You should take care of the material for creating a souvenir in advance. If you have the opportunity to purchase colored sand, it is better to take as many different varieties as possible. different colors and shades, they will be needed to create a colorful picture. If you have nowhere to buy ready-made sand, you can make it yourself. For these purposes, the most ordinary river sand, but it must be thoroughly rinsed and filtered so that there is no dirt or foreign matter.
Sand should be scattered into empty jars, filling them one third full. In a separate glass, thickly dilute the gouache paint of the desired shade and pour it into the jar. The same is done with the rest of the sand; “colored water” of a different shade is poured into each jar. The material must be allowed to soak in the paint for some time, after which the sand must be thoroughly dried.
To create more original shades, such as pearlescent, gold and silver, you need a different painting method. Each portion of sand is laid out on newspaper or other unnecessary paper, spray it with artspray of the desired shade and let it dry. Until the sand is completely dry, it is advisable to stir it so that the grains of sand do not stick together. To get more bright colors and shades, you can also use color printer ink.
If it is difficult to get clean river sand in winter, you can use ordinary semolina instead. To add color to this material, you need to crush pastel sticks or colored pencil lead together with semolina and mix thoroughly so that the cereal is better colored. This is done with all portions of semolina; you just need to change the color of the pastel or pencil.
How to create paintings from colored sand
When the material is ready, you need to find a transparent glass bottle of an interesting shape. To create a beautiful picture, it is advisable to first practice laying out sand in colored waves; this will help develop the necessary dexterity and dexterity.
The material is poured into the bottle through a special funnel with a long neck; the shape and thickness of each colored strip can be adjusted using a thin long stick, for example, a stiff wire. It also compacts the sand. You can use drinking straws to add sand desired color inside an existing layer.
When the painting is ready, handle the bottle carefully; shaking may cause the painting to fall apart. The jar is sealed with a piece of fabric of the desired color tied in a knot; the material must first be moistened in glue. Instead of fabric, you can use regular cork the right size, the neck is tied with a ribbon for beauty.
Probably only the lazy don’t know about this technique. Very affordable way decorate the interior using a decorative bottle with layers of colored sand or fine salt poured into it, pre-painted. They need to be poured not just like that, but in a certain order and observing certain points. And how to do it correctly - in this master class. We will tell you about this using the example of handmade crafts " Sea bottle with salt and shells." You can, using this technology, make a bottle with a different idea, not a marine one at all.
To work you will need:
light bottle clear glass beautiful shape;
sea or table salt;
blue and green ink (or bluing);
small shells;
some sawdust;
PVA glue;
a piece of gauze;
Progress
A small piece of gauze is placed on a plate, salt is poured on it and ink or blue is poured over it. Ink and bluing are not diluted, because after drying, the salt turns several shades pale. Lifting it by the corners, place the gauze on a double layer of newspaper and leave it to dry in a warm place (possibly on a radiator).
The label is removed from the bottle, the vessel itself is washed and dried. A dry bottle is filled a quarter of the way through a funnel with uncolored salt. The container is tilted so that the salt moves to one side. Insert rolled paper into a tube, then a funnel, and pour dry blue or green salt in an even layer of 1 cm. Without returning the vessel to a vertical position, add ordinary light salt, filling the bottle 2/3 of the volume.
Then, placing the bottle vertically, colored salt is poured into it again. The thickness of the layer is chosen as desired. The remaining volume is filled with light salt.
Sawdust is mixed with PVA glue until a homogeneous mass with the consistency of thick sour cream is obtained. The shells are filled with adhesive mass so that it reaches the edges, but does not protrude out. The bottom of the bottle is decorated by gluing shells to the glass with a solution. The smallest shells are used to cover the lid of the vessel.
Camel in the desert
Walks slowly.
He's too important
Big and funny.
And the legs are hairy,
And the neck is bent.
He, the hunchbacked one, would
Be more modest.
It's time for him
Stop wondering
And quit the habit -
Spit on passers-by.
Egypt. Master Class.
The most common (and second most popular after papyrus) souvenir, which is usually brought from Egypt, is a bottle with colored sand, inside of which is hidden a whole picture, mainly with Arabic-marine motifs. Here is the desert with camels and palm trees, and the depths of the sea with dolphins, sharks, corals, fish - there are many ideas for creativity, plus a successful and pleasant combination of colors - and here in front of you is a masterpiece. Moreover, it is also at a reasonable price.
Creating such a picture is an art that Arab boys learn from childhood.
We have been to Egypt many times. And almost every time we bring a new bottle with us. And not just one - several as a gift to friends and relatives.
And every time we look with bated breath at the hands of the master, who in just a few (5-10 minutes) creates an unusual picture from colored sand.
Now a little theory.
The most important thing is, of course, the showcase. On the steps there are bottles of various sizes and shapes and with different sand patterns.
By the way, there are not only bottles, but also vases and glasses of bizarre shapes. The glass of the vases is thinner, and the curly fragile legs require very careful handling!
At the top of the master is wooden box, divided into several compartments, in which colored sand is poured.
The sand itself is very easy to get; in Egypt, as you understand, it is a desert :). Water plus dye is added to the sand, everything is dried (calcined in the sun).
Next, using a thin metal funnel, small layers (sometimes even different in level) are filled with spoons of colored sand. Metal wires different thicknesses and configuration a picture is formed. During the work process, layers of sand are periodically “rammed” for density. It is important to monitor the correct application of layers of sand, its quantity, and not to confuse colors and sequence :). By the way, sand colors are used not only in pure form, but also mixed separately on a saucer and obtained additional necessary shades.
At the end of the work, a little glue is poured on top (although several Egyptians stubbornly used the word “varnish”, but it seems to me that this is glue.) The glue dries for almost a day and then, after drying, you cannot “pick” it from above with your fingernail. If you still succeed, then dry the craft vertically without turning it over for another day.
Whether the bottle will reach Moscow depends on how correctly the picture is made, how tightly the layers are compacted, how tightly the “top” is sealed. The most important thing is not to check these bottles in your luggage, only in your “carry-on luggage”. Several times we received our souvenirs with broken legs and even split into pieces. Although I packed it very carefully according to all the rules. One of the fantastic moments - one day 2 of 8 bottles arrived intact, but the picture on them disappeared! She slid down and got mixed up. Imagine that you painted a picture with watercolors and immediately filled it with water. Why this happened - I just don’t understand. It may not have been compacted too much, but the adhesive “seal” was intact.
Now about the most interesting part.
This time we also walked around the city and wanted to buy bottles for souvenirs. And then a 12-year-old child asks the master: “Can I do it myself?” Translated from English it means, can I make such a bottle myself and give it to my grandmother? My? It turns out that it is possible. True, we paid a little more for such a bottle than for a “store-bought” one, but here I didn’t mind. As a result, we received a personal master class, and also took home work made by a child’s hands from Egypt. This is great. At the same time, both the child and the master English language almost didn’t know it :) Everything was at the level of gestures and hints... Moreover, we gathered a crowd of tourists who also later wanted to “do it themselves” :)
1.Pour sand in layers.
2.Use a stick to form a picture.
3. We tamp with a special piece of iron.
4.Drip glue into the bottle from above.
So here's the story. Maybe the next time you go to Egypt, it will be possible to make such a bottle? For very young children, is it possible not to “display” the picture, but simply fill it with layers of multi-colored sand? It's like sea waves...
For those who are not going to this wonderful country, you can try to do everything at home. A sort of "hand-made". The Internet is full of information and master classes about sand paintings. There are videos on YouTube. Sand in Russia, as I understand it, is white river sand. Dry printer ink is used. Jars are taken from under baby food. Or bottles. A thin funnel is made from a cocktail straw plus a medical glass thin funnel. Knitting sticks. And instead of desert dunes and camels, you can make geese - a “house in the village” and a sunset near Moscow...
You will succeed!
I’ve never been to Egypt, but I accidentally saw on the Internet these interesting bottles, inside of which the sand was folded into interesting pictures:
They say this is a popular souvenir for tourists (second most common after papyri). And that every boy in Egypt, from childhood, learns to make similar paintings from sand in bottles.
Every Egyptian master can make a similar picture before your eyes using a special box filled with colored sand (just like a huge box of paints), an empty glass bottle, a funnel and a tube:
And they sell their works of art right here on the street:
(photo from the page osd.ru/txtinf.asp?tx=3195)
I don’t know at what price they are sold in Egypt, but one Vietnamese website states (this handicraft is also common in Vietnam) that such bottles with a sand pattern are sold for 5-15 dollars.
I have never seen such souvenirs at either Russian or Ukrainian resorts (apparently there are no craftsmen).
Of course, to make such three-dimensional sand drawings, you need to study for some time. This way you can learn and then teach others. Organize master classes - and make your own business out of it (if you like doing it, of course).
Below are a few businesses that can be made from this handicraft alone. These directions will be valid for any handicraft business.
Business 1. Training master class on creating sand drawings
As far as I know, there are no master classes in Moscow (not counting traditional needlework) - creating sand paintings on special tables, drawing on water, etc. There will be people willing to attend any master class, especially one that is so spectacular and beautiful.
And unlike many newfangled master classes, the result of this event can be taken home and given to someone.
Business 2. Corporate events and celebrations
This is also quite a fashionable trend nowadays. Corporate events with a training focus bring the team closer together and help to get to know each other in an unconventional pastime.
And in the wedding ceremony, this simultaneously turns into a kind of symbol of unity (this ritual is very popular in the West):
The same goes for holidays. Organizers of home (or corporate) parties strive to entertain and surprise guests as much as possible. The more unusual the invited master class, the more interest it will arouse.
(photo from funtastic-events.com)
At this children's party, I think they use Chinese bottles with colored sand, with straws already attached (if you want to buy these, go to alibaba.com).
Business 3. Sales finished works as handmade souvenirs
For our region, this is a rather rare and exotic souvenir, especially since, as I read travel blogs, not everyone manages to bring whole bottles from Egypt. It happens that bottles are preserved, but the design is damaged irrevocably. Moreover, Egyptian (Arab, Vietnamese) bottles contain their own national motifs (camels, dunes, palaces). Our motives they do not. And we have something to show. Especially for various holidays - New Year, February 23, March 8 and others.
But we already have handicraftsmen who are able to come up with their own motifs in bottle sand designs. The picture below shows the work of a resident of Belarus, an accountant by profession, Lyudmila Myslivets:
(photo from the page grodnonews.by/ru/0/10279/news)
Business 4. Making custom souvenir bottles with sand
Just as some craftsmen paint custom-made nesting dolls (with a portrait of the birthday boy), so it will be possible to create sand paintings with a significant plot (well, at least with the number of years reached; or with some characteristic symbol of the profession of the person being congratulated).
Business 5. Creating your own club of handicrafts and supplying them with materials for creativity
I found one Russian online store where you can buy colored sand for creativity for 50 rubles per kilogram - sandmix.ru:
You can buy in bulk (it's cheaper; Russian prices I don’t know, but on alibaba.com I saw such colored sand at a price of 100 dollars per ton, that is, 3.5 rubles per kilogram) and resell it at retail to your club members.
But you can make colored sand yourself. I read recipes for making it on the Internet (take ordinary river sand, thoroughly wash it, sift it, and then paint it with dry inks for printers).
Not every craftsman can prepare such sand for himself. You also need special glass bottles and some other tools (which are also not sold in stores).
The same alibaba sells plastic bottles different forms and sizes at a very cheap price.
You can sell both colored sand and bottles for creativity not only to members of your club, but also via the Internet to all other handicrafts.
Both on the site of handicrafts etsy.com and on the Russian similar site livemaster.ru there are sellers of both sand and kits for carrying out wedding ceremonies(they have thousands of sales, despite the presence of the Chinese with their cheap sand).
Here is one such seller, he has more than six thousand sales in 1.5 years:
Business 6. Sales ready-made sets for creativity
One bottle, several colored bags of sand, tools for creating a picture in a bottle, instructions and some nice accessory.
One Australian housewife has created just such a business - she sells art kits for creating art in bottles online (in addition to hosting fun holidays), her website is funandfunky-sandart.com. Moreover, for children. That is, such sets that any child can master independently, without the presence of an instructor:
She uses plastic bottles with a screw cap (they probably cost a pretty penny).
Any child can do this drawing on his own (he will need a funnel and a spoon as tools):
Each set also includes accessories that will make a funny character out of a bottle (and the child, having glued these accessories on himself, will feel, if not God, then a creator):
In my opinion, it is a simple, original and beautiful business. Available to any housewife living near a river (sea, ocean).
Promotion of business on bottles of sand
1. At a minimum - Youtube - where you will post your master classes or their excerpts, as well as examples of performing certain works. Such videos are promoted very well and will promote you and your business.
2. Create your own group in social network. You can not only talk about your events, post photos of your work and your videos, but also ask your clients (students) to send photos of their completed work. This process of involvement in filling the group will promote it even more.
3. Cooperation with holiday organizers, wedding planners - with all organizations that entertain people.
4. Your own shelf in the gift shop. Selling your works as souvenirs is also simple. Arrange with local gift shops to have your bottles available for sale. If they sell it - good, if they don’t sell it - you won’t lose anything. From my own experience, I know that there is practically nothing original in our souvenir shops. And you can make each of your bottles original, unique, decorated for the nearest holiday.
Such a bottle, despite its apparent fragility, can last for several years or even centuries (the sand in it is compacted and either poured special glue, or is sealed very tightly so that the sand does not shake). How the works of American artist Andrei Clemens stood for more than 100 years:
5. Participate in city events (those where you can sell your handicrafts) and exhibitions.
This is the outline of the creation and promotion of any handicraft business. There is nothing complicated about this if you love to create, teach other people and spread beauty around you (and, as they would say in Business Youth, “do irreparable good to the world”).
My sister recently returned from Anapa and also brought Russian sand paintings. Made simply like this in a container in which smoked fish (or nuts) are usually sold:
And they are sold for money. That is, even from such drawings at our resorts, people manage to make money.
One of the common souvenirs that tourists bring from Arab countries are bottles in which paintings are made of colored sand. It was in the East that this art appeared many centuries ago and has survived to this day. For Europeans and Russians, this is a real exotic, for which they are willing to pay big money. Therefore, today, at every step in Jordan or Egypt, you can meet craftsmen making intricate paintings in bottles of various shapes from sand using a thin iron stick.
Typically, such bottles contain traditional scenes for those places: camels, palm trees, pyramids, birds, fish. IN Everyday life residents of Arab countries lack bright colors, so they make sand paintings of various colors and shades, skillfully combining the incongruous.
In fact, this is not such a rare art. Today, many in our country have learned to make paintings from colored sand. And by watching a master class on the Internet, you can learn this too.
So, first we prepare the material. Take the most ordinary sea or river sand. It needs to be sifted well on a fine sieve several times. So that there are no stones or debris left. Then it needs to be painted. To do this, pour into glass jars, plastic glasses or jars of sour cream sand. Fill them three-quarters full and fill them with colored water. It is prepared simply: gouache is diluted in water. Don't skimp on paint if you really want it to be bright picture. After the sand is well colored, it must be dried thoroughly.
You can also make the sand golden or silver. To do this, you need to pour it onto a newspaper, level it and spray paint of the desired shade from a can on it. When the paint dries, the sand needs to be mixed well so that it is crumbly and does not form a lump.
By the way, sand can be painted with paint from a printer. And also use semolina, not sand. If you want the paintings to be assembled from large particles, use buckwheat or rice. The cereal is painted using pastel chalk or pencil lead, ground in a mortar or coffee grinder.
Now let's take glass bottle or a beautifully shaped jar made of ordinary white or frosted glass. It should be cleared of labels, washed and dried well. Through a funnel, we begin to pour sand into the container in the desired sequence, shape and thickness. Each layer must be compacted using metal wire and the plots are formed. First you can just do some a simple picture: Simply make colored stripes of different thicknesses. When you have already made several paintings, you can create more complex subjects. The bottles must be handled carefully; if you shake them too much, the painting may crumble.