Ombre Acorn Wall Hanging

I’ve always had a thing for wall tapestries, weavings, and general three-dimensional wall art.  I remember a HUGE three-story rope installation on the walls of the student center back in college.  You’d think a three-story mass of rope would look like a tangled mess but it was so intricate and methodic.  I was probably the slowest person ever going up the stairs next to it.

Until I can someday buy myself a loom, actually have time to learn to weave, or have more house to hang them in, I like to play around with simple wall art out of my favorite natural materials.  Anything to use up more of that driftwood I hoard.

I first posted this guy over at my friend Kristi’s blog, making it in the mountains, back in February.  The heart was a little Valentine’s Day nod but I really think it would be adorable in a little girl’s room or nursery too.  You can of course make this in any shape you wanted to, or in an initial even.

Here are the supplies you’ll need:

Tree branch
Yarn in a gradient of shades (at least three, I did five)
Acorns
Wooden beads (with large holes)
Gold spraypaint (optional)
Ribbon (optional)
Scissors
Hot glue gun

Remove the acorns from their caps and spraypaint them gold (or whatever color you want) then re-insert them into their caps once they’re dry (see this post). Lay them out to figure how many acorns you’ll need, then decide on how many strands of each color yarn you’ll need (same number of each color on each side).  I did three white, four of each shade of pink, and then three grays on each side, but you can do more or less depending on your colors.

It is easiest to work on this while it’s hanging so hang it by the ribbon or balance the branch on something before getting started.  Cut your pieces of yarn, making sure they’re plenty long so that you can still adjust the length when you hang them.  To assemble the acorns, dab a very small amount of hot glue on the cap and stick your piece of yarn in.  Mash the yarn down into the glue (wet that finger first!) to make sure it sticks well, put a little more glue over it if you need to. The wooden beads will cover some of this so it doesn’t have to be beautiful, you just want minimal yarn and glue showing.  Set them aside for a few seconds to dry then slide a bead down onto it.

Working from the middle out, hang your acorns at the length you want them, then either tie your yarn off and cut it or hot glue the end on the backside of your branch.  I hot glued mine.

Continue with your colors, spacing them evenly along the branch.  If you need to reposition one, you can peel the hot glue off and remake that strand.  #ihearthotglue

Tada!  I want to make like eight more of these things :)  It would look great as part of a gallery wall too, or when you have that awkward small wall that just needs something.  I think it’d be really neat to do one with the really big bur oak acorns!