I wish that I could take credit for this wonderful idea, but it comes from one of my favorite ladies on Instagram, Claire Menzies (you can find her Instagram account here). When I saw this activity I just knew you all would love to hear about it so I asked Claire to write up a guest post. Thank you, Claire, for sharing your awesome wire-wrapped rocks with us! :)
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
These rocks are so simple to make and the end product looks fantastic. Threading beads and buttons is not only fun, but also great for honing those fine motor skills.
This craft could easily be adapted to suit different seasons or colour schemes. I'm already thinking about wrapping orange or lime wire around black slate rocks for Halloween and red wire with golden sparkling sequins around white rocks for Christmas. Letter pony beads would be great for older kids to spell out names for gifts to 'Daddy' or 'Grandma'. The possibilities are endless!
Anyway first things first - go for a walk to collect rocks!! Nothing too small as they would be fiddly for little fingers. Look for interesting shapes and colours. My kids were particularly enthusiastic about the heart shaped rocks we found.
In addition to interesting rocks, you'll also need:
Wire (something thin and flexible like florist wire)
Adult scissors (to clip the wire)
Embellishments (we used pony beads and mixed buttons)
To start with, have an adult wrap the wire around the rock once and twist it at the back to make sure it was secure and hopefully not slide off, like so:
Then let the kids thread on the decorations - really! That's it!!
When they are done wrap the end of the wire around your starting knot a few times to secure and cut off the excess.
A finished rock:
A few helpful tips I learned along the way:
1. Leave the wire long enough to wrap around the rock a few times in between adding embellishments. This stops the whole lot falling off if your child lets go!
2. If you are using buttons, only thread the wire through one hole -- it's far too tricky otherwise.
3. If at all possible do this when your 18 month old is asleep!! :)
I hope you enjoy this project and have fun adding your ideas to make it your own.
Thank you so much, again, Claire! And don't forget to check out Claire's Instagram account for more fun ideas! :)
Such a simple, creative and beautiful open ended activity. Thanks for sharing. I am inspired.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Claire so clever! So glad I could share her idea with you!
Delete