JEWELLED CHRISTMAS TREE
Year’s ago I saved an idea I once saw on Pinterest. I was so attracted to this old fashioned looking, framed Christmas tree but since I always seemed to be busy with my weekly routines/work I never made the time for it.
Well Covid gave me all the time I needed this past summer so I spent many hours trying to gather old jewelry….especially earrings from the 1950’s or thereabouts. I asked my sisters to look for them at antique stores (which is one of their/our favourite haunts), asked my Mum for any jewelry she didn’t want, and I looked through my own stash too and came up with some pieces that I’d actually worn as a child! I too looked in our big antique mall and found the delightful bird brooches on the upper sides of the tree. Finally, I did the garage sale/V.V. thing until I felt I had enough to make the size tree I was looking to create.
I found the frame at an antique store in Lac La Nonne, and amazingly it was the exact right size . I went to Fabric Land to buy some surprisingly expensive velvet for the background. But I felt I needed that ‘rich’ look to compliment all the sparkling jewels.
Terry offered to build me a ‘shadow box’ . I was just planning on having the tree open framed but Terry assured me the deeper box was the way to go to keep the jewelry safely protected. And,in order to do this he would need to buy some new tools…(which he was not upset about …ha ha)
So while Terry was creating the beautiful, ‘flocked’ box, I got to work removing every single backing from every single earring or brooch. Youch! That was a bit of work.
Next up I decided to glue tacks onto every piece. This way they would be doubly secure! It was nerve wracking for me to start using the glue as I am ‘glue challenged’ ha ha,and knew I would have strings of the stuff all over the place. But , luckily, I got into a rhythm and was actually very neat and kept the velvet pristine. I also learned to wear gloves so that my fingers weren’t covered with the stuff at the end of the day.
Once the box was completed we took it to friends of ours at Kamena framing to have a piece of glass cut.
How do you like the finished project?
