Bleaching Pinecones
Let’s try a craft project now that we can go outside, and we can get our hands on BLEACH! It would be nice to have bleached pinecones, thistles, and other items to use this year at the sale. If you have the time and the bleach here’s the steps to bleach the pine cones. If you’d like to experiment with the thistles please do! If you’d like to gather thistles; I’d be happy to pick them up so that I can experiment with them.It doesn’t matter what type of pinecones you use. Gather several different species and sizes each type of pinecone will bleach differently. Just remember bleaching them will not turn them totally white. It’s more of a patina or weathered look (kind of like driftwood).Here are the materials you will need to start our project:¨Pinecones¨Large bucket¨Water¨Bricks or large rocks, something to hold pinecones down¨Bleach (do not use splash free bleach)¨Rubber gloves¨Drop cloth or old sheet
1. Put the pinecones in a large bucket. A five gallon bucket is ideal and suggested. Fill the bucket with water first and then add the bleach. Use a 50/50 part of water to bleach. Don’t asphyxiate yourself do this outside or in a well-ventilated area because of the fumes. We’d like to see you at the next meeting! Make sure you are wearing old clothes that you don’t mind ruining just in case you splash yourself with bleach. Wear rubber gloves to protect your hands since we are used to wearing gloves now.
2. The cones will float so push them back down into the bleach water. Lay the bricks or stones on top of the pinecones. One website suggested cutting or folding up piece of thick cardboard to the top of the bucket and weigh it down with a few large stones or bricks. I used an old plate and put a rock on top. It worked great, it is just finding the right size plate to fit inside the bucket.
3. First, your pinecones will close up, don’t panic! They will reopen after they dry out. Let the pinecones sit a minimum of 24 hours but that did nothing to mine. It was suggested to do 48 hours I did leave mine in for 72 hours. They were perfect but some web sites said that if you left the pinecones in longer, they would disintegrate. I may have just been lucky.
4. Drain the bleach in a safe place. You need to rinse off your pinecones with a hose. I put mine in another bucket hosing them off. I repeated that process 5 times to make sure I rinsed off as much bleach as possible.
5. After I rinsed my pinecones, I placed them on an old sheet to dry and air out for a few days. Remember the pinecones are closed but they re-open as they dry. The colors of your cones will change as they dry. Place them in the warm sun for the best results. It will allow the bleach smell to dissipate somewhat and the sun will help bleach the cones out.
Note: You may also dry them in the oven. If you choose to do this make sure you rinse your cones thoroughly and still air them out for at least 24 hours, this is very important! Put your cones on a cookie sheet preheat the oven to 200-250 for 4-6 hours. This is where rinsing your cones was important because of the smell of them baking. Image that great apple pie baking not bleached pinecones!
Here are a few issues different websites had with bleaching pinecones:
· Pinecones release sap so DO NOT use a sink or bathtub. You could have sticky residue or bleach damage for your vessel of creativity.
· Be careful sorting your pinecones. A few critters including a black widow spider have been reported frolicking amongst the cones of one of the websites. Wear gloves while collecting and sorting pinecones. You can also use metal tongs while sorting and collecting.
· Bleach, bleach and bleach, you can be the most careful person in the world and bleach can wreak havoc on your clothing and your workspace.
Enjoy!
Author: Stacey Ivol, TRGC member