Making a Dogwood Fish…
Stems of cutback Dogwood are great for weaving! We have been using these instead of twine, for making small plant supports, and for decoration. If you’d like to try making a small fish then follow the instructions below.
- Take your first Dogwood stem and gently bend all along the length following it’s natural curve.
- At the mid point bend more tightly around your thumb to make what will be the nose of the fish. Look at how the stem can make a fish shape, crossing the ends over each other.
- With the thin tip of your next stem slot this under one side and out over the other side of the nose.
- Bend long end of new stem around the first stem back through the middle to get to the other side.
- The long end needs winding around the other side and back through the middle of the fish.
- Repeat winding from side to side.
- Cross the ends of the original stem over each other again to see your fish shape. You can continue filling in with weaving or if you are happy with the half weave then you can start the tail.
- As you did at the beginning, put the thin end of a fresh stem across one end through the middle and out the other side.
- Gently wind this around as before and back through to the other side.
- Keep weaving to fill the tail section of your fish.
- Fish complete – trim long ends leaving a little space for the stems to shrink slightly.
We’ve been making so many fish and stars that we had enough to decorate our pea support…
For star weave instructions click here
Gallery & Videos
Please enjoy our videos of SPROUT around Kirklees:
This one was put together by the talented Bethany McAspurn at Wide Eyed Girl Productions.
This was put together by Sprout participants with the support of Jack Masterson.