Christmas Table Centre Piece - A little bit of nature indoors
Hurrah! I have officially finished work for 2014! Work has been crazy busy for me the last few weeks, so now that I have finished I am left with this surreal end of term feeling. I have got a little bit of time to get Christmassy and get some home-made finishing touches underway. Having a fake tree, I always feel I am missing out on honouring the season and bringing a little bit of nature indoors. So every year I have a stab at creating an indoor arrangement, claiming I am going for the naturalistic look, to hide my obvious lack of flower arranging skills.
This year as well as my random flower arrangement, I have made a Christmas table centre piece (design courtesy of Kirsty Allsop). I'm not lucky enough to have any holly in the garden, mind you in my experience the pain of working with it, it isn't worth it anyway. So instead I used some of my Skimmia japonica, a wonderful sturdy shrub with waxy leaves and a generous crop of red berries. It also has a spicy scent and, probably by association, always reminds me of Christmas. I don't feel bad raiding this shrub because there are always loads of berries that don't seem to be touched, so I'm not depriving the local bird population of a meal. Even so I always feel I have to thank the plant. I don't know why but there are some plants, my bay tree being another, that I feel I have to thank when taking material, it must be my inner hippy! So after making my pleases and thank-yous, I look for something additional to make the framework. Ivy is the perfect plant, with long flexible strands that can be easily woven together and I don't feel the urge to be that grateful and thank it, as it pulls half the rendering off my back wall during collection.
1. Make a simple hoop shape by weaving the strands of Ivy
2. Weave in the skimma or plants of your choice to give a fuller shape and some colour. I have used some gold coloured florists wire but you could use common or garden green garden wire.
3. Space some clip on candle holders, I always think odd numbers look better. Then, because I like a little bit of extra bling, using acrylic gold paint, highlight the edges of some of the leaves, or use to pick out the veins in the Holly leaves. I decided against the raffia, as it is possibly a bit dodgy with naked flames but opted for a red Christmassy ribbon. I save any ribbons and decorations from chocolates and gift sets of smellies, that I might have been lucky enough to be given, for these sort of things.
4. When you are happy with the arrangement, add candles and a Christmas dinner!
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