DIY Popsicle Stick & Wooden Bead Trivet

NEW!  Buy the kit! I’m now offering this project in a craft kit! No tools needed, just you and some time!

Recently this photo of my popsicle stick trivet appeared on DIYLife. I was blown away by this and it has inspired me to finally write a tutorial for it.

I originally made a trivet like this when I was 5. My sister and I would walk to a local park on the weekends and do arts and crafts and this was the project one day. The one I made back then had 70s orange wooden beads and we used it almost every night for dinner. I used to love sitting at the table waiting for dinner to be ready and playing with the trivet. I loved how it folded up and made a satisfying splat when I pushed it flat. I’m sure it’s still around but in the shuffle of stuff after my parent’s divorce a few years back I’m not sure where it landed so I decided to make one for my family.

Although I generally knew what to do I started looking on the Internet for tutorials for Popsicle stick trivets and didn’t find much. Eventually, I stumbled on this tutorial that I used as a jumping off point.

How to make a Popsicle Stick Trivet.

Supplies:

• 45 to 50 Popsicle (craft) sticks
• 45 to 50 1/2″ wooden beads
• 45 to 50 1/4″ wooden beads
• 2 yards of 1mm elastic cord (you’ll have extra)

The first and most laborious part is the drilling of the Popsicle sticks. You need to drill three, 1/16″ holes in each Popsicle stick. One hole at 6/16″ another at 2″ and another at 3 3/4″. As I experimented I found that stacking 3 on top of each other works pretty well but once you get higher than that it’s hard for them to stay aligned. I used 45 Popsicle sticks in my trivet but you could use a few more or a few less, whatever works to make a circle.

I put my beads in a bowl so they were a little easier to sort and get at. At this point, you could sort them by size to make it a little easier to put the whole thing together or just leave them all mixed up and sort as you go. I chose the latter method. Finally cut three lengths of elastic 8″, 18″ and 28″.

Putting it all together.

Tie a knot at the end of each of the lengths of elastic and then feed it through a Popsicle stick. Pull the the 8″ length through the hole 6/16″ from the bottom, the 18″ length through the hole in the middle and the 28″ length through the hole at the top. Next, put a 1/2″ bead through the elastic at the top a 1/4″ bead through the elastic in the middle and nothing on the bottom. Thread on the next Popsicle stick and repeat that pattern again until you have a circle.

Once you have added enough Popsicle sticks and beads to make an entire circle, in my case 45, then pull the elastic taught so that there is little to no space between the beads and the Popsicle sticks. Then tie the loose ends to the knotted ends on the first Popsicle stick and you have a finished popsicle stick trivet! If you make the knot small enough it can slip into one of the beads and disappear.

This popsicle stick trivet is a great craft to do with kids because once the drilling is done it’s just assembly. I hope you enjoy this and if you make one I’d love to see some pictures.