How to Build a Drinking Straw Table

Drinking straws are a popular craft medium for children's projects. While there are many ways of sticking the drinking straws together as you build, including drinking straws, putty, gumdrops and even glue, this project will focus on using modeling clay to hold the straws together. This craft project is suitable for making a table of dollhouse size, or perhaps for a tea party of stuffed animals.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Drinking straws
• Modeling clay
• String

1. Lay your drinking straws out, side by side, until they form a block of straws as large as you want your drinking straw table's top to be.

2. Roll out a 1-inch thick cylinder of modeling clay that's as long as the edges of the table "top" with open straw ends.

3. Press the cylinder in place along the straw ends, making sure each straw is firmly anchored in the clay. Repeat this process on the other side of the straws with another cylinder of clay.

4. Add another layer of straws on top of the first one, placing each straw between the two straws below it. Make sure this second layer of straws is anchored in the clay on both ends.

5. Continue adding layers of straws until your table top is as thick as you're like it to be--two layers should be enough for most tables.

6. Bundle seven straws together, with one straw in the middle and the other six positioned around it, and tie the bundle with string about an inch in from each end. Do this three more times; each bundle will be one leg of your drinking straw table.

7. Roll four small balls of modeling clay and squish them into disc shapes, each about an inch in diameter and 1/4 inch high.

8. Flip the top of your drinking straw table upside down. Place one clay disc about an inch in from each corner of the table.

9. Affix all four legs to the table, one in each corner, by pressing the ends of the straws evenly into the clay discs. Press the extra clay, squeezing out of the discs in place around the legs to help anchor them.

10. Roll and press four more discs, one each on the ends of the table legs, to help hold them together.

11. Allow the modeling clay to dry for several hours or longer, if so directed by the packaging.

12. Set the table upright; the dried clay should hold it together.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure the clay on the bottoms of the legs is completely dry before putting the table on carpet, or the damp clay may stain the carpet.