Walnut shell crafts: A mixed bag

Here's a weird craft I can't quite wrap my head around. There is an entire segment of crafting with walnut shells. Certainly one big hurdle I have, on my way to understanding walnut shell crafts, is my immediate reaction to an empty walnut shell: "That is compost."

I have the same problem with toilet paper tube crafts, eggshell crafts, and the like. I applaud people's dedication to reusing things that would otherwise enter the waste stream. But still: You're starting your craft with a bit of garbage. Surely an inauspicious start.

(The obvious exception here being crafts for kids. Who wants to spend a lot of money on crafting supplies for kids? You're better off setting them at the recycling bin to see what they come up with.)

Image courtesy Flickr/Lif...

The other notable fact of walnut shell crafts is that they tend toward the overly twee and cutesy. How could it be otherwise? A walnut shell is small. You're going to be making miniature things with it. And miniature things can be a little bit too cute sometimes.

It's tough to find the line here. Walnut shell candles: Cute, or TOO cute? Actually I think these are just plain cute. (Although they strike me as being somewhat impractical. Burn time must be about five minutes, and it seems like they would be likely to tip and wobble and drip wax all over the table.)

"Tiny needle-felted things inside a walnut shell" is totally its own subgenre. Again: cute, or TOO cute? Personally I think "too cute" here. There are a lot of things (including needle-felted knitting supplies, needle-felted babies, and needle-felted mice) sitting inside walnut shells for no real reason except that they fit there.

Image courtesy Flickr/Wendy Copley

These tiny walnut shell boats are the bomb, though. They really float, so you and the kids can take them to the lake or a nearby stream, or just use them in the bath. I would have been all over that action when I was a kid!

Main image courtesy Flickr/merwinglittledear