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How to Dry Acorns for Crafts and Decor

Are you ready for autumn? Learn how to dry acorns for your fall projects! Prevent worms and find out how to preserve the acorns for decor.

How to Dry and Preserve Acorns

When fall comes around, I’m ready to go outside and start harvesting natural materials for craft projects. One of my favorite things to find are those big, fat acorns that come from majestic oak trees. In fact, one year I painted them (in my article how to paint acorns for fall).

But what I didn’t realize is that you have to dry them or beasties – i.e. weevil larvae – will crawl out of them. I’m going to show you how to dry acorns for craft projects so that you never have to be grossed out by acorn beasties again.

What I didn’t know – the reason that the acorns you collect on the ground are the worm-y ones is because the squirrels leave them behind. Of course they do. Squirrels are smart and can figure out to how to eat from the most complicated bird feeder. So they’re going to leave the nasty worm nuts behind.

The good news is the weevil larvae can’t hurt you. They don’t bite and they won’t ruin anything in your home if one gets out. However, you don’t want to have to deal with them, so you’ll want to dry them first before crafting with them. Learn how to dry acorns for acorn crafts below!

How to Preserve Acorns

Gather These Supplies

  • Acorns
  • Oven
  • Cookie sheet
  • Bowl of water or colander
  • Mild soap (like dish soap)

Wash Them Off

After harvesting your acorns, put them in a bowl of water to soak or a colander and rinse them. You might want to use an old toothbrush to scrub off any debris, if you have one. Otherwise soaking them in a bowl will remove most of the dirt.

brown acorns on autumn leaves, close up

Let Dry

Spread them on a towel to dry for at least an hour. If any of the nuts look gross after washing and drying, throw them. away.

You might see some acorns with small holes. This is a sign of insects, but drying the acorns will kill them so don’t worry!

Oak acorns top down view. Nature colors of oak seeds. Isolated oak acorns on white background

Bake the Acorns

Preheat your oven to the lowest setting F – mine is 200º so that’s what I did. Lay the acorns in a single layer on a cookie sheet. You’ll want to use a cookie sheet with a lip so none of the acorns roll off.

Place the acorns in the oven on the cookie sheet and leave the door cracked slightly so that moisture can escape.

Check Every 30 Minutes

Check on the acorns every 30 minutes and roll them around a bit. If you see any acorns starting to brown too much, turn the oven off and leave the acorns in there. They will still “cook.”

You’ll want to leave the acorns in the oven for about 1.5 – 2 hours.

Hands-holding-dried-acorns

Remove and Cool

Remove the acorns from the oven and let cool. Throw away any that burned. Now you know how to dry acorns and you can use them in all of your craft projects!

Preserve if Desired

Now, if you want to preserve the acorns, you don’t *have* to do this as they will last a long time just being dried out.

However, if you want to make sure they last for years and years and never fall apart, I recommend giving them a quick spray with a clear acrylic sealer. Blast them, let dry, turn them over, and repeat. That’s about all you need to do!


One of my favorite thing to do with dried acorns is paint them, like I did with this painted display!

How to Paint Acorns for Fall

How to paint acorns for fall

How to Dry Acorns for Craft Projects Story

ALEXANDER

Sunday 20th of November 2022

Amy Hi ,

GOD Gave me an Acron that is very Special to me. As most Acorn Come out of the shell i placed a small drop of crazy glue & placed it back in the shell.

I want to Preserve this Acorn Forever , Cani just spray acrylic over it , Or does it need to be Dried in the Oven? Also if it does need to be dried , what will happen to the acorn with that drop of crazy glue i placed?

Thank You for your help & may GOD continue to bless you always.

Amy

Saturday 26th of November 2022

Hi Alexander! You don't *have* to dry acorns in the oven, it's simply to get out any beasties that might be inside. So you are fine without drying. And yes you can spray acrylic over it! Enjoy.

Kim

Monday 10th of October 2022

Maybe silly question but I've started collecting them for crafts this year some directly off the tree others from the ground. I'm having problems keeping the "hats" on. Is there anyway to aide in preventing them from falling off?

Amy

Sunday 16th of October 2022

Kim yes I have seen that happen and had one or two do it myself. You can glue them down with craft glue I would think. If that doesn't hold, E-6000 will. I don't know that there's anyway you can prevent them from doing it. You kind of have to wait until they do and then fix it.

Linda

Friday 15th of October 2021

Great help

Rea

Saturday 9th of October 2021

thank you for this!! i was planning on making an acorn necklace that my friend suggested we should do together so this is very helpful :) have a great day everyone!

Amy

Sunday 10th of October 2021

Acorn necklace is a great idea! Have fun!

Lawanna S Tootle

Thursday 7th of October 2021

Can't wait to try my hand @ "painting Acorns"! Just love the idea of spraying with Shellac.

Amy

Thursday 7th of October 2021

You will love the results!