Hello, dear friends! Today we’ll talk to you about artificial rattan weaving. Quite an interesting material that is perfect for making all kinds of furniture, various interior items and more.
Rattan makes excellent laundry baskets, country chairs, rocking chairs and much more. You can even make a hanging chair, which will look very advantageous in the area around the house, somewhere in the recreation area.
When planning to do this kind of weaving, you don’t have to undergo lengthy training or sign up for an expensive master class. For some, it’s enough to watch video tutorials and read visual instructions.
The idea is to make a furniture frame and weave around it using artificial rattan.
Getting to know the material
If we talk about our country, then the weaving technology mainly involves the use of willow vine. But in tropical regions, rattan palm stems are available. This is the same rattan.
The vine is not difficult to obtain. It grows everywhere. But preparing it yourself is problematic. Plus, wicker furniture will be noticeably inferior in strength and durability to rattan.
At the same time, the technology of harvesting natural rattan for subsequent use is also complex. You won't be able to implement it yourself. That is why artificial rattan weaving is extremely popular among craftsmen and beginners.
This is a completely synthetic material called technorattan or polyrottan. It is produced by extruding soft, processed polymer, that is, plastic, through special holes with different diameters and different cross-sections. The material can have many varieties. Namely:
- flat strips with a textured surface;
- ribbed;
- with imitation of tree bark;
- with braid;
- round cords;
- oval;
- rattan rods;
- crescents, etc.
Nobody hides any production secrets. This is a polymer material that looks like natural rattan.
The benefits of making furniture with your own hands
Making wicker furniture from artificial rattan at home has its advantages:
- significantly saves the family budget;
- has a long service life;
- low weight of products;
- with external lightness and delicacy, it retains strength and reliability with careful handling;
- not subject to temperature changes and exposure to sunlight;
- does not contain harmful or toxic components;
- hypoallergenic;
- easy care.
But there is nothing in our life that cannot be mastered.
Important! The material itself is lightweight, easy to transport, attractive from an aesthetic point of view, has high strength, and is not subject to deformation from moisture.
Therefore, more and more often, novice home craftsmen want to learn how to weave furniture on their own.
It must be taken into account that the material has different lengths and differs in material thickness and width.
It is convenient to work with artificial rattan, as it is flexible and comes in the form of long threads, which does not require constant gluing or other methods of connecting small parts of the material.
Making wicker furniture from artificial rattan at home has its advantages.
Advantages and disadvantages
Whether or not to sign up for courses for beginners, take online weaving courses, or abandon such an undertaking is up to each individual.
If you don’t know what a flower pot is and have never held a tool in your hands, then you need to start with theory. And then move on to practice.
Artificial, but very similar to real rattan, it has a number of strengths and weaknesses compared to natural rattan.
Objective advantages are:
- affordable price;
- improved flexibility and elasticity;
- increased strength;
- resistance to loads;
- moisture resistance;
- frost resistance;
- resistance to temperature changes;
- ease of care;
- the material is completely ready for use;
- wide selection of varieties, etc.
However, the rigidity is still quite low. Because of this, you definitely need to know how to attach it to a metal acting as a frame or other base material. It’s just not worth making furniture from rattan itself without a frame. Most likely it won't last.
Where and how to sell products
Finding a sale for wicker furniture given the existing demand will not be difficult. There can be many options here: from a regular store (for this you will have to open an individual entrepreneur, you can find out about the registration procedure here -), which will sell exclusively your products and sell furniture at home based on advertisements in the media, to an online store. In our opinion, at the present time, making wicker furniture is a very worthy, profitable, and cost-free business that anyone can master if desired. As they say - if there is a desire. We hope you have it!
A small master class on weaving from a professional:
Tools and materials
In order to make one or another piece of interior or furniture using artificial rattan with your own hands, you need to decide on a specific design, come up with a configuration, and choose a weaving pattern that suits you. It is better to first draw up a project and make a sketch. This is necessary at least for calculating the material.
- If it is a chair, then 2 kg of technorattan is quite enough;
- For a small two-seater sofa you will need from 5 to 7 kg on average;
- A large sofa will require at least 10 kg of technorattan.
As for the weaving technique, it is best for beginners to use a checkerboard pattern. If you combine the material by color or texture, a simple checkerboard pattern will look great in the end. If you have experience, you can move on to more complex schemes.
You will also need:
- a frame assembled with your own hands or made to order from metal;
- tapes or rods for making guides on which the pattern will be attached;
- main material for braiding;
- fastenings for guides;
- pins, bolts or leather strips for subsequent connection of elements.
If everything is ready, you can start working. Or rather, weaving.
Ball lamp
To decorate the interior, you can use any method. One of these is an original lamp, which will be different from the usual ones and give the room a zest. You can make such a ball yourself without any problems, and the cost of materials will be minimal. Such lamp decorations can be found not only in homes, but also in offices, salons and other public places where there are some creative notes. With the help of available materials you can set a special mood in a room or space.
Related article: DIY winter compositions made from natural materials
What we need to prepare for the master class:
- thick threads, at least 100 meters, and you need to select the color yourself;
- glue, namely PVA, and a brush;
- fat cream or Vaseline;
- 2 balloons, if you need a large lamp, you can use a children's beach ball.
Let's start making a lamp. To do this, inflate the balloon to the desired size. We use a marker to mark a circle on the ball so that we can then insert a socket with a light bulb there. We take into account that the resulting lampshade will exactly repeat the shape of the inflated ball. Now take the glue and lubricate the threads well, you can soak them. We lubricate the ball with cream and then begin to carefully wrap it with threads; it is best to do this chaotically. And the density of the lampshade depends on the desire of the needlewoman. When you get the desired wrapping, leave it to dry for one day. After this, we pierce the ball and carefully pull it out. Our ball is ready, you can make several of these in different colors and decorate your kitchen, bedroom or living room with them.
Weaving procedure
See also:
What color to choose for the kitchen for a favorable atmosphere: aspects of selection
Now, step by step, how to get ready-made furniture using artificial technorattan.
The technician will need to take the following steps:
- assemble it yourself, or take a ready-made frame, which will serve as the basis for all rattan furniture;
- fix a number of guides on the frame to which the poly rattan will be attached;
- a rod or tape can be wrapped around the frame in one turn, but for greater strength and reliability it is better to make several turns with an overlap;
- after this, the end of the rod for the guides is properly fixed on the finished frame;
- during the weaving process it is very important to apply a strong tension;
- technorattan can be attached to the frame using a stapler, or a more powerful pneumatic stapler;
- rattan elements extending beyond the manufactured frame are cut using a construction knife or other suitable tool;
- on a base of fixed guides, rattan upholstery is performed according to a pre-selected pattern;
- It is important to constantly align the weaving so that the final result is a fairly neat and even pattern;
- the ends of the rattan are connected with a stapler or soldering iron, all excess is cut off;
- now you need to braid the frame itself, the legs and other elements;
- To pull the tape through the holes, you can use a special tool with a curved end.
If your furniture consists of several component elements, such as a seat, back, armrests, it is better to make them separately and then connect them to each other.
The final stage is decoration
Wicker furniture made from artificial rattan looks rich, it is elegant and graceful. But if you want to make it even more elegant, you can use bright soft blankets and pillows as decoration.
With all the breadth of choice, a novice craftsman should start with the simplest products that allow him to master weaving skills.
The product will be lopsided and will be impossible to use.
