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Acorn Ornaments Part 1

And I'm really thrilled now to welcome to the stage our instructor for this morning, tiffany turner is joining us this morning she's going to be teaching us about woodland economic on ornaments. She's an artist she's a performer she's, a homemaker, she's the person behind the blossoming paper art of papal sf recently, tv's tiffany's taught a flower making classes for martha stewart living on the makeshift society here in san francisco. Her chicken egg pin the otters are on display all year round at rare device, which is also here in san francisco, and she documents everything she does at her corner blogged, I'm really excited to welcome to creative life. Tiffany turner, tiffany, come on this side it's so nice to have you with us. Thank you for joining us. I'm going to be here. I talked about about paperless. I've got something that you founded. Its propeller was just it's more sense for the flowers. Yeah, um, it's just something that I started this year after I discovered this paper uh...

, earlier in the year when I was making a a costume for something and it just kind of inspired me and then I started making the pinatas and I start making large scale pieces. I didn't bring one today, but I make some really large scale pieces that, um are turning into a huge passion of mine and then had to start playing up around with it and it's just a great material I have a ton of it here with me today it's a great material to work with and it's just in addition to this beautiful woman is of course you've made this what that's called the fascinating for one of the most beautiful dahlia it's really nice and also the lilac one here but you're also something of a performer I believe I am a member last answer ah amateur but I've been doing that for a few years with bombshell betty in san francisco and that's actually where I first needed to make myself a headpiece and found this paper and that's actually where it all came from so there you go take my animals are beginning to annoy me they're probably annoying the viewers at home is well let's get going on you okay well I wanted to start we use blowing out chicken or goose eggs for this I have a bunch of them here um but today I'm going to show you really quickly the kind of messy job of blowing out one of the's into this sorry you can't um I use jumbo chicken eggs and uh nasal aspirated er which is if you have kids this is tio clean their noses out when they're sick so this is I just have to have one of these around but they're really handy said you have to put your mouth on the egg when you blow it out, which is really great so what I usually do is, um, make a small take attack and make this is little wet and dry it off make a small hole in the top of the egg maybe pierce it two or three times, but you want the whole to be smaller than the aperture, the hole at the end of the aspirated er so that it will cover that and then at the bottom since on on the acorns, the bottom doesn't have to be perfectly round cause we're going to cover it. You can kind of blast a hole in the bottom part here, so um, crack about a quarter a quarter in size hole in the bottom and dig it out and then I take a skewer like this and you break the oaks is that it doesn't just break the whole bottom of the eggs when it comes out and then you then you take the aspirated er this is really hopefully and you blow the egg, right? It's actually quite easy. Yeah, yeah, I can plow through dozens of these and like an hour do you have to be really careful when you're piercing the whole just do risk the egg actually break I've actually almost never broken the egg yeah, because that is actually the hardest part of the because none of the pinnacle. Yeah, yeah, we call it and then usually I'll do this under one of running water. Get a little water, a little extra water in there. But this is also the water I have to wash my hand in afterwards that I want to contaminate it too much, but you fill that with water shaking around, flow that out again and then there, and then I'll rinse it again under running water usually and blow it out. And then I keep a bun, too. Skewers in like a pint glass. Uh, you know, this would be clean at home and then just stick it, and then they drive for like a day, and if I want to get to work on him earlier, they should dry at least today. But if they're a little wet bottom, I can stick a q tip in and it will dr dressed up, so I'm just going to stash all that because we don't need it. Wash my hands really quick because that's gross that's that but I brought tons of blown out eggs for everybody. And if you crack one, um, crafters, if you crack it, don't worry, I have a gazillion more now is it really essential to blow these out? Would these work tool with hard boiled eggs? I don't think so they wouldn't last no and they'd be heavy too but of course they wouldn't really last so this isn't like easter egg painting no right? No, not at all. Ok, can I think this over here is that okay? Okay, so to get started I think there's you're gonna have to share this is the only glue gun part of of the acorns but we're going to start with the acorns hears that here's a few jumbo chicken eggs and can I stand in front of you? Ah, sometimes I like to make them like all one color so they kind of look like they're made of porcelain um and then I recently did this green one I really like this one to it it's kind of cool it's less like a holiday but I really like that one too but can you grab the I will sort of way but we're going to start with the regular ones. So, um grab your going to want to get ready by opening the glue I don't I think you might need to open your glue michael is not open either and pour some glue in a dish going to be applying glue with a paintbrush that's why you have the paint brushes um here's my stuff so tacky glue gets really tacky really quickly you might know so don't use a ton at first this is a specific brand you like to use a specific type of blue yeah tacky glue I mean, you can use elmer's too but this just goes a little faster so I put about that much in my plate at a time because it does get tacky and then there's one rule of this clear cord right there that you could pass down the line um I usually make along the hangar but we're going to be working with these hangars that you have at your your table so that curly things at your table so I would measure apiece about the length of your scissors and then cut that and so you have one really need to pass down the line there and that'll make a little bit shorter of accord so that at the end of your um it's probably not being like a three inch anger or something like that so and then you should also find toothpicks at your station and break a piece of the toothpick off about a quarter of an inch long it could be from the middle or the end it doesn't matter are you doing this to where you just gonna rush from will and I'm gonna grab my glued in just down here just okay yeah, this is the only part that requires uh glue gun which is making the hangar so here cut break yourself off a little piece of that um my fingers are dead to the feeling of hot glue so I couldn't scored that on my hand and it wouldn't matter so you be really careful when you do this at home or in my audience right now but you take a just a dab of hot glue you be careful to j k o I'm worried about you almost people all on then you want to take the cut ends together of the hangar and embed them in that c I can touch that but you can't so just be careful, get it on there, let it let it hard in just a little bit and started twisted a little bit and then it should be cool enough you two grabs you could just get a look a really messy but you just basically want to get that the ends of your hangar wrapped around the to think just a little bit two or three times and like mine end up with all this extra glue on it that I could just peel away as soon as you get that on there let it set for like puts him over at overlapping the toothpick so that there's yeah, I'm going to do it one more time to make sure I can show everybody the right way because I'm showing them out are you guys having trouble with that part? I'm going to show it again really quick yeah you're getting and then when he when it's given what gets on there you can put another little dab on it to try to secure it basically just hold it wanted yeah and then put a little bit over that but be aware that it's going to melt what you just did so you need to let it set ok, so here's my glue and I'm gonna overlap the hanging and to the hangar over a little bit and then when it's cool enough to touch, start to wrap it, it might take a little practice maybe a touch more glue? Yeah, and it's okay, if it looks really messy. Yeah, yeah, if you can pick anything off because we're going to be putting it into the little hole at the top of the egg. And of course, you need to make it just a quarter inch of of a tooth pick not the whole toothpick, so just break off it's the surrounding sides. Okay, that's. Good. Ok, so then when you're ready uh, just grab an egg. I left you some eggs on the table and there should be a little tack uh, you should have gotten a little tacky thing woodlands ok, yeah, so I look at where the hole is just in case I didn't put it dead center on the egg uh like this one I think I need to I'll give you attack injustice right? I I wanted just out a few more chip away a little bit more so there's some kind of opening for the cord right at the top of the egg and then it also has to you wanted a smallest possible but big enough to fit this wad of glue and uh toothpick toothpick you just made so I try not to go any bigger than that but that's definitely got part of the hole in the top this's the skinnier and and in the end it is less that has the same way smaller hole but that's why I gave you attack so you can kind of chip away just enough tio get your hangar in you can come on okay, so I'm scared of which we shouldn't be scared don't be scared you know it was like it's gonna break if you kind of hold attack toward or hold the egg towards the top kind of secure it with your yeah you got it in that's looking good okay and then you're also going to find that you know, it's going we're going to put a little bit more glue on here too security in place a bit most most how big is your monsieurs way have a fun when you simply are who says they would have saved their eggs from breakfast if they knew they would be using them? I still haven't figured out a great way, tio not waste too much of the inside of the eggs because when you do this, you get a lot of shell in there and I was I I still need to figure out some way where I can use that you collaborate with a like a dorky shoe company with like an industrial stream and that they can just drain all the shells out. Okay, so that that's on there that's looking good that's looking good now the last part's a little tricky for the hangar. You even got one on that's. Great. Wow. Wow! Looking good. Okay, so I'm going to reapply hot glue over this whole but unfortunately it's going to melt what's already in there a little bit and you're going to find that your court is going to start stretching out again so you need to do it. I provided you with a little, uh, cup you need to take the lid off of it, but there's a little cup there that you can set your egg on so you can kind of hold it there so that there's not tension pulling this cord back out if you catch me drift I have a pretty a cup for mine and I don't think I have something going for you we'll swap okay okay so go ahead without part which is just a dab of blue there and then I just really want to try to hold my hangar where I think the middle is do you put the glue on the egg sort of in the whole just you know, just a pinch dab in the hole if it will go it probably will drip down in a little bit and his little on top of the egg assed possible um this's what mine looks like here but we're gonna be covering this up it's not a huge deal with less bulk of hot glue you have at the top the better but not too much but it's really gonna start melting that thing that you just made that in the inside so if you want to just rest it there and while you're holding your you do you do this just for extra security? Yeah, it might be actually be overkill but I've just on this this the way the whole time so while you're that looks good it's trying to take on the pick that right off you can pick it up we're going to cover part of that easy okay? So the paper this's thie amazing awesome paper it comes in all these metallics I get it from wonderful car to feeny that imported from italy they're located in southern california they're wonderful people and it comes to these great metallics and these cool hombres on dh right now you guys should all have a piece of this brown which is called sable is actually like crepe paper it is it's it's heavy one hundred eighty gram kate crepe paper I don't know much more about it how it's made but it's incredible and maybe some of our online audience share it with resource is sure yeah and actually you said that was italian right? So we do have someone joining us from italy maybe they have some history are that would be great if they could find out so what we'll do first you have a bunch of strips of this are you good with your hangers? Are you feeling good? Looks good to me good. Okay, great okay, so the brown stuff we're going to use stretched out and what I'm going to do right now is make a top piece just a round circle that's going to cover this area so when we come back up it will look really good on the top what I d'oh I don't give you this scissors here there's kids scissors in there but hold on you can use that that's probably best for me okay there's there's something okay, so I just cut a small piece like this could I have actually been smaller and I stretch it I think you could do it on those tables you want to stretch it out like this to take the crave out of it I'm only doing this for part of it but this just just cut a little corner of what you've got of any of those is fine and then I cut about a quarter sized circle more or less that's good you cut a quarter size circle and then a split down one radius of that after out of a stretch piece of paper in time you okay? I'm gonna keep going keep on going here so next I'm going toe cover that circle one side of it with glue with a paint brush to small that's fine did you you stretch it first rate just ok and then cut one radio cia round that off excuse me okay, okay and and that's the piece that's going to come over here and cover the hangar area and fit around it so uh you just said it's there and it's it kind of feels like fabric went to get the glue on it really softened its nice and you put that on did you say you just paint the ones glue on one yeah because you're going to glue it on to make it look like this that's why you have the slit in it so you can get it around the top twenty now you're separated a little bit but if you hold that up yeah thank you put a piece down a small piece down the middle of it if you needed to make it better yeah, well it's great doing it here let's get that down maybe need a little more glue on that part right there that you're citing that okay and we have a question actually can you clarify the difference between a tissue and a crate paper isn't just a weight thing that is okay yeah it's awaiting a sickness that this is done by graham I don't know so that's wait per square inch or thickness or gauge I'm not really sure but it's just it's a totally different ball game than tissue paper yeah, but I also think isn't a tissue paper is completely smooth. Well, yeah, I fight for his crepes with this craziness. Okay, thank you. And this is actually I do know that it's actually used to wrap fresh flowers and in italy yeah that's me just remember that part. Okay, so how are we doing? It looks like a pretty good okay, so I pre cut now we're gonna put that the bottom of the acorn on with a little twisted bottom don't ask me how I thought of this because it just kind of came to me my two good idea ideas I had this year just came to me out of nowhere this was one of four good ideas come get to good ideas a year this is okay so I pre cut some for you there's different copper shades or there's the green depending on what you want to use the kind of warmer copper one I got from this one that goes from silver toe teo copper and I love it it looks it's this one right here it looks really good so I'm going to do that one but you can pick with whichever one you want if you do the green I'll have to give you a different green for the top and you might have to change that top part but that's ok? And I pre cut the audience members ones the crafters ones but this is basically a three inch by four or five inch piece of metallic crepe cut like that I'm gonna cut one for j k o two now some of our instructors yesterday were really precise about cutting emissions but you seem to be a little bit more relax about it. So it's not necessarily all that key or yeah no it's definitely not key. The three inches is kind of important because uh uh and and there were actually will be extra we cut off of this but I like to start big so that I have room for error because it's actually not an exact science when you get to the bottom part of it you'll see ok, so there's two ways to start securing this to the egg um one way is with a really thin dot of hot glue or you can start using um the tacky glue um if you could make it really thin so it doesn't ruin the texture of the get the end, you can quickly just put a dab on there to get it on and I like to put start my paper about that far up about two thirds or a little bit more maybe three quarters up so you want to just kind of attack it to the side of your egg, but I'm just a really thin string yeah like yeah, just it just enough to get it secured then you could easily use attack igloo we find you a paintbrush too, okay? And then we're just gonna gradually go around the egg and glue this paper to the egg. I don't like to stretch out the paper that much, but this you'll notice this doesn't go the full uh diameter of the egg or circumference so you stretch it, you stretch the paper around just enough so that that piece I cut will make it you don't want to take all the creeping out of the paper, so if you want to kind of pre stretch it a little bit just to make sure it goes around I also like to take the end well we'll wait wait for that part. How are you doing? You good? Okay, now do we put glue on the call to go on the way? We're gonna put glue on the egg and you can use paintbrush and I think we're actually done on the hot glue for them this whole part okay, so I like to go in segments here I'll do you maybe an inch and don't go all the way down goto like where it starts to curve under out of the way like that's probably an inch wide an inch wide band across the egg with tech igloo now jean marie do you think this is something you can do if we do it together have you done this kind of crafting? No, this is this is really advanced I think I think what's cool is learning the process of blowing out the egg properly I like christina would just have been a little afraid to break it in the first place but you made it look so easy so I think this is definitely something I shall I was surprised at how sturdy the show actually that would be the main thing I would be scared off. Yeah, no it's it's pretty sturdy um yeah, once you learn this even though it's a little advanced you could make all kinds of things like up really festive ones that don't look anything like acorns you could do a lot so I'm just going around like an incident injured two at a time until I get all the way around the egg and then I'll show you how to secure it on the other side make sure like near the top of the paper you're getting a good amount of glue where that's going to be pressed down against the egg don't worry if it's not pressing down into top of the egg it first just get this band wrapped around should it be entirely smooth at the top like we can come back actually and we'll do that after we'll get this secured around it gives it gives the glue a minute to get tackier and then we get this press that down um ok when I get close to the end and I figure out like right here I see I'm gonna have a good eighth inch overlap which is nice you need to know yeah okay well about anything and you can come and cut it if you cut it if you cut it with a bit of a curve it it sits nicely on that you can see that but that edge has a bit of a curve on it and that'll sit nicely on the side of the egg to secure the egg and I like to put the glue right on the edge of the paper so I don't get any glue sticking out on the surface of my acorn so at the end we do that and then you wanna gently because this is metallic paper it sort of heats up a little bit just a tiny bit so if you rub that seem you can get a pretty good hidden seem just after you've colluded down looks like you might you need to trim yours and then yeah and then you much yeah chairman and then just about it eighth inch overlap onto the okay okay okay so right now my looks like this fell this hanging on the bottom and go around and yes that's it I've cracked it you're getting a pun intended to finally got something right I found my niece's summary you look so happy holiday gifts for everyone that's here from you okay so j k already did this part but then when the glue is a little tact here come on up and press the top in I stick a little bit extra glue if I have tio but talking to sometimes get messy they just wanted and this scene will be covered by the acorn cap will make out of the brown paper so I don't really worry about what it looks like oh uh at the same time yeah carefully because this is where I do crack a few because there's less strength at the bottom here but I gently starts you sort of coax it this way for a minute like that and then that kind of smooth it down to the glue you have there don't do nothing of that tight don't go that tight yet we're gonna have to make a cut but just to hear yes, great. Ok, are we all at the same? Well, same stage now. Great. Okay, so now this is too much to make. I'm actually walk over and grab one of these and not knock it off the stand. Thank you. Okay, so this is too much paper to make that little end of any corn and this is exaggerated because sometimes that just how it comes out and also because it looks good on the tree. It kind of looks like one of those vintage ornaments that has, like a a long end on it. But I'll go in now and open this back up and cut off about a half inch because this is too much paper, I just leave it on there so that I have enough to work with what I'm getting certain, not more than half a century we're in trouble. So then you look at that that's me, I'm curious. How did you first sort of get the inspiration for this? Was the light in the shape of the gave you the idea it wass yeah, yeah like I said, it's sort of came out of nowhere but I think it was the fact that I've been working these a lot and I I think I had been wondering clinton subconsciously how can I do this? Because if I do I have some on the tree that air fringe all the way down and then they take a long time that's what could I do where I don't have to take over an hour plus blowing them out and I saw them it for device and now actually I actually I'm selling these every device right now that's in san francisco and also I have a sale it one kings lane happening on november twenty first of these and some other items so you can to him out there if you don't end up making one um but yeah, so I was thinking what could be faster? No ok, next step is applying glued all the shell you can see in the inside a thin layer of blue toe all the shell you see left in there it doesn't matter there's that whole obviously we're gonna cover that up and after you've applied that glue do a little bit more coaxing we're not going to go all the way into the to the little spindly and yet but will coax this paper like I said, when you work with the metallic it it warms it up a tiny bit and it will bend if you keep going like this around it so we're getting closer to the end and gentle because this is the glue will sometimes soft in the end and this is where it will pop then you'll have to go over the best happens today one on every twelve herself related to the point of no return when it won an egg cracks you know you're getting really far into the process yeah, there is their work around if if it breaks later on um I don't have one no ok, but you know, once they're done or once this is on they're really slippery like I think they slip out of my hand all the time with that and you hear him fall on the floor and you can hear something that sounds like a crack but sometimes it's just that glue cracking it's actually the egg it's still good it's just the glue moving around so once it's resumed in a way the glue does reinforce the shell it does it does and I definitely hear that when I do it okay, so you're getting a little ahead of yourself sorry that's ok story of my life so ok, this is a little bit tricky and it's you might even be able to come up with a better way to do it the night to do it but now I take a little you gotta be really careful. You don't want to cut too much off everything has to be able to go all the way in, but if off of two sides of your paper, you can take a little triangle out to take some of the bulk out of this end part, but you shouldn't take too much because you already taken saying, yeah, you could take a teeny bit and then at this point and this adds another layer of glue but also softens the egg a little bit this point come around after you cut those triangles out and glue all the rest of the paper, including the part that will overlap the first part house all teams going out there, they looked at so far very good. This next part is the part where if I teach it in real life, I walk over and manhandle all your parts because it's e but I'm going to try to stay up here, I was told I have to stay up here, so I won't let you just interested about the man having ok, so now I didn't say that now I bring the two shorter ends in the two ends that have been had some triangle cut away from them and kind of see how that looks slowly, and then I slowly start to bring the other ends in um you'll see you'll kind of see where parts are going to sit down because we're going to try to twist this onto itself but it's so bulky you're going to have to keep cutting a little bits out I think to make it work, but right now, like, for example, I brought two sides in and now I feel like I need some glue on this metallic part in this metallic fire it right? Because they're going to sit down I'm gonna fold one side in first so I went to fire did night if yours is looking good, you totally didn't go too far, so keep it there and I can help you find a way peel the very like quarter inch back open just at the very end if you can get it back open because then we can put a finishing you can flat part over the other part you cut away to make finished metallic service also this is stuff is really great for patching like after if we don't get it quite right if you stretch it and cut like little organic looking pieces and just glue them in and rub them in there they look, you can't really tell you made a mistake but so I take the shorter end in hope that was clear enough to follow follow and then I see where this outer and is going to land and I don't want the inner white this is pretty tough, actually. That's looking good, we're gonna I'm gonna help you open that up and take part of it away. And I mean, look even better, but I'm gonna cult cut a little more bulk out of here, it's kind of willy nilly, but add a little bit more glued here at the end of it. You just really want things twisted around each other so that the white doesn't show and it's takes a little practice. One is related to the the glue it does that try clear? It does. Okay, and then the second one is is this essential to use metallic paper running your name wants to know what if you don't have metallic paper? Do you do do the same with normal paper? Yes. Yeah, thiss one is ok. Could you grab that one? Wolf? I think with the normal paper. Um, are we talking about normal gray paper? Exactly. Ok, I've done in two ways and I prefer you stretch like we stretch that first piece. Stretch the paper out for a smooth surface, but you can definitely do it with the with the solid and non metallic colors, but I think it looks better smooth when it's when it's, um, or smoother when it's nonmetallic now I know you've got a very young son all of us to see for miles and I thought I mean it's just something you can do with children do you think made because it's too fat charlie's no, he gets all the eggs that I ruin are all the ones that get half cracked he gets to pick them apart pretend there's a dinosaur in them well, especially the goose eggs I get these in segues that I make the larger ones with I get them on line they already blown out there kind of awesome yeah, they're really sturdy but every once in a while I blow on and he gets really great to see gets to play with the remains we have fellas from camilla's goose farm yesterday maybe these will e I think they're from denver but highgrove they're actually from the foul foul dot com the whole area's um ok, so I'm sort of at this point maybe you got that night. I hope you're happy with your and you found a way to, um cover up most of the white if we need to patch because I think I just got a little bit too short so I wasn't able to kind of stand around as much, ok, how would I patch that will show you I'm going, I'll cut my end off and see if I can it kind of come is right with you here and you go ok well there's a little I mean this is nitpicking but I have a little white spot showing right there so what I usually do is I get a piece of the same color I make it I hope you can see this there's a flat end and then there's a more organic rift and ah kind of rip like like this shape I don't know what that is it's like an arch it's like uh I don't know it's got flat on one time like a curve on the other and the flat side will go towards the tip because you won't be able to see it and then the more organic rippy side will kind of blend in a little bit more and I'll glue it around and I want to show you how to do that so but it's kind of there are no rules in the patching part you just kind of do it do it and on a christmas tree if that's where you're hanging these in the dark with the twinkle lights on you're not going to see any of this patching anyway but it's not that obvious anyway fia flat flat and there then wrap it around and then it it blends really well this is a really long spindly part you know kind of sometimes looks better shorter I think you know I think it looks great either way and jake owes case here. Let's. See? So you actually got a really great I love the shape of this end. We just have a color problem. Cause the white side is showing that's the next frontier in this paper's I need a two sided medal because the white, you know, all right, they do have a blue that have a way on the inside of that one, but I want that on this one. We may not be a big enough piece. Okay? Says oh, yeah, that's good. You get glue on it. The ones I sell it rare device in the spring are the pinata ones, and they're really colorful with crazy colors. And I always filled them with, um, confetti like a cast corona egg, just in case anybody ever wants to break them. I don't know if they ever do, but I was filling with confetti just in case, actually, one of one of our loungers says that it's a holiday tradition in their family to crack eggs over each other's heads that air filled with confetti. That's the cast, their own. Yeah, that sounds like my kind of family. Don't me. Maybe they will I'll ask.