Topiary of shells with their own hands: a master class

In the past, topiary gardens adorned the gardens. Now you can enjoy the figurative tree of the house year-round. What is a topiary and how to create it with your own hands, we will consider below.

What is a topiary?

Since ancient times, there is such an art form as figured tree-cutting. Her story began with one of the wonders of the world Egypt - "Hanging Gardens" by Semiramis. From them, Roman gardeners borrowed the idea of shearing plants and began to give an intricate shape to branches of bushes and trees, creating entire parks of sculptures and labyrinths. And the name of these masterpieces - topiary, which in Latin for translation means "figured trim".

The flowering of the topiary as a garden art in Europe came in the 16th - early 18th century. In the XVII century figured shrubs became an ornament of almost all famous gardens of palaces (French Versailles, English Hampton Court and others) and suburbs (Petersburg Peterhof, Oranienbaum, royal village and others). But at the end of the 18th century he was succeeded by a landscape style, and they forgot about the topiary right up to the present day.

Today the art of figurative shearing of bushes and trees is again popular. And designers and florists have learned to create artificial figured trees themselves, which are also called "topiary", and in a simple way - "Tree of Happiness". Now they have become objects of decor, which anyone can make, and in most cases from improvised means.

What do you need to create a topiary?

To create a miracle tree, simple materials are usually used, which can be found both at home and in a regular store. Naturally, there is a standard set of tools (the base) and an additional (needed for decor), which depends only on your ideas and fantasies.

Material for the basis of topiary:

• construction foam;
• paper;
• Styrofoam;
• Floristic sponge;
• Any bead;
• Branches, twigs and so on;
• Pot or container.

The used decorative material is divided into:

• Natural: branches, nuts, leaves, cones, straw, spices, coffee grains and so on;
• Artificial: flowers and leaves, fruits, fabrics, cords and ribbons, beads and beads, plastic and so on.

Instruments:

• Adhesive: PVA, mounting, universal;
• Glue gun;
• Mounting foam;
• scissors;
• stationery knife.

The process of creating topiary

Despite how you imagine the final result, the topiary is almost always the same. The only difference is in the final steps, when we start decorating.

1. We make the basis for the crown (ball): you need to take cloth, paper, foil, polystyrene, floral sponge or anything else and form a ball. For example, you can fill a cloth with cotton wool and sew a round bag. Or from paper to make papier-mache in the form of a ball. You can also use some round shape object (Christmas tree or small ball).
2. We make the core of the topiary: we take either a ready-made thick rod (for example, a branch), or we make it ourselves from improvised materials. These can be simple pencils, wrapped in foil, paper or cloth.
3. We make the base (the place where the rod and crown are inserted): the best option is to use a foam, a floral sponge or a mounting foam.
4. Pot: you can take a ready-made flower pot of the right size or make a special container, zadekorirovav it as you want.
5. Topiary decoration. At this step, your topiary turns into a unique piece of decor. You can use all available materials.

How to make from shells topiary?

As it is written above, for the decor of the topiary you can use any improvised materials. For example, seashells. After all, almost all brought from the rest of the package with these gifts of the sea, which probably then lie in the far corner of the pantry. If you want to make topiari from seashells with your own hands, then it's time to get your supplies.

Topiary of seashells can be used as decorations in any corner of the house: in the living room, in the bedroom, in the kitchen, and the ideal place will be the bathroom. Such decor has an airy appearance and will always remind you of warm days on the sea coast!

Master Class - Topiary of Seashells

To create such a marine topiary from shells, it will be necessary to take:

• Light shells;
• White beads;
• A small flower pot;
• Long skewers;
• A foam ball;
• Blue sisal;
• White and blue satin ribbons about 0.5 cm wide;
• White and blue acrylic paints;
• Brush;
• scissors;
• Shpaklevku or building gypsum;
• Superglue, but the best glue gun.

Sequence of work:

1. We produce plaster or building plaster with water. Stir to a thick state. The resulting mixture is poured into a flower pot, and in the middle we place skewers.
2. Lubricate the tops of the skewers with glue and attach the ball.
3. Near the base of the ball, we glue one end of a white satin ribbon to the skewers. A loose tape is tightly wrapped along the entire length of the barrel. Superfluous cut off, and the end of the ribbon is fixed with glue.
4. We proceed to decorating the ball. To do this, very gently lubricate the glue edges of each shell and alternately as closely as possible place them on a foam ball.
5. While the glued seashells are drying, decorate the pot. For this we put on it white acrylic paint. While it is not dry, take a wet brush, wet it in blue paint and do light strokes on the already painted pot.
6. We apply to the putty or building plaster (the one in the pot) glue and glue the blue sisal.
7. We make the pearl: in the middle of the shell we glue the bead, and on its butt - the second shell. We glue the prepared pearl on sisal.
8. We make a few bows. We take the blue satin ribbon, cut its parts into 10-12 cm and tie the neat bows that are glued in any order to the shells on the ball.
9. We add between the shells on the crown of the topiary in the chaotic order of the bead.
10. Let's dry all the details and weed out the smell of the glue.

Topiary of shells with your own hands is ready!

Several more variants of topiary from shells

You can use seashells not only as an ornament for the topiary crown. They can also serve as a decor for a pot. For example, when you do not have a ready container or you want to make your container, the shells will be an excellent tool for decorating the walls of the container. Also you can use them for zadkorirovaniya building gypsum or putty.

As for decorating the crown, the options can be a lot, and it all depends on your desire, imagination and the amount of time that you have to do all the work.

For example, the ball of the topiary can be decorated with the following method:

1. We take 6 shells (3 larger and 3 smaller) and 1 bead.
2. We glue 3 shells between each other with sharp sides.
3. Then we connect the resulting 2 sets of petals to each other, and from above we glue the bead.

In the end, you should get it as in the picture:

With these petals completely zadekoriruyut crown topiary.

In general, use in the decor of seashells of any size and type, the more of them, the more beautiful it turns out.

Topiary with seashells and pebbles

Another great option - the topiary of shells and stones.

To create such a masterpiece, additional burlap, twine and sea pebbles will be additionally required. Mashkovina zadekoriruem container, and twine we twine the trunk.

The crown will be adorned with shells, pebbles and beads stuck in a chaotic manner. For a better effect, easily wind the ball with the remaining string.