Make Decorator Quality Twine Wrapped Fruit

I recently came across a box of fake fruit at an auction. Yes, in most people's eyes I am sure it looked tacky. As a matter of fact, I thought it looked tacky too, but I was looking past the ugly appearance and focusing on the potential. The minute I saw the fruit, I knew I had to have it. I calmly waited (in true auction style) for the auctioneer to drop the opening bid to a quarter. Yippee, nobody wanted it. I bid a quarter and it was mine. After my "great" purchase the other buyers at the auction couldn't quite look me in the eye. That's okay, I had a vision and I was excited.

I love to leaf through decorator catalogs, but I am appalled at their prices. I like to challenge myself to come up with something similar for pennies. My fruit was going to become "decorator catalog" worthy. I wrapped the fruit with twine for a natural modern appearance without the gaudy plastic colors. They look beautiful separately, or piled together in a basket.

Things You Will Need:

Fake fruit
Twine or natural jute
Craft glue
Toothpick
Scissors

Step 1
Remove any leaves on the fruit. Apply a dot of craft glue at the base of the stem. Place the end of the twine in the glue and hold with a toothpick until the glue sets up enough to hold. This will only take a few minutes.

Step 2
Apply a quarter i
inch ring of glue around the stem. Slowly rotate the fruit as you lay the twine in the glue. Press down the spiraled twine with your fingers to help it adhere.

Step 3
Continue to add glue and spiral the twine until the entire surface has been covered. Cut the twine on the bottom of the fruit and poke it into the center.

Step 4
If the existing stem is still "plastic ugly", wrap it with brown floral tape. If the stem is missing, drill a small hole into the top of the fruit. Cut a 1-inch section of toothpick and glue it into the hole. Wrap the toothpick with brown floral tape.

Step 5
Cut leaves from burlap using the leaves of the fake fruit as a pattern. Apply a dot of craft glue to the base of the stems where the fake leaves were attached. Set the bottom edge of the leaves in the glue to secure.

Apples and pears have a form that does not change on the sides of the fruit, but bananas have an inner curve and an outer curve. For bananas, scrunch the rows of the spiral together on the inner curve and loosely lay the spirals beside each other on the outer curve. This process will allow the spirals to even out, assuring the spirals on all sides of the banana will align with the bottom stem at the same time.

Grapes are a challenge, but they can be done. Patience is a necessity. I worked each grape in reverse of the previous steps, but I used a dot of hot glue to start the spiral. The hot glue gripped much faster and kept the small rounds of twine from sliding. I started at the bottom of the grapes and wrapped toward the stem.