While browsing through Instagram recently, an ad from Crate and Barrel popped up with a beautiful woven wall art. I have been wanting a new piece of art for a wall in my living room, so I clicked through to see it in more detail. It was a beautiful piece of art, but it also was $300. I’m sure that it was worth the price, but I just thought there must be a way to create my own for less. I started brainstorming ways to create a flat, woven look using natural materials, and while pampas grass and reeds from my yard sounded cool, I didn’t think they would actually work. Not to mention the fact that I would need about a million pieces to fill the size I wanted.

That got me thinking about natural fibers, and I realized that raffia comes in large strands, is much easier to obtain, and can be used well for woven pieces.

This led to searching on Amazon for thicker raffia, and lo and behold, I found that there is such a thing as paper raffia. It comes in a spool and is made from paper. The paper can even be spread apart to create a larger width. Bingo! This is just what I was looking for! I ordered a bunch and the rest is history.

Supplies

One note about raffia: it comes in three forms. Real, natural raffia comes from a raffia palm tree and is the typical kind you would buy at a craft store. Paper raffia is made from paper and usually comes in a spool. Synthetic raffia is usually made from rayon and is shiny and doesn’t bend well. I would avoid the synthetic kind for this project. It doesn’t have the natural look and it is not easy to work with. Be careful when ordering online because it is often hard to tell if it is synthetic from the photos!

Paper Raffia - You can use natural raffia, but it is thinner so the process would take much longer. Here are a few of the paper varieties that I bought from Amazon. Blush, Mint, Colorful Multipack, Hot Pink, Kraft, White.
Picture Frame - I used a poster frame from Amazon because I wanted it large (and this one was only $19!), but you can use any size.
Hot Glue

How To

I put together a video tutorial to show the step by steps for this raffia wall art. It’s really an easy process!

Once you start exploring the many ways you can use raffia in crafts, you’ll want to use it all over the place! I tried my hand at paper raffia pom poms, and they turned out so well!

One tip for raffia pom poms is to use hot glue after you have cut them from the pom pom maker. Because raffia is so wiry, it will fight making a round shape. Place a little hot glue around the center string and glue the two sides together around that center string. You want to cover up that center string as much as possible, as this will make the pom pom look more round.

And we can’t forget the raffia wreath that I made a few months ago! You can find the tutorial for this wreath HERE on my website and you can find my YouTube tutorial HERE.