Creating a Christmas Garland from Walnut Shell Slices

Walnut garlands can be strung on a tree and used year after year. You need to use the walnuts that have dark shells, the black walnut also called the American walnut. The light colored shell English walnut won’t work for this project. The hardest part of this entire project is cutting the shells of the walnut. The meats of the walnut can be used in cookies, so they don’t go to waste. I have yet to figure out something that pecan shells will make. I’d rather have those meats left over, as I’m not much of a walnut fan.

With your coping saw, the one that looks like a cheese cutter, cut a walnut parallel to the natural seam, into slices 1/4 inch thick. If you are going to make a walnut garland, do quite a few. It takes about 30 to make a decent sized garland. Pick out any meats and save it for cooking later. There may be other waste material in the cut shell; you need to eliminate that also.

If you already cut the walnuts then the rest is a piece of cake. Spray the walnut slices with acrylic spray and allow them to dry. You can make a slightly different pattern by dying the slices in clothing dye or painting them. I like the natural look. Let them dry thoroughly if you dye them before spraying.

You need 3 to 4 yards of 1/8-inch ribbon, plain white cord or cord with wire on the inside. I do admit the plain ribbon flopped a little more than the one made with the reinforced cord, but I still like the looks more. Cut the ribbon in 2 equal sections. Use one ribbon and insert up through the back of one of the holes in the shell center and down through the hole at the other side. Do the same for second piece of ribbon, only in the opening next to the first ribbon. You now have two ribbons going through the shell.

Here is the part that I changed from the original directions I used. I used a small dot of glue to the back of the walnut shell at four places to stick it to the ribbon. The glue gun is best and I haven’t tried regular glue so I can’t make a judgment call. The instructions made no mention of glue but every night I would readjust the shells so they were perfect. Finally one night I took the whole garland off the tree and glued each one down. I could finally breathe easier. The decision is yours and will depend on how nutty you get about the decorations.

About two inches from the shell overlap the ribbon so they’ve changed sides and two inches later add another shell. Here again I used the glue gun. This one was probably not necessary, and even may look better with out it, but I had the garland off and didn’t want to take any chances that it I would need to do it again.

Tie the two ends together in a knot about 4 inches after the last nut slice and tie the other end and you have a beautiful garland for your tree.