How to Clean Pine Cones for Crafts (3 Easy Steps!)

There are so many creative ways to use pine cones in your crafting, wedding, home decor and more. If you’re wondering how to clean pine cones for crafting, you’ve come to the right place. Whatever your inspiration, we’ll show you a simple and natural way of pine cone cleaning before you start your craft.

How to Clean Pine Cones for Crafting

We love to create rustic decor and crafts using pine cones, such as our DIY wall hanging and our easy DIY burlap wreath. Or create pretty pine cone roses or pine cone flowers for Halloween with them. We even have a whole collection of pine cone Christmas crafts you can make!

We take our cones pretty seriously as we’ve been selling beautiful Canadian pine cones in our Etsy shop for a couple of years now. Over that time we’ve collected and cleaned thousands of pinecones!

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Do pine cones need to be cleaned?

It’s a good idea to always clean pine cones to ensure they are free of dirt, insects or other clippings and debris. This is particularly important if you are planning to use them in tablescape projects such as a centerpiece, place card holders or napkin weights. 

You can check out how we recently used them to make DIY pinecone pineapple party decorations.

Pine cones make great accessories for rustic weddings, supplies for stunning DIY pine cone wreaths and can even be used for practical reasons, such as campfire starters!

When is the Best Time to Collect Pine Cones?

It might surprise you, but pine cones aren’t readily available all year-round. We have the best luck collecting ours in the late spring and early summer when they’re most abudant.

If you have the option, consider collecting them right off the tree rather than after they fall, as they’re likely to be cleaner. Pine cones that stay on the ground start to change color and collect dirt. 

And if you’re going pine cone collecting, wait for a dry day. Pine cones close up with moisture, making them more difficult to find and collect.

Now that you’ve got your pine cones, let’s get them cleaned.

Supplies Needed for Cleaning Pinecones:

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• Pine cones
• Scrubbing Brush*
• Dish washing detergent
• Warm water
• Cookie baking sheet
• Parchment paper

How to Clean Pine Cones:

1. Using a coarse brush, scrub away at and in between the scales of the pine cone to loosen the seeds and remove grass and needles.
   
2. If your pine cones have a lot of dirt and dust on them, you may want to wash them as well. Pine cones will close up when wet, so you’ll want to work quickly in small batches. Add the pine cones to a small bucket filled with warm water and a bit of dish washing soap. Before they have a chance to close up, scrub away the dirt. (Note: the pine cones will open back up on their own after 1-2 days).
3. Line a flat baking sheet with parchment paper. Place a single layer of scrubbed (and washed, if applicable) pine cones on the lined baking sheet. Preheat oven to 220 degrees F. Bake the pine cones for 25-30 minutes (Note: oven temperatures vary so ensure to closely monitor the pine cones while baking in the oven.).
   

If you’d rather not go through the trouble of collecting and cleaning your own, or if they aren’t readily available to you, you can purchase beautiful cleaned pine cones directly from our Etsy shop.

Happy pinecone crafting (and cleaning)!

Join our crafting community to sustain your craft habit with nature-inspired DIYs and upcycled craft ideas. It feels good to repurpose, upcycle and create with nature!

How to Clean Pine Cones for Crafts (3 Easy Steps!)

Jane and Sonja

There are so many creative ways to use pine cones in your crafting, wedding, home decor and more. Learn how to clean pine cones naturally before crafting!

5 from 6 votes

Print Instructions Pin Craft

Materials

  

• Pine cones
• Scrubbing brush
• Dish washing detergent
• Warm water
• Cookie baking sheet
• Parchment paper

Instructions

 

• Scrub out dirt and seeds with a scrubbing brush.
• If necessary, wash the pinecones in small batches with soap and warm water.
• Bake the cleaned pine cones on a flat baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Oven temperatures vary so ensure to closely monitor the pine cones while baking in the oven.

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