To celebrate the Big Garden Birdwatch weekend here’s a lovely mini make to create a fat and seed bird feeder, using a small bunch of willow or hedgerow material, fat and seed, your birds will love it ! Enjoy !
Its a Wrap!
Today I am going to show you how to make a simple wrap. A useful way to tie bundle of rods together on many different projects, such as the wigwams, animal legs, bird houses etc.
- You will need a bunch of rods suitable for your project.
- A single piece of thicker willow for the spacer.
- A long piece of willow for the wrap.
- Take the spacer, hold it with your bundle of sticks that you want to wrap.
- Take the piece you are going to use for your wrap, kink it and pop it on and wrap it round you bundle of sticks, holding them altogether nice and tightly.
- Keep wrapping until you get to about a foot length left at the end of the rod or enough to fee back through the wrap.
- Once you get near to the end, take it all in one hand, pull out the spacer.
- Take the end of the rod and push it through the space that you just created by taking the spacer out and give it a nice pull to tighten.
- Clip off the ends.
Willow Bird Box
To celebrate National Nest Box Week, here’s a hedgerow mini make. There are lots of ways to make bird houses, but this is the most simple version. I have used hedgerow materials, but you can also use willow.
How to Make –
- You will need – 7 thick rods about 2 foot long, lots of thin rods, any length and string.
- Wrap and tie the seven rods, bend them over at the bottom to splay them out.
- Take one of the thinner rods, insert the tip between tow of the uprights and weave in-between each one, when you run out add another in the same place, it does not matter wether you start with a tip or the butt end, do whatever suits your material it will depend on the flexibility.
- Weave the shape you want all the way up, then wrap and tie the top.
- Trim off any bits sticking out and lastly cut an entrance out somewhere in the middle.
Hello willow world!
Valentine Heart Mini make !
You will need – 4 x 4ft willow rods, 5 or 6 short thick pieces of willow and about 20 x 3ft willow rods depending on how much you want to ‘fill in’ your heart and string.
Follow the video and use the 4ft rods to make the heart frame, tie the short thick pieces randomly across the heart to add supports to weave on to, then use the 3ft rods to randomly ‘scribble’ weave over the whole framework, this mini make can be upscaled to any size. You can use material from the garden if you have it or you can get your willow from Clare at warwickshirewillow.com, I used Britensis – scarlet willow. Enjoy, and please share your makes with me, I’d love to see them !