driftwood craft ideas

hey chongolio here combing the beachfor driftwood to use in a creative project i'd like to sharewith you. so kick off your shoes and come dig vlog 18. before we get started here's a quick peek at the finisheddriftwood art that i am going to be working on in this video episode. here is thedriftwood i will be using for this found art project. i left it outside for a few days to dryin the sun and get rid of any bugs that may have been calling at home. nowthe pieces are dry i'm going to use a stiff bristle brush to further clean the nooks and cranniesand remove any dirt and sand a spray bottle filled with a solution ofbleach and water is also good to use to help

kill off any funky germs and what not. if you have any rubber gloves, you may wanna put them on for this step. now that are wood is nice and clean, let's drill some holes, stick somemarbles in and thread wire through. for the marble holes, i'm using ahalf inch bit and using a circular motion to help bore out the holes. test theholes for size you continue to bore them out until themarbles fit snugly. driftwood can be prone to chipping, but a piece of medium grit sandpaper can help smooth out the holes

on the opposite side of the wood and at a90 degree angle to the marble holes i will drill some more hole using a 3/16 inch drill bit which will be used to run wire through to attach the pieces to the hangar base.you are also going to need to put some holes into the piece of wood that you want touse for your base. or you could just skip using a base and hang your driftwood as individualprojects. now let's get to the decorating and embellishing. with some basic whiteacrylic paint, i'm gonna paint the tips of the wood where i drilled the marble holes. you canpaint the entire stick if you like

but i like to keep some of the woodexposed for natural contrast to the color of the paint. it's all up to you so just go ahead anddo what your creativity tells you. use different paint colors to addstripes, dots and patterns. don't fret about making a perfect line,part of the charm lies in the imperfections. one of the things that i am most attractedto about this style of painting and creativity is the primitive and tribal look andfeel that these pieces imbue. after the painting is done and it's good and dry, i will put on a few coats of delta ceramcoat polyurethane to help protect and keep the paint fromflaking and chipping.

when the polyurethane varnish was dry, i used these metallic markersover the top to add an eye zinging touch to these sticks. they work better over the varnish, thatway the acrylic paint won't gum up the tips and they don't lose their metallicfinish. some alene's tacky glue along the inside of the larger holes help secure the marble snugly in place. a damp q-tip was also helpful to cleanoff the marbles of any excess glue. to add some shell embellishments, i busted out the ol' glue gun, filled the shells up with hot glue and stuck them to the ends of the hanger's base. these added shells

make this stick look like it's got a face. (funny tongue noise) another technique i used was decoupaging with mod podge. i drew some eyeballs on some scrap paperand glued them above the marble holes. to create even more stick faces. i spreada dab of mod podge over the top to help seal and protect the decoupaged paper. to attach the sticks to the base i am going to use some colored wire scavenged from an unused ethernet cable. i am also going to use a colored wood bead to wrap the wire around to keep it from slipping through the holes in the base.

with one end of the wire wrapped around the bead, i'm gonna thread the other end through the base and through the stick, back up to thebase and wrap the other end of the wire around the bead again. i use wire cuttersto snip the wire and wrap the loose end around itself below the bead. a little hot glue around the holes in the base, will help keep the sticks facing the right direction. the last step is to run one more piece of wire through the center hole of the base and make a loop so that this creations is ready for hanging.

and there you have it, funky, funny facedhanging driftwood art in a tree. i hope this video helped inspire you to use your imagination

and make your own found art creation with the things you find. if you do be sure to let me know about it on facebook or twitter. i'll catch you next time. aloha!