Many nature lovers dream of having a bonsai in their home, but after they find out the cost of this miniature tree, the desire quickly fades away. How to make an old dream come true? Don't skimp on dinners! There is one simple solution: you can make bonsai yourself. To make it, you need both natural materials and artificial components.

DIY bonsai

To become the proud owner of a beautiful tree, you need to tune in to work, carefully read the master class below, as well as prepare some tools and collect the necessary materials. It:

· Brown tape;
· Floristic wire;
· Sprigs of boxwood;
· Secateurs;
· toilet paper;
· A branch of a tree 1 cm thick;
· Low capacity of a round shape;
· Gypsum;
· Water;
· A piece of plasticine;
· PVA glue;
· Brush;
· Brown and black gouache;
· Black acrylic;
Moss;
· Lichen;
· Pine bark;
· Small stones.

Start with a sprig of boxwood, floral wire, and brown tape.

Bend each piece of wire in half and twist the ends.

Tape a small piece of boxwood to the edge of the wire with tape.

Join the three pieces together and twist the ends of the wires.

Tear off a strip of toilet paper.

Wrap the entire length of the wire with it.

Stick the tape over the toilet paper.
It turns out 1 branch.

Such branches must be formed from 5 to 13 pieces. The splendor of the crown of the tree depends on their number.

Now combine them into one composition.

To make the trunk of a small tree thicker, add wooden sticks to it.

Attach them to the edge of the decorated wires and tape them tightly with tape. You can make a double barrel that will look even more spectacular.

Pour liquid gypsum into it and insert a tree into it. The craft must be held with your hands until the plaster begins to harden.

As a result, you will have such a basis.

Use clay or plasticine to form a beautiful trunk. There should be smooth transitions, small protrusions. This is necessary to give a realistic texture.

The trunk should look harmonious in relation to the crown.

To paint the craft, mix brown and black gouache with a little PVA glue. You need to paint over twigs, trunk and plaster.

This is what the tree looks like after painting.

As it dries, the paint will gradually become dull.

The tin can should be covered with two coats of black acrylic.

Then take a pine bark and crush it into crumbs. Cover the trunk and thick branches with PVA glue and sprinkle them with fine fractions.

On one side of the trunk, fix the pieces of live lichen and moss.

Glue small pieces of pine bark and small stones on the plaster.

The tree is ready!

Such a bonsai looks no worse than a living one.

The advantage of an artificial plant is that it doesn't need to be cared for like a real one. It will not die under any circumstances!

Instead of boxwood, you can take twigs of juniper or thuja. Create the shape of the tree to your liking.

Do not rush to buy an expensive live plant. Try to make your own bonsai from natural and artificial ingredients. Such a craft will save a decent amount.

Still interesting:

It will take

Wire (1mm thick and 2 meters long).
PVA glue.
Tobacco dust.
Foam sponge.
Watercolors or gouache.
A vessel with low sides.
Sand or earth.
Universal glue (you can "Moment").

Required tool:

Pliers (2 pieces).
Nippers or scissors (for cutting wire).
The third hand from the soldering set.
Glue brush.

Making a bonsai tree

Let's prepare the wire first.

It is better, if possible, to straighten it so that it is more convenient to fold it in the future. And we will add it based on the desired growth of the tree. For example, I chose 15 cm. We measure 15 cm from the beginning of the wire, and bend it 180 degrees. We continue to bend this way until the wire runs out. It will turn out like this:

Now we clamp one end of the skein with pliers, and with the second pliers we take the other end of the skein, and twist the skein into a bundle.

Not too tight. So that you can branch off two or three veins into separate branches. First, we branch off the thickest branches to the middle - three to four cores of the wire.

We twist them so that they do not disintegrate.

We bite off the bent ends from their tops, and divide the resulting branches into several more separate branches along the entire length.

In general, we improvise, we give this wire harness any shape of the tree we like. You can shape it into a slender pine tree, or a spreading maple tree.

We've finished with the branches, now let's move on to the roots. There, in principle, everything is exactly the same, only the branches are made much shorter. You should end up with something like this:

We got the "skeleton" of the tree, now we need to cover it with "bark" and "leaves". To simulate the bark, I used tobacco dust, which I had left over from the summer, after fighting against garden aphids. It is also sold at any hardware store. You will also need PVA glue.

We apply glue with a brush to the entire surface of the future tree, and immediately sprinkle it with tobacco dust.

One time, of course, is not enough. After the glue dries (20-30 minutes), repeat the procedure 3-4 times. Until all visible wire on the entire surface of the trunk and branches is hidden under the bark. We put it closer to the heating radiator (where it is warmer), and leave it to dry until the next morning. In the meantime, the tree dries, you can tackle the foliage. To do this, you need to finely (as small as possible!) Pull the foam rubber sponge.

Do not cut with scissors, but cut it into small pieces so that the shape of the pieces is involuntary and varied. The more luxuriant you want the crown of the tree, the more sponges you need to pick. Pour the torn pieces into a bowl, or a small bowl, dilute from watercolor or gouache, a thick green concentrate (about a tablespoon), pour it into a bowl with a torn sponge and mix thoroughly with a stick, spoon, or hands.

When the sponge is evenly colored, pour it onto some clean surface and, in the same way, leave it to dry until morning.

Now it is the turn of the dishes in which the tree will "grow". It is desirable if it is a round or oval container with low sides. We pour earth into it, moisten it, form a bulge in the middle, like a hill.

We pour 3-4 tbsp on the whole thing from above. tablespoons of PVA glue and spread it all over the ground so that in the future the mound does not settle and does not lose its shape. Sprinkle with dry sand on top (you can mix it with chopped dry leaves), and also put in a warm place until morning.

In the morning we check the tree so that there is no bare wire left on it.

If everything is fine, we try it on to the finished dish with earth and mark with protruding roots the place where it will be in the future.

In my opinion, the work done is worth the effort and time spent - from the outside the tree looks very lively and natural. It is possible to distinguish it from the present only on closer examination. In general, my daughter got what she wanted, and I avoided wasting, and the hassle of caring for a capricious living tree.

Watch the video

The word "bonsai" comes from the Chinese word "pencai" and translates to "grown on a tray." Although the art of bonsai is considered Japanese, it comes from ancient China. Nowadays, ordinary trees are used for bonsai, they become small thanks to constant pruning and various other methods. At the same time, the ratio of the size of the root system, limited by the volume of the bowl, and the ground part of the bonsai corresponds to the proportions of an adult tree in nature. There are 12 traditional bonsai styles in total. Some of the popular ones are:

Naturally, not everyone succeeds in caring for a living plant on their own, because you need a lot of patience and experience. Not everyone will buy real bonsai either, due to its high cost. The last option remains - to create an artificial copy of the mini-tree with your own hands. The advantage of an artificial bonsai over a natural plant is obvious. It will take you a couple of dozen hours of work to create it, but it will take more than one year to grow it. There is no need to water the artificial tree, just brush off the dust from time to time. In this article, we will take a look at making an artificial bonsai from corrugated paper.

NECESSARY MATERIALS.

corrugated paper 2 colors: green and brown
wire 30-40 cm
scissors
crockery suitable for the pot
acrylic paints

ARTIFICIAL BONSAI STEP BY STEP.

Cutting colored corrugated paper ...

Apply glue to uncut sections of paper and wrap it around the wire….

We combine 3 blanks into one ....

Cutting brown paper ... ..

We apply glue and wrap our previous blanks with the glue side….

We put them together and glue them again with brown paper ... ..

If you constantly build up the composition with wire and wrap it with paper, it will turn out like this….

Well, if you paint the brown part of the tree with acrylic, it will be absolutely wonderful!

Any dish, preferably of medium depth, can be used as a pot. Since the construction of the bonsai will be heavy, due to the wire, plaster should be used. It is used as a balancer and to simulate the earth. Pour the prepared solution into a pot and plant your workpiece there to the depth you need. Wait until it dries up. That's not for long! Then paint over this cast plaster in the desired color, preferably imitating the ground. You can also glue finely cut corrugated green paper to the ground, which will imitate moss.

The finished bonsai will look something like this:

In the following articles, we will tell you how to make bonsai from beads and artificial plant leaves.

Bonsai art

Bonsai art is a very ancient art. It is the process of miniaturizing common large trees planted in small flat containers. If you read the publication About, what is bonsai, you know that they are, in fact, dwarf prototypes of trees growing in nature, and have all the features inherent in their large-sized counterparts.

Not everyone can grow a real bonsai at home, but DIY decorative bonsai within the powers of anyone. You can independently make a beautiful craft from corrugated (crepe) paper by watching a short video master class (below). To make such a pretty dwarf tree, you will need very few materials. The result is a great piece of work that can easily be confused with a living plant..

Materials for making paper bonsai:

1. Green corrugated paper - 2-3 rolls
2. Brown corrugated paper - 1 roll
3. Glue stick
4. Wire, wire cutters
5. Scissors
6. A piece of styrofoam or gypsum
7. Bonsai container

The process of making twigs is simple and can be described in several sentences, in accordance with the stages of work.
1.Cut the roll of green crepe paper without unrolling it into equal pieces. Unwind each piece and cut to the middle into thin uniform strips like needles. Grease the uncut part of the tape with glue.

2. Wrap the prepared tape around the wire from top to bottom in a spiral. The first branch is ready.

3. Gather together 3 branches. Larger twigs are obtained from 3 small ones.

4. A roll of brown paper should be cut into pieces, similar to a roll of green crepe paper, but into thinner pieces. Expand the prepared piece and brush it completely with glue.

5. Wrap the loose ends of the collected branches with brown tape from top to bottom in a spiral. The brown tape should be carefully tied to the wire rod.

6. Formed branches should be lush. Be sure to form roots from the wire ends. Despite the fact that most of the roots will be hidden from view, they will give your tree more power and beauty. The trunk is thick at the base due to the fact that all the branches are connected in one place. The same brown tape of crepe paper is wound on top.

7. The finished bonsai can be planted in a suitable container on top of the foam. Moreover, a bonsai tree can be woven even from a newspaper vine or a flowerpot can be made from napkins. If there is no foam or similar material, then you can plant the tree in gypsum, leaving some of the roots in plain sight.
8. Cover some of the roots in the styrofoam with shredded green crepe paper. This will create the illusion of moss. Dear readers, watch the entire manufacturing process in the video. Visualization will help you better understand this simple master class:

Bonsai (Making small trees with our own hands). Master Class

Raising a real Bonsai is very difficult. Here, as you know, desire alone is not enough! It takes time, opportunity, skill and ... years of hard work. It turns out, alas, not for everyone. But to decorate your interior with such a tree is available to many. The problem is solvable.

For fruitful work, you need to stock up on various natural materials. Thus, we will solve two problems at once: financial and environmental. It is advisable to select clumsy, knotty snags for the trunks, but if this is a problem, then you can use simple twigs. It is important then to decorate all this beautifully.

Depending on the color scheme of the interior, the tree can also be summer and autumn ...

This tree is made from several branches of the bedbug herb. It grows under every garage. The grass outwardly resembles a tree-thin trunk, strewn with many twigs with small leaves. We take 5-6 pieces of such trunks, glue them together in a bundle. Twigs with leaves form a luxurious crown. This herb dries quickly, but loses color. Paint the root with acrylic spray paint. There is a lot of it in car dealerships, of any color. We glue the barrel with a mass of sawdust and PVA glue. If there is no sawdust, tea is very convenient in this. We drink tea, any, then we dry it on the newspaper. Excellent material for work! If necessary, after drying, the trunk can be tinted. Gouache.

If there is not enough material, you can make a very tiny tree. True, it looks more like a toy.

In what we "plant" ... If you follow the traditions of Bonsai, then the dishes for the tree should be small, almost flat. Here we select from what is at hand. In this case, a herring can. We decorate it with a lot of papier-mâché and paint it. It is convenient to do this immediately with colored varnish, it is available in hardware stores. You can replace it with a stain or gouache, but after drying, it will be necessary to treat the surface with a colorless varnish.

For this work, a bowl was taken from a disposable tableware. It is dense, keeps its shape well. It can be painted, pasted over with pebbles or shells, glass, etc.

A curved gramophone record looks good in such cases. It bends easily over a gas or electric stove. We put the plate on a nail with a large head and hold it at a distance of 20-30 cm above a well-heated stove. When heated, the edges of the plate sag and at this moment they can be given almost any shape. Caution, the plate gets very hot, use gloves!

Now about how we fix the tree and what ... If the snag has shoots like roots, great! If there are none, it is also not a tragedy. We just decorate in different ways. You can use polyurethane foam to secure the barrel. Gypsum or alabaster is also very convenient in this case. The material is relatively cheap and economical. Cement is not suitable. It's a very hard work. This is useless.

Since I use plaster for my work, I'll tell you about it. For trees such as in my photos (height up to 30 cm, no more: from the bottom of the bowl to the crown of the crown), 1.5-2 cups of dry gypsum is enough. Divide the dry plaster in two. Make one larger, the other, respectively, smaller. The pots and wood should be ready by now. The tree is collected, painted. The dish is decorated. Place a few pebbles at the bottom of the bowl for counterweight. This is just in case, for better stability of the tree. Place the tree trunk in the bowl the way you plan. Dissolve most of the gypsum in salted water. Salted water makes it possible for the gypsum to quickly thicken and harden, so you need to work at a pace. Fill the bowl with wood 2/3 of the bowl's depth. We hold the trunk for several minutes. The plaster will set quickly. The dish will become warm, do not be alarmed. Gypsum, when solidified, heats up. As soon as the trunk is fixed, we proceed to the main decor.

By the main decor I mean the final decoration of the "land" of the bonsai. Nature is infinitely generous, so it is ridiculous to leave the "earth" naked. We create the illusion of abundance, lush vegetation. It's easy. All sorts of small snags, stones, dry inflorescences of herbs ... Take the remaining dry gypsum. We dilute it, but already with plain cold water, without salt. Now its rapid thickening will not play into our hands. We pour it over the already hardened gypsum. As soon as this mass begins to thicken, fill it with everything that you have stored as vegetation. Scatter pebbles, stick in snags, grass, moss. The plaster will harden and everything will be fixed. After the gypsum has completely hardened, spray the surface with the remaining aerosol paints. Light and dark green, yellow, black. These are the colors that are suitable for coloring the surface of "earth" and forbs.