Avocado Pit Crafts and Jewelry

To most people, avocado skins and pits go in the trash. But with a bit of creative inspiration, you can turn your avo pits into DIY crafts. Whether making jewelry, chess pieces, or even DIY body scrubs, the possibilities for avocado pit crafts are far from pitiful.

Before you begin, please note that carving an avocado pit can be dangerous and should only be performed by an adult or under adult supervision.

 

Carving Crafts

One of the best ways to make unique trinkets or gifts from avocado pits is carving. Avocado pits are ideal for carving crafts because the pit is soft when fresh but hardens when it dries.

 

So, how do you get the avocado pit out of the fruit? Remove the pit by gently whacking it with a knife and twisting to release it from the flesh. Then, scoop out the creamy tastiness inside, and don’t let all that avocado goodness go to waste! Chop up an avocado fruit salad or mash yourself some delicious taco guacamole!

 

Once you’ve isolated the pit, here’s the hard part: waiting for it to dry and harden for three days or until the thin skin starts to flake off. Don’t leave it for more than two weeks. Too little drying time and it will be too fragile and may crumble; too much drying time and it will become shriveled and solid. Once the thin skin of the pit begins to flake, you’re ready to begin crafting!

Start by removing the skin from the pit. The pit should have a natural seam down the middle. If you want to work with this flat surface, you can split the stone in half to make two different carvings. This technique also works well if you plan to drill a hole through the pit to make a necklace or other jewelry. If you want a challenge, you can break the pit into quarters or even smaller pieces to make beads or small chess pieces.

 

For carving tools, you have options. Try a precision knife or similar blade, or use skewers, screwdrivers, and other sharp-tipped tools to create marks in various shapes and sizes. Try carving faces, animals, fairies and other forest creatures, or flora and fauna. Carve deeply, shaping the pit into a completely new form, or shallowly, maintaining the round shape to create a scene or portrait on its surface.

 

If you cut your avocado too soon, don’t worry. You’ll still be able to eat it in a couple of days if you sprinkle a little lemon juice on it, put the halves back together, cover it in plastic wrap, and let it chill in the fridge.

 

When you have completed your carving, let the finished piece dry and harden for 24 hours or more, checking any small holes and redrilling if they look like they might close. You can finish the surface with avocado oil or another oil for a natural wood look or paint it with lacquer or acrylic color for a bright and shiny finish.

 

 

Avocado Pit Buttons

If carving seems too complex, try avocado pit buttons instead. Split the pit in half, then carefully cut each half into two or three slices. Using a sharp skewer or a small drill, put four holes in the shape of a small square in the center of each slice. Voilà — homemade avocado pit buttons!

 

Avocado Pit DIY Beauty

In a single serving of avocado (1/3 of a medium avocado), there is 6g of good fat, or unsaturated fat, which gives avocado its luxuriously creamy texture. Good fats are essential to our diet because they do not raise LDL (bad) cholesterol levels while helping the body absorb nutrients from our food. Good fats, along with a healthy diet, have a positive impact on the body. So, as you eat your avocado, consider adding it to your skin regimen for the ultimate self-care. The creamy texture of avocados makes them such a good ingredient for things like DIY under-eye care.

 

The “meat” of the avocado is good to promote moisture, but the pit also deserves a spot in your beauty routine as the abrasive in avocado scrubs for your body or feet. You’ll need to dry the pit, just like for carving, before grating it to make an avocado scrub. However, because you have leeway with being less precise in the amount of dryness (it’s going to crumble anyway!), you can afford to speed up the drying process by popping the pit in the oven on the lowest setting at 200 F for two hours.

 

Don’t toss that avo pit — give it a second life with DIY avocado pit crafts!

 

Did you know avocado pits are also edible? Use grated avocado pit to give your mole an earthy complexity.