Free craft stuff from the woods

[CarolAnn]

Does anyone else here like to take a walk in the woods and come back with bags full of craft stuff?

I was looking for a picture of the litchen that I pick up whenever I'm in Arkansas - it grows directly on fallen leaves in a soft gray-green clumb about 2" thick. I pull off the bottom layer that's full of sticks and leaf bits and bag it. Later, I dry it in the sun and finish pulling out any "not litchen" bits. This stuff is great! It dries hard, almost like fluffy styrofoam. If you put it into a mold (or tie it with thread) you can compress it when it's still damp and then when it's dry, it keeps the shape. Just the thing for a natural base for dried herbs and flowers!

You can also bleach it almost white, and then it will take dye if you want other colors.

I always take several small bags and a few large ones, and come back with interesting bits of wood, bark, acorns, seed pods, pine cones, twisted sticks and grape vines, feathers, even small stones!

I found a link where they're actually selling the stuff I get for free (just the litchen):
http://www.terrainwarehouse.co.uk/productdetails.aspx?ProductID=222&CategoryID=13

I think there'd even be a market for this stuff if people knew it was a natural & safe product.

[rivahmom]

A wooded trail I hike on leads to a part of the river that has loads of sharks teeth, whale teeth, whale vertebre (sp.), and of course shells. We use them mostly for jewlery. From the woods themselves, I enjoy pressing wildflowers and using acorns in crafts.

[CarolAnn]

WHOA! That would be so cool! I'm an inlander, so I've never even seen sharks teeth, whale teeth or whale vertebrae. I had to do a Google search on that last - there are some pretty neat things made with them and I didn't even know it existed as something you could just go find!

http://www.wassman.com/sculpture-pages/sculpture14.html
http://qalayauq.blogspot.com/2006/11/whale-bone-sculptures.html
Then, dang - I ran across something that says "it's illegal to own modern whale vertebrae" - I guess they don't assume whales ever die naturally. I bet that's true of the teeth too, but if you can find this stuff along the river bank, I don't think it should be illegal to pick it up and use it.
I've got lots of pressed flowers and leaves (and stained book pages too) - but never got around to making anything with them yet.

[bee_pipes]

Just because you're an inlander doesn't mean there aren't other things you can take advantage of. If you know any hunters, there are plenty of relics that can gleaned from the discards of game. I have heard of people salvaging road kill fir skin and parts. Takes things like peroxide and such to clean them up - you don't have the benefit of the ocean of fossilization to clean it up for you, but there are ways to sanitize these materials.

Here's one on Preserving Bones (http://64.62.177.152/WebX?50@440.JLLhaRv9kRo.1@.ee99c6d)

and here's the general section it came from: Using the Whole Critter (http://64.62.177.152/Using%20the%20Whole%20Critter/?14@440.JLLhaRv9kRo.0@)

Regards,
Pat

[rivahmom]

Wow, that whale bone was huge. I have only ever found the little disk part. I never knew they were illegal. When I first found one I thought it was a wooded disk until the park ranger corrected me. He must not have known they were illegal either because he let me take it home.

[tufhelp]

Another item to be on your toes for that traipse into the legality arena are feathers. There are a lot of “illegal” feathers that you can inadvertently possess – any ones from endangered species. As innocent as it may seem to pick up that eagle feather, don’t do it, especially if you’re making crafts items for presents or resale. Possession is a big no-no… A big federal no-no!

[rivahmom]

Another item to be on your toes for that traipse into the legality arena are feathers. There are a lot of “illegal” feathers that you can inadvertently possess – any ones from endangered species. As innocent as it may seem to pick up that eagle feather, don’t do it, especially if you’re making crafts items for presents or resale. Possession is a big no-no… A big federal no-no!
Hubby is a Native American so we can legally own and use eagle feathers. But on a side note, I thought that ended when eagles were removed from the endangered list.

[mtwildflower]

Any parts of raptors are illegal to keep in your possession. I knew a woman down the street from me who had owl claws in her living room. Got confiscated when the neighbors called the cops on her live in boyfriend for beating the crap out of her ( yes, she let him back in. They moved not too long after that. )

Anyway, my daughter made a 'fairy house' out of many things she found in our yard in the forrested areas around here.

This project was a couple of years ago, so it's terribly dusty.
But I do like to show it off since she's so proud of it.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t202/mtwildflower/doll8.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t202/mtwildflower/doll1.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t202/mtwildflower/doll7.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t202/mtwildflower/doll10.jpg

[rivahmom]

Your daughter is very creative. Thanks for the pictures. We use to do a similar project with sticks and moss. My daughter would construct little tee pees at the base of a tree and decorate it with mushrooms and flowers.

[daffodil]

*From the woods themselves, I enjoy pressing wildflowers and using acorns in crafts.

Just curious... what do you make out of the acorns?

[Mom5farmboys]

We live on a farm and walk the fields and woods alot--especially my husband and sons.

Occasionally they have come home with turtle shells, dried out and preserved quite well.

Deer skulls, sometimes with the antlers still attached and also just deer antlers, smaller animal skulls (which is always fun to try to identify), so far we have a chimunk skull, opossum skull, & cat skull.

Snakeskins and feathers and pretty rocks (including some cool fossils) they even found a hunk of obsidian once (black shiny rock-kindy glassy).

We even found an arrowhead once, not really naturally occuring but still very cool.

I am partial to the inside of milkweek pods, before they break open on their own. Those dark round seeds all lined up against that soft white, silky stuff before it goes to fuzz I think is just beautiful.