Continuing with the project from my last post, I worked on a pen stand, using the same colour combination - dark purple, mauve and cream. It was again done using the coiling technique, using newspaper tubes.

Weaving the tray was easier because of the larger surface area. And another problem was maintaining evenness in the sides of the pen stand. I haven't completely succeeded in this regard!

The close up shows the colours and the smooth weave. And once I glazed it, I ended up with an incredibly strong pen stand! I just hope my brother likes it and finds it useful :)

And finally, here is a picture of the pen stand and the tray. I am quite pleased with how they have both turned out, but I think I will take a break from weaving using the coiling technique! It is quite time-consuming and frankly speaking, very addicting 😅😅

Model Details:

Model: Triangular Pen Stand

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

After completing the woven Mother's Day bowl, it appears that I still am a glutton for punishment 😅😅 I tried out more of the coiling technique, using newspaper tubes. Well, I had a second reason for going ahead with this tray - my brother's birthday had just gone by and thanks to coronavirus, I was unable to gift him what I had wanted. So handmade it was!

The triangle is a shape I haven't attempted before and I am happy with the way it has turned out. I love the slight curve in the sides. I also added some tubes in the edge, as handles for the tray. I don't know what purpose they would serve, but I like the way they look!

As far as the colours go, I went with a combination of purple and cream tubes. The purple was in 2 shades, since I wanted to do a gradient in the weaving. The darker purple was achieved by adding a little black acrylic to mauve acrylic paint. This resulted in a rich dark purple which was a pleasure to work with! The lighter purple was mauve with a dab of white acrylic paint mixed in. I wasn't too happy with the way the cream turned out! I wanted a mellower version. I need to experiment more with this colour.

I love this closeup of the weaving! Absolutely adore the way it has turned out. The weaving is the smoothest I have achieved since I started experimenting with coiling or root weaving technique.

I have also decided on weaving a pen stand, using the same technique and the same colours. Will have to see how that works out!

Model Details:

Model: Triangular Tray

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

Stay Home Stay Safe! Who would have thought that a microscopic virus could bring the world virtually to a halt?? While this pandemic has had a terrible impact around the globe, it is during the lockdown that I have been able to connect with friends from long back, get back into my blogging, work on some incomplete projects.

One of the projects is this newspaper weaving project - Making coasters from newspaper tubes, using the root weaving or coiling technique. I was kinda bored of circular shapes, so attempted something a little different. Not sure how well it turned out, but I can say for certain that the coasters are rock solid.

The holder was a last minute idea, since I had plenty of rolls left over. Turned out pretty useful too, since I didn't end up losing a coaster or two, just because they were left lying around! The edges of the holder leaves a lot to be desired and even now, I am not too sure how to go about making this, but hopefully in the future, it will get better.

On the whole, I am happy with the outcome.

Model Details:

Model: Coiled Coasters with Holder

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

A few months back, I had made a leaf-shaped tray using the technique of coiling with newspaper tubes. I decided to revisit the tray, this time using wood-stained tubes, the same ones I had used for this box with lid. This tray is bigger than my previous attempt, measuring about 15 inches at the longest length.

I had sprayed the tubes with water mixed with a little fabric softener, about half an hour before I started weaving. This resulted in very flexible tubes that did not break or crack while weaving. I will try out other methods of coating the tubes as I make other objects using the same technique.

Very happy with how even the weaving turned out. The closeup of the tray brings that out very well.

Finally tried out a new finish. I came across this style of finishing the edges, during my usual perusals on Pinterest and was quite fascinated by this. I feel this style is much better than the usual edging. This gives a very professional look to the product and has a very leathery appearance. I messed up the ending, but I have learnt from that and should do better next time.

Model Details:

Model: Tray

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube 

Tutorial for the edge: Youtube

More newspaper weaving, this time using magazine rolls. I had rolled up these tubes in the fond hope of making a pen holder. But for one reason or the other, I never got around to making them. So finally, thanks to new year resolutions, I decided to use them to make another attempt at coiling or root weaving.

This time, I decided to try out a rectangular shape, so that I could make it into a tray instead of a pencil holder. I had no particular idea of how big or how long the tray should be. I just coiled till I was happy with the size and till the tubes lasted!

The shape is a little wonky. As you can see, one side is a little larger than the other. But other than that, I think it a fairly good attempt.

The plus point of using magazine tubes is that the end result is very colourful and more cheerful than newspaper tubes that are painted a single colour! The end result is to be sent to a dear friend of mine, who had been asking me to sell one of my newspaper projects. I think this colourful tray will be a good addition to my friend's desk 💖

Model Details:

Model: Tray 

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

So, after the last post on all the popular origami from last year, I realised that newspaper weaving was lagging behind. So I decided to try and complete at least 12 projects of newspaper weaving this year.

With that goal in mind, this is my first attempt - a newspaper woven little jewellery box with a lid. This is the first time I am attempting a proper lid, which will fit the box. My last attempt was rather rudimentary and I was not at all happy with that. While this is a definite improvement, I have ways to go before I can be really happy with this.

As is evident, this was also woven using the coiling technique. I guess I will attempt a few more projects using the same method. These tubes were coloured dark brown, using wood stain.

 Model Details:

Model: Coiled Box with lid

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

Merry Christmas 2019, dear blog readers! 

It feels like the year had just begun and we are already at the end and looking forward to a new decade! Time does fly, doesn't it? 

Anyway, in the Christmas tradition, I decided to do something in the traditional colours of green and red. I had rolled a number of newspaper tubes some time back and had been wondering on the project to work on. So I decided to go ahead with the new style of weaving that I have been trying out these days. In case you, dear reader, haven't had an opportunity to see what I have been up to, do check out this blue leaf tray that I had done a few months back. Also check out the previous box and lid, done using the same red/green tubes. 

This style of newspaper weaving, called coiling or root-weaving, is tedious but results in really cool newspaper products that are absolutely eye-catching! The weave is without any form, so it is with some trial and error that I manage to do this style of free-form weaving. 

This bowl or rather, tray is about 7.5 inches in diameter and made entirely from newspaper tubes, coloured red and green. As with my previous blue tray attempt, here too, I attempted to paint both plain tubes and tubes with print still visible. Since the colours were both dark ones, I was able to obliterate most of the print after painting the tubes twice. With a single coat of paint, the colour is not very rich and the print is clearly visible. But with a second coat, the colour also becomes richer and most of the font are pretty much invisible! And what little is visible, is hardly seen in this style of weaving anyway! So that was a good discovery for me.

In total, to make this bowl, I have used a total of 50 plain green tubes, 25 green tubes with print visible, 100 plain red tubes and 30 red tubes with print visible. And as expected, with this style of dense weaving, the end product is very robust and strong. A coat of polyurethene and I have an absolutely amazing product!

So what do you think?

Model Details:

Model: Coiled Christmas Bowl

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

I have rolled up tubes for a Christmas project but before that, decided to try out a little box with lid using the red/green combination. I have tried this method before, when I made a blue tray, but since it's been a long time since I did that, this box and lid is kind of a refresher course for me 😀

I liked the way this box came out. I added a little ring to the lid so that it is easy to open the box. The overall size is about 4 inches in diameter and about 3 inches in height.

The problem I faced was making a little indent for the lid so that it doesn't slide off easily. I am still to  figure out how to weave the lid. For this box, all I did was stick a couple of tubes to form the indent.

For this box, instead of using white tubes, I used tubes with print, painted red and green. In the close up shot, a little bit of the print is still visible, but of course, this cannot be avoided. I think the only colour which will completely obliterate the print is black.

Model Details:

Model: Coiled Box with lid

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube

One of the traditional methods of basket-weaving involves a technique called coiling. This technique combines a process of coiling materials such as grass and binding them together using flexible fibres.

The same process can be applied to tubes made from newspaper or magazines. Here the tubes are used in both the processes - they are wound and held together by other tubes. I first came across this technique of weaving in Pinterest and have since been fascinated by the method.

When I got an opportunity to try it out, I first attempted it using newspaper tubes. Needless to say, it wasn't much of a success! My coiling was loose and the tubes that held the coils together were not placed close enough to give a tight weave. And once you fail, even in something like craft work, it takes a lot of courage to get back on the proverbial horse, doesn't it?

So, after many months and with a lot of hesitation, I tried out this blue tray, in the shape of a leaf. The tubes are made from newspaper strips, around 10 mm in width and 260 mm in length, rolled around a 2mm skewer. I painted it prussian blue, since that was the colour I had in abundance! This time, since I knew what to expect, I was able to coil much better. Overall, it gave me much better results than my first attempt. The shaping is still a problem and that takes more practise I guess. On the whole, I am quite pleased with this attempt.

While this technique is more challenging than regular weaving, the result if much more pleasing. But I would not attempt this type of weaving unless I had a lot of time, because without doubt, it is much more time-consuming that the regular weaving that I do. This tray took me a good 3 days to complete! And that is just the coiling part. Time taken for rolling the tubes, painting and glazing the final product also needs to be considered.

Model Details:

Model: Coiled Blue Leaf Tray

Difficulty Level: Complex

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial (coiling or root-weaving technique): Youtube