Black Walnut Ornament
7 Materials
$2
30 Minutes
Medium
I did this craft realizing that black walnuts might be hard to come by, but hoping it would inspire people to look beyond the obvious and outer appearance of something to find the beauty. The black walnuts have these hearts hidden inside as part of their natural shape. All we are doing is exposing and enhancing it. These hearts are perfect to use as ornaments, pendants, to tie onto gifts, as ceiling fan pulls, tie backs on curtains, so many possibilities!
The black walnuts come in these green pods that fall all over the lawn. They eventually rot to these gooey black pods. They are a huge pain to clean, but look how pretty they are when you get to the inside! Who knew!?! I did not! Really, what I was trying to accomplish was to get people to see things in a different way and see the beauty and make something even more beautiful out of it!
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Clean the walnut - there is NO good way to do this. It's a bit of a process and really MESSY! Use rubber gloves because it will stain....for a long time. First, I step on the pod to get to the nut. Then I drop the nut into some water or straight bleach. Scrub with a wire brush, drop back into bleach for however long you think and wash off bleach. Let them dry naturally, or throw them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 250 degrees until they dry or start to separate.
Take a hammer and screwdriver and break apart the nut (down the middle).
Remove the meat inside - don't eat - especially if you had it soaking in bleach!
Take rotary tool and cut a slice off of the nut.
Take acrylic paint and paint in the heart.
Use Triple Thick or some other varnish/sealer to protect the nut and heart.
Glue on jewelry bail. Now you have a beautiful and unique piece, crafted from nature and it can be a necklace or home decor item! Any way you use it, it's quite a conversation piece!
Thank you guys for stopping by! Remember: Life's too short not to shimmer, so grab your glue gun and your glitter!™ Stay safe!
Mona
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