Manchurian walnut: decorative jugs and vases, plates, candy bowls, frames, edging, bracelets, rings, beads, brooches, key chains, buttons, boxes, even candlesticks.

Processing nuts does not require complex devices. It is quite possible to get by with an elementary set of tools, which, obviously, any amateur can find: these are a small vise, a hacksaw for metal, files of various shapes, needle files, hand or electric drill, a set of drills, - and for finishing - furniture nitrolac such as NTs-222 or NTs-228.

The work begins with the fact that the nut is clamped in a vice and a hacksaw cuts it along or across into several flat slices of equal thickness, which will serve as blanks for most products. One nut, of course, will not be enough - you will need to cut and prepare a sufficient number of slices of the same thickness. Sawing should be tried as evenly as possible, so that later it would not be necessary to additionally grind the surface on emery. Then you need to clean the core from the channels with a needle or awl. After this operation, which, by the way, must be carried out carefully, the slices can be used for the intended work.

Obviously, you should start with the most simple products, for example, with beads. For their manufacture, holes are drilled in the slices - two in each. You can drill them in different ways - perpendicular to the plane of the slice or parallel to it. It all depends on how the links are connected. In any case, these holes should be located in the thickest parts of the walls. Through holes perpendicular to the plane of the surface, two small rings are passed, which are interconnected by segments of the chain. Wire loops are inserted into holes drilled parallel to the plane and, as in the first case, they are interconnected by chains.

How this is done can be seen from the figure. You can varnish the slices before or after connecting to each other.

Bead making.
Two ways of fastening the slices: using a ring with a segment of the chain; using a wire loop inserted into the hole and filled with a drop of glue.

Nuts are used to make original buttons. They are made from transverse slices, in which one or both planes - the back and front - are sawn down with a file (or on a grindstone) in the form of convex surfaces. In the middle part of the nut, as a rule, there are two thin round or oval channels through which it is convenient to sew buttons to clothes.

It is better to make key rings not from transverse, but from longitudinally sawn walnut slices, which are cut along the dividing seam. A hole is drilled in the upper part of the key fob, and a ring is passed through it.

For the bracelet, you can use both longitudinal and transverse slices. They should be somewhat thicker than for beads - 6-8 millimeters. The back side of these slices should be slightly concave so that the bracelet fits the hand.

However, beads, bracelets, rings are far from the most interesting crafts from Manchurian walnut, and we stopped at them more like academic work. The most attractive things seem to be practical - plates, candy bowls, vases, jugs. Glued together from individual walnut slices, they are elegant and beautiful. Their patterns are reminiscent of the finest woodcarving, which can be compared in intricacy, perhaps, with lace - they are just as airy and unique. Of course, making a plate or a candy bowl is more difficult than, say, the same beads, but it is also quite possible at home. The most important thing, as, indeed, in every case, is consistency and patience.

Let us first tell you how the plates are made. They can be quite varied in their design. One of the options is a plate in which a metal disk of small diameter (10-12 cm) is used as a bottom. Walnut slices of the first row are put on this disk, for which slits of the appropriate size must be made in them on the side (see Fig.). All subsequent slices will be glued together with their ends, forming concentric circles in their rows. Since the edges of the plate should be slightly raised, it is convenient to glue the slices inside a bowl - in this case, the plate will almost exactly repeat its shape. Glue can be glued better themes the same furniture varnish, only slightly thickened. When working, make sure that the plate does not stick to the mold.

Dish with a metal bottom.
The first row is assembled from walnut slices with a slot. Subsequent rows are glued to the butt.

You can make a plate without a metal disk. In this case, it is entirely, starting from the middle, glued from one walnut slices. One should not be afraid of the fragility of such a design. Of course, the same requirements cannot be made to it as to monolithic objects. However, furniture varnish, applied in several layers, firmly holds the slices together, providing sufficient strength to the product. A plate made in this way is quite suitable for placing bread, crackers or sweets in it. The fact is that furniture nitro-lacquer, hardening with a sufficiently thick layer (about 1 mm), reaches such hardness that it can be processed with a file, and it withstands decent loads.

The candy bowl is glued in the same way: the end parts of the slices are interconnected with glue or thick varnish. But in this case, a glass jar is taken as a form - a liter, two-liter, three-liter. At a distance of 8-10 cm from the bottom plane, a rubber ring is put on the jar. Then the jar is turned upside down. The first row of walnut slices is placed on the ring, then the next one is glued to it - and so on until the entire bottom is pasted over. You can use a small bowl as a form - in this case, the candy bowl will turn out with edges bent outward - this is also very beautiful.

Forming a candy box glass jar. The extreme row of walnut slices rests on a rubber ring.

Using the same technology, you can make a flower vase or a jug by enclosing a suitable vessel made of transparent glass (a flask, a bulb from a lamp, etc.) inside. If a vase with a long neck is conceived, then another one is added on top component made on a cylinder or cone of the corresponding diameter. You can finish the top with horizontally glued walnut slices or a bell glued on a funnel.

The connection of parts of a vase molded on three different bases.

The jug will probably need a handle. It's easy to make too. To do this, two arcs are glued on a plasticine form - one is slightly larger than the other. Then the smaller one is inserted inside the larger one, and the space between them is filled with halves or smaller parts of the slices. When everything hardens, you can file down the bumps with a file, and then glue the handle to the jug.

Forming the top of the jug on the neck of the bottle. The middle part is molded on top of a 3 liter jar.

Finished products after assembly should be varnished several times, but not thickened, but liquid. First of all, this will provide additional rigidity, which is so necessary when smoothing out irregularities. The fact is that walnut slices, sawn with a hacksaw for metal, are flat. It is difficult to fit their edges to each other when gluing, and there is no particular need for this. The main task is to achieve a sufficiently tight fit of their ends. And then they are already polished on the finished product.

Like jugs and vases, caskets and coasters are made.

In the first case, a rectangular or oval box can serve as a form, in the second - a glass. The handle for the cup holder is made in the same way as for the jug. Since the lid of the box should open, first you need to make a lid and a lower part, then glue a slightly protruding rim into the lower part, on which the lid will be put on. In addition, if small loops are attached to the rim, the lid will turn out to be reclining.

Surfaces of products can be embossed. For this, walnut slices of greater thickness are used. One or more rims are collected from them, which give things more decorative look. With these slices, you can finish the edges of plates and candy bowls, turn around the neck of a jug. They can be made oval, thinned to one of the edges, spherical or even with edges turned up.

The finished product must certainly be processed with a file and remove all existing bumps, notches, etc. burrs. Due to the softness of the material, it is possible to easily achieve perfect smooth surface With smooth transitions from thickening to narrowing. The final finishing is finished with a fine sandpaper. Now it remains only to remove dust and sawdust and varnish the product - it is ready.

In conclusion, it should be added that objects glued from walnut should, if possible, be protected from overheating - under the influence of heat, the nutshell and varnish expand differently, as a result of which cracks may form.

Shell crafts walnut- one of the most exciting activities for children of all ages, who are happy to come up with new images for pleasant to the touch, durable, possessing attractive force, hemispheres.

As a rule, crafts are made from walnut shells in kindergarten- in groups different ages, and in primary school. But even older students are happy to use this material for creativity.

Walnut shell figurines and toys

At first school year crafts on the theme of autumn are most relevant - it is quite simple and interesting to create them from walnuts. At the same time, if you turn on your imagination, you can get the most original and unexpected products:

a spider with furry legs on a web, which is already preparing for the onset of cold weather;

a little mouse in a warm cap, sleeping in a cradle suspended from a branch of an autumn tree.

Even more diverse are crafts in the form of animals. With your own hands you can create a variety of characters:

a ladybug, which will be revived by toy voluminous eyes;

a bird with a yellow felt beak and cotton wings;

a charismatic owl with wings and felt ears;

turtles with cardboard heads and paws and turtles with heads and paws made of chenille wire;

Walnut shells are rich ground for creativity. One has only to start creating crafts, as the imagination will tell you a lot of your own, absolutely unique, images.

whales with cardboard fountains;

a bee with foam board wings and fluffy wire antennae;

such bees look great even without wings;

crabs with cardboard claws;

a mouse with large ears made of foam board;

mice with small felt ears;

From the shell of a walnut, you can make funny puppies on a leash.

If you glue a fleece scarf and ears to the nut and draw a face for it, we will get a cute bear.

An octopus with furry legs.

Funny frogs.

bright butterfly with cardboard wings.

You can create whole compositions - for example, the sun, a flying bee and an elephant, as in our photo.

From walnuts, sticks, cones and dry leaves, you can make a funny dragon.

And the boys will surely like boats with a mast - a toothpick and a caton flag.

You can make autumn boats with sails from dried maple leaves (you can cut Maple Leaf paper or film).

Look, another version of walnut boats in the video:

Shell strawberry pendant

And surely everyone will like the appetizing strawberry pendant made with green felt and paints.

Box and pincushion made of walnut shell

For example, from a walnut, a small piece of cotton wool, fabric and glue, you can make a small but very cute pincushion. We wrap the cotton wool with a cloth and sew it up. The resulting ball is planted on glue in inner part walnut.

How to make a cute box, see the video:

In these pictures you can see wonderful examples of walnut shell crafts.

nuts, in any case they were q similar to walnuts, only they had a somewhat strange appearance: pointed at both ends, too wrinkled and oblong. At that time, we took a full g: a bag of this stuff, since we had no competitors in collecting free nuts. Then we understood why there were no others who wanted to eat nuts: at home we hardly managed to crack one nut. But inside it turned out to be not at all like walnut 80. The edible core of the Manchurian nut (and it turned out to be it) was hidden in winding passages-channels, and extracting from there, in general, a tasty filling was possible only with the help of an awl and even then by microscopic particles.

It was a pity to throw away a full bag of nuts for some unknown reason (albeit inedible). It is good that there were acquaintances of acquaintances who suggested what Manchurian nuts are good for and how they should be handled. It turns out that women's jewelry is usually made from them (earrings, beads, bracelets, pendants). To do this, the nuts are sawn into thin disks, obtaining openwork elements of future jewelry.

So, on the advice of a "knowledgeable person", the whole family, in turn, began to "dissolve" nuts on the plate

we are blanks (Fig. 1) with a thickness of 2 ... 3 mm, in order to then make some kind of openwork little thing. True, at first, the quality of the blanks was affected by our inability to “dissolve evenly, so the cabins” ° Р ex

on the plates

blanks of aurochs and other gnarls were obtained on disks. But, even with absolutely no skill, they acquired it literally through a couple of nuts: the disks were almost even in thickness and with smooth cuts. Then they began to clean the channels and winding passages from the remnants of the nut kernel with a thin awl. Did this job too. But then circumstances interrupted our relationship with the Manchurian walnut.

Who said that the ability to make for yourself the things you like-tsu is the lot of the talented? That's exactly what I used to think too. And no power would have forced me to change my mind and take up our nuts again, if not for the vase, from which it was impossible to take my eyes off. So, nevertheless, I decided to try to repeat such a lace miracle without artistic talent and experience. And then the old magazine "Science and Life" came to hand with the article "Manchurian walnut - natural lace", which spoke about the technology of making such vases. (By the way, the pictures are taken from this article.)

It only remained to get the blanks from the mezzanines, clean each with a needle file and assemble the vase. Now everything was easier, since the most tedious part of the work had already been done many years ago.

As a basis, on which I was advised to mold a vase, I chose a five-liter jar from under

Walnut shell crafts can be a wonderful decor for the New Year holidays. Idea to decorate Christmas tree crafts only from natural material arose a long time ago. I spied the idea from my friend, who in a few months begins to prepare for the holidays without fuss, thinking through all the details of the decor in advance, making Christmas decorations from walnut shells with her own hands. It's always nice when houses are surrounded by handmade things.

Everyone knows that walnuts are healthy - you can eat the core, but you need to try to carefully split the shell in order to keep the two halves intact. Below in the video you will learn how to split a walnut exactly into two halves. When the shells are collected, you can start creative pastime, be sure to connect to this exciting activity children, they get great pleasure from such an entertaining business.

A friend suggested exciting game, which both adults and children really liked - decorate the Christmas tree with nuts with surprises in which predictions are hidden. How to make such nuts with a surprise can be found in the video:

Christmas tree can be decorated like this original toys from a nut shell. For their manufacture, in addition to the shell, you will need burlap, twine and dies. If you do not have stamps, then you can cut out a small figure from felt, stick it on the cover from plastic bottle, then dip a homemade stamp in ink or paint and make an imprint on the burlap.

Soon many will go shopping in search of factory-made Christmas decorations, and we suggest you this year make the holiday decor original, and make something like this stylish decoration for the Christmas tree.