Monday, 22 December 2014

Brooching the subject of Christmas



A couple of weeks ago while shopping for something for my great aunt for Christmas I came across a lovely brooch on ebay. I ummed and ahhed about it for a little while before deciding against it but it got me thinking about brooches. I have several lovely ones in my possession that used to belong to my grandmothers, but I never really wear them. I would love to wear them on my camel-coloured A line coat but I’m almost always travelling around London in it so am afraid, in the bustle, that it might be knocked off and lost.
This year I also had a dilemma with my Christmas tree. I’ve moved the living room around to make it more rabbit friendly and my usual tree spot has been taken up by Turner’s cage, so instead of a full sized tree I went for a small, table-top one. This however left me with full-sized baubles appropriate for a full-sized tree but none for the miniature tree that I had brought home. So I’ve had to improvise.
The two quandaries merged in my head and I found the answer to my ‘no small baubles’ problem in my ‘never get a chance to use my brooches’ problem. I made my grandparents’ brooches into temporary Christmas baubles.
I used some of the ribbon left over from last year’s presents, tied a slip knot at one end and a figure of eight at the other. Depending on the shape and set of the brooch I pinned it to the ribbon through the figure of eight knot and then used the slip knot end to tie it to a branch, finishing the knot off in a little bow, to make it look a little less like I had executed them.
I think the end result is quite pleasing.







So there you are, when in doubt, dig out the family heirlooms.

No comments:

Post a Comment