My Blessing Tree for Thanksgiving

      This year I decided to craft a "Blessing tree" or as some folks might call it a "Thanksgiving tree." I took the opportunity of using branches my husband trimmed from our overgrown fire bushes this month. These branches needed to be reinforced with wire and masking tape so that they could hold the weight of ornaments. 

      This is actually a very easy process if you have a proper pair of wire cutters. Simply bend your wire to match the curves of the branches and then twist the masking tape around both the wire and branch firmly. Then use a decorative paper to wrap the branches with while applying white glue along the length of every branch.
      I brushed on a second coat of glue and let the branches to dry completely before displaying them along with a store bought branch that I had purchased for it's silk autumn leaves. If I had purchased more than one of these prefabricated branches, my project would have cost more than I had budgeted for. Besides, I think that my Thanksgiving ornaments will look nicer among the bare branches. 

      I also covered the prefabricated branch with the same paper and white glue in order to give a cohesive look to my display.

Left, the fancy brown paper I selected to paper mache my branches with. Center, the wired branches in progress. Right, the lovely silk, Autumn leaves attached to my one prefabricated branch. I purchased this one from Hobby Lobby.

I decided to set my Fall display with Indian corn, a few Shaker boxes and some very large pine cones.

Here is my final result. I will post more pictures here as soon as I have decorated this little Blessing tree.

Left, My Blessing tree for Thanksgiving 2014. Center, Glass blown cross painted in copper, there are 3 on this tree. Right, My husband added a delicate bird's nest to the arrangement for luck which is a German tradition.

      "My name is Sarah Noëlle and this is my cover of Robert Robinson and John Wyeth's hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (1757). I was given the opportunity to sing this song at my sister's wedding and I fell in love with it!" (What a lovely voice this young lady has!)

Related Links:

• A Thanksgiving Tree Prayer by Mary Caroline Merrick 
• You can visit my Easter pages to see an Egg tree that I made with a similar process here.

Craft Cinnamon And Spice Dough Ornaments

      I found this cinnamon dough recipe on the internet and used it to mold leaves and acorns for my Thanksgiving Blessing Tree. Their spicy smells remind me of apple cider, pumpkin pie and cinnamon infused maple flavored cookies and candies.

Left, the mold that I used was plastic. Molds like these may be easily purchased in your local hobby store. Right, you can see what my molded acorns and leaves look like after these have hardened in the oven.

I tied the acorns and fall leaves made from cinnamon dough
together with a brown and white cotton ribbon. I will hang
these aromatic molded pieces from a Blessing tree this fall.

Supplies:

• 1 cup cinnamon
• 1 cup applesauce (drained through a fine mesh sieve)
• 2 Tablespoons of white school glue
• wire and ribbon for hanging
• Tools you will need include: wax paper, glass bowl, rolling pin, counter or chopping block and molds or cookie cutters.

Directions:

1. Mix together 1 cup of cinnamon, 1 cup of drained applesauce and two tablespoons of white school glue. The dough should be a firm consistency. If it is too soft add cinnamon; if it is too dry and doesn't stick together add a bit more glue.
2. You may either roll out the dough between sheet of wax paper before cutting it with a cookie cutter or you can press dough directly into a plastic mold and then remove it immediately to dry on a cookie baking sheet. 
3. I put my molded leaf and acorn shapes into a 200 degree oven to dry out. This took approximately one hour and thirty minutes. The length of time needed to dry out the molded cinnamon dough ornaments depends upon the humidity of the room and the amount of heat used inside the oven. The thickness of your ornaments will also predetermine the amount of time needed to dry out the ornaments.
4. I poked a small hole into each of my molded pieces before drying them out so that I could string them together afterwards.
5. Shape and insert thin wires into the holes provided for hanging. 
6. Tie on the ribbon. 

More Aromatic Ornaments:

• Chai Tea and Salt Dough and Whole Spice Ornaments
• Making Dried Fruit Christmas Ornaments
• Orange Rind Blossoms and Pine Cone Strung on a Garland

Aromatic Wreaths and Center Pieces:

• Fragrant Fruit Wreath
• Apples, Pine Cones and Acorns on A Wreath

Christmas Crafting with Wheat: Pasting and Weaving

pasted wheat bell

        Straw patchwork, shown left and below, is a Chinese folk art that dates back to the Han Dynasty (250—230 CE) and developed during Sui Dynasty of 581—618 CE. During the Song Dynasty (960—1127 CE), straw patchwork was enjoyed by royalty. Wheat straw is smoked, steams, whitening, dyed, cut, and altered in a myriad of procedures to fashion delicate representational works. Today wheat straw patchwork is a decorative art and popular item for tourists to China. Above I have included a variety of photographs depicting straw patchwork used to create Christmas ornaments for the Western Christmas markets by Asian countries like China, Japan, and Taiwan.

Left, Santa Claus and Right, a rooster are both made with split, dyed and pasted straw.

A vintage, Christmas giraffe ornament made by pasting dyed wheat in layers. Made by Asian industry for an American market, the design is Western. The giraffe motif is likely influenced by an antique carousel.

This straw patchwork ornament took it's design from a Trogen horse.

       Straw plaiting is a method of manufacturing textiles by braiding straw. It is plaited to produce products including straw hats and ornaments, and the process is undertaken in a number of locations worldwide. Straw can be plaited for a number of purposes, including: the crafting of a paper-making material, for ornamenting small surfaces as a "straw-mosaic", for plaiting into door and table mats, mattresses and for weaving and plaiting into light baskets and to create artificial flowers. Straw is also plaited to produce a variety of Christmas ornaments like those shown below. 

 

      "A Year of Swedish Slöjd (Handcraft)" at the American Swedish Institute is a multi-dimensional project funded in part by the Minnesota State Arts Board through a Folk and Traditional Arts grant. In a series of youth and adult workshops, participants worked together with guest artists from throughout Minnesota, creating beautiful and functional objects out of ceramic tile, wood, birch bark, glass, wire, wheat, and felted wool. The instructor of the Wheat Weaving workshops was Carol Tamte. This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008."

traditional straw ornament designs

More European Wheat Work on The Web:

• Article from the Nordic Needle
• Examples of Flat Polish Straw Stars 
• Scandinavian Christmas Magic at the Ekenäs castle
• Putting out the hare, putting on the harvest knots
• Neil Thwaites - The Corn Dolly Man
• The Guild of Straw Craftsmen - Links
• Simple Raffia Braids

Straw Weaving Projects for The Christmas Tree:

• Wheat Weaving: Getting Started Basics
• Wheat Weaving: Easy Harvest Braid
• Wheat Weaving: Heart-shaped wedding favor
• Wheat Weaving: Love Knot
• Making a traditional Corn Dolly at the Somerset Rural Life Museum
• Wheat Harvest: Make House Blessing
• Make a Tied Straw Christmas Tree
• Craft Traditional Tied Straw Stars
  

Inspired by Old-World Beaded Ornaments

I beaded the ornaments above on long, straight lengths of wire first and then shaped them around cookie cutters. Their simple shapes were inspired by antique beaded ornaments that I had seen on ebay.

1939 beaded ornaments handmade from Poland.

Old World Beaded Christmas Ornaments:

• How to make beaded snowflower
• Creating a Star Ornament
• How to make a beaded Christmas snowflake
• Several lovely bead designs for your Christmas tree

"To weave such star you'll need seed beads (for example, size 10-11), beads with diameter of about 2-4 mm, bugles of two sizes (long and short), fishing line with diameter of about 0,15 mm or fireline and beading needle size 11-15. Take of about 1 meter of thread (fireline), put both its ends through the needle eye and follow the cartoon. You can see my other cartoons here: http://katenkin-biser/lessons/indexen... You can buy my patterns here: http://www.bead-patterns.com/shop/sho..."

Turned, Wooden Christmas Ornaments from My Own Collection

Here is a selection of miniature, wooden Christmas ornaments from my own collection.
I picked these up in a box for $1.50 during a garage sale.
I usually hang ornaments such as these from tabletop Christmas trees.

Left, an elf riding a green wooden sleigh. Right, a wooden reindeer pulls an
old-fashioned country sled.

Wooden train engines and planes were also popular themes in mass produced
wooden Christmas ornaments during the 1950s.

Mr. and Mrs Claus the North Pole and a rocking horse made from wooden parts
 for the Christmas market place. Ornaments such as these were often sold through
 JCPenny, Mongomery Wards and Woolworth Christmas catalogs during the
mid 20th century.

Three views of a wooden soldier riding a white hobby horse and carrying a sword.

Soldiers, Mrs. Claus and ice skater all made from turned and flat wooden
pieces glued together in an Asian factory.

Angel and two snowmen made from turned wooden parts.

I believe this little wooden cow with fine detailed miniature
parts is from Germany.

Read More About Traditional Christmas Wooden Crafts in Germany:

• What Are Weihnachtspyramide?
• The Toymakers of The Ore Mountains

View More Wooden Christmas Ornaments:

1. A Wooden Parade 
2. Wooden soldier riding horseback 
3. A tree full of small wooden figures  
4. Vintage wooden ornaments from Laurel Leaf Farm

Christmas Crafts Made With Wooden Ornaments:

1. Vintage Wooden Ornament Wreath
2. Wooden Christmas Ornament Tree

Mystery of the Incarnation

"The mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:25-27

Agnus Dei graphic from Christian Clip Art
Review.

      "For the sun to fall from it's sphere and be degraded into a wandering atom, for an angel to be turned out from heaven and be converted into a fly or a worm, had not been such abasement, for they were but creatures before, and so they would abide still, though in an inferior rank. But for the Infinite, glorious Creator of all things to become a creature is a mystery exceeding all human understanding." John Flavel

"A Little Child Shall Lead Them"

       Christmas is the apotheosis of enfeeblement. It is the exaltation of childhood. It is the glory of the little child.
       We celebrate this festival in bleak December, the uncrowned month in our northern zone, lighting its dull skies by the eternal fires of love in human hearts.
       There is not in all this land a home where rain beats through the roof, where the mother and father gather the children more closely to shelter them, but the Christmas truth is shining, "Blessed are the poor."
       There is not a homeless boy who in the December night creeps out of the snow into an empty dry goods box in the alley, not a little fellow up under the rafters of the poor house on the county farm, not a foundling left in a basket at the rich man's door, not a shivering, tiny girl unfitted for a flight with the storm, but the new truth of the Christmas spreads its wings over them.
       "When I am weak, then am I strong." Who is weak? Who is infirm upon his feet and walks with a crutch? Who is afraid of the northeast wind? Who says: "I am better; yes, I think I am getting better. But somehow I do not get my vigor back?" Who leans up against the bale of goods in the half hidden counter and knows that she came back to work too soon? Who was born blind?
       To all of you the Christmas has its meaning. There never was a conqueror like the child in the cradle. God hath chosen the weak things to confound the mighty. For 2,000 years the history of the world's civilization has been the story of the gentler virtues, the poem, the song and the triumph of suffering well. The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Every letter of that sentence is eternally true.
       The grandest things that were ever done on earth were done by men and women who had the spirit of the child. The sublimest work of the Creator is the sweet-faced little child, heaven please --all harvests, all gold, all schools, all trade, all government, all the coming better times. Christmas means, "And a little child shall lead them." Emory J. Hayne

Bring love, true love, and lay it at His feet...

A Christmas Hymn by Richard Watson Gilder

Tell me what is this innumerable throng

Singing in the heavens a loud angelic song?

These are they who come with swift and shining feet

From round about the throne of God the Lord of Light to greet.

Oh, who are these that hasten beneath the starry sky,

As if with Joyful tidings that through the world shall fly?

The faithful shepherds these, who greatly were afeared

When, as they watched their flocks by night, the heavenly 

host appeared.

Who are these that follow across the hills of night

A star that westward hurries along the fields of light?

Three wise men from the cast who myrrh and treasure bring

To lay them at the feet of Him, their Lord and Christ and 

King.

What babe new born is this that in a manger cries?

Near on her bed of pain his happy mother lies.

Oh, see The air is shaken with white and heavenly wings,

This is the Lord of all the earth; this is the King of kings.

Tell me, how may I join in this holy feast

With all the kneeling world, and I of all the least?

Fear not, O faithful heart, but bring what most is meet;

Bring love alone, true love alone, and lay it at His feet.

Coming to Magdeburg 2015