Backyard Entreprenuer^TM

Twig Twister

A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong. -- Tecumseh Shawnee Chief

Make money working from home making furniture, wreaths, garlands, and garden art from twisted twigs. 

Make Furniture

Does your yard collect lots of twigs, sticks, pine cones, and pine needles? Gather up that pesky clutter and turn it into beautiful crafts!  Plant trees to cultivate into garden art.  Willow trees grow wild, especially along river banks.  They grow towards water, especially weeping willows, and they might invade your underground septic system or water pipes.  So be careful where you plant them.  Bamboo is also invasive, except for the clump variety.

Bamboo or willow are good materials to use for furniture because they are beautiful and fast-growing.  Find someone who lives in the country and has access to a supply for you.  Or advertise that you are in need of supplies.  Find out more about bamboo on our Birdscape Landscaper page. Turn the twigs into furniture for indoors or outdoors use.  Sell a sturdy chunk of wood with a small, sturdy clipped branch sticking out as a wall hook. Make small twig trees with lights as decorations for holidays. Create your own line of drawer pulls using chunks of wood with holes drilled through for a screw.  Sell with the right size screw attached.

You can intertwine pieces of grapevine to make these twig balls as great pet toys. Use several grouped together as a table decoration or ornaments to hang from trees.

Make Garden Art

This is a wonderful entrepreneurial idea because the supplies are mostlyfree.  You are limited only by your imagination.  Once you get started making items out of twigs, more ideas will come to you.

 Make Wreaths and Garlands

We hang wreaths on our front doors to say "Welcome". Every house in America needs one.  So does every classroom and administrativve office in the public schools in America. This is your market.  Make one wreath and sell it with little packages of decorations suitable for different occasions. You might make up a list of decorating themes even though you do not provide decorations for each one. For example, the "Welcome Back to School" wreath would have a package of decorations like a little school bus, markers, pencils, crayons, a tiny book, but it would not include  cards with the names of all the students enrolled in that 4th grade class.  The teacher would make that one up. She would hang each name around the wreath. You might include decorations for ten or twelve holidays or themes, but list many others.  You might look up the date the school first opened and have decorating pack for that. The teacher can use the wreath for announcements such as "Test Tomorrow".   Wreaths hanging on each door of the school, makes it a cozier and more welcoming place -- just as the wreath on our front door makes visitors feel welcome.  Sell garlands to hang over and around doors.

Here are some other items you can make out of twigs: 

Tree ornaments
Baskets
Birdfeeders
Lamp shades
Blinds (bamboo works for this one as well)
Floor mats (bamboo works for this,too)
Fire starters (sticks and pine cones)
Sculptures
...and anything else your imagination leads you to create!

© Backyard Entrepreneur^TM 2007

Link to us.  Contact us if you wish to have your site listed here as a resource in Twig Twister or related areas.

Here are some resources to help you get started:

Links

Books

Equipment

Furniture

cat tree furniture

Instructions

Make a bamboo fence or trellis

Make willow twig furniture

 Kit

Magazines