Nature tree overflows with spheres

Dear readers: Finishing up our series on themed Christmas trees, another of our favorite subjects to explore is what we call woodland, though the possibilities are so inclusive that the finished creation can easily morph into a garden, forest or perhaps even a meadow look.

As always, lights are the first consideration. Although we used the small white lights this year, blue lights can be extremely dramatic and effective on this type of tree, especially if you are adding artificial floral material in the dark blue, mauve and purple range.

Natural and nature are the watchwords for this theme.

For our tree, we filled in the branches with every imaginable type of organic sphere.

I am somewhat sphere obsessive. If it is round and covered with something interesting, I usually end up with it, so we had a huge variety to chose from.

Whether you're looking for handmade paper, furniture, fabric or accessories, you will find it at loose ends. If it is unusual, organic and fabulous, then loose ends is the place. Showroom hours are 8 am to 5 pm weekdays and the first Saturday of each month 10 am - 3pm at 2065 Madrona Ave. SE, Salem, or visit us online at www.looseends.com Questions? Give us a call at (503) 390-2348.

If you want to make your own organic spheres, they are easy, fun and a great excuse for gathering up all kinds of leaves, grasses, pods, seeds and what-have-you. Some foam balls, a bit of white glue and a glue gun and you’re in business, limited only by your own gatherings and imagination.

Although most of our spheres were covered in various forms of flora, we also popped in a few quail egg spheres, covered in broken bits of real eggshell. The brown and white speckles added a touch of lightness to our basic color pallet of darker forest shades.

If patience is one of your virtues (or if you wanted to view the activity as therapy), you could make these yourself. It would be quite tedious but certainly doable.

We also added clusters of paper grapes in dark shades of brown and purple.

To contrast with the large amount of round shapes, we tucked in different stick bundles.

Again, these are easy to make yourself if you want to gather the material. Simply bundle up small sticks or twigs of a similar type and size into bundles about 1 to 2 inches thick. Rubber bands at both ends covered with raffia will keep them tightly bunched.

Then we returned to the round shape with sprigs of dried berries.

Now that we had our basic body, it was time to add the sparkle and the finishing touches. Branches of dried leaves, spray painted gold, were allowed to protrude beyond the evergreen branches, and tiny twig bundles were gilded to add more punch. Long stalks of foxtails (a dried grain) formed a wonderful, natural plume of a tree topper. We left these natural, but they would have been very effective spray painted gold or copper.

For our final touch, and because we always like something a bit unexpected on our trees, we dangled gold, glass beaded window tassels from the evergreen’s tips. More appropriate to a Parisian drawing room than the great outdoors, it added just the perfect touch of the eccentricity we love.

Sandi Reinke is an author, frequent television guest and lead designer for loose ends (www.loosends.com), a Salem-based interior décor, garden, and casual lifestyle company. To ask Reinke a decorating question, e-mail art@looseends.com or mail her at the showroom address, 2065 Madrona Ave. SE, Salem, OR 97302. Phone: 503-390-2348.

We could go on and on about themed trees. Something like potato chips, no one can be satisfied with just one (or two or five).

Time and space do not permit, but we also just had to have a Renaissance tree this year. Covered with gaudy, gilded ornaments, it is a great theme to play with, especially for those of you who love antiques, as many of your own treasures will tuck in nicely with this look.

And what about trees that we thought about but didn’t do, like a toy tree with all of your daughter’s favorite stuffed animals or son’s action figures peeking out?

For those of you that enjoy memory books, why not laminate some of your family’s photos and make a memory tree?

Wouldn’t Fido like his own tree full of dog biscuits, rawhide bones or maybe catnip toys for Tabby?

How about a tree festooned in nothing but one type of faux flower, maybe roses or poppies?

On one of our trips to the Orient, we saw a lovely and fragile tree filled with tiny silver lights and a fabulous collection of rare and unusual chopsticks, knotted in pairs with natural raffia and tucked and tied into the branches. It was quite magical.

Do you collect something, if so, how could you utilize it into your holiday decorating? Theme trees can and should reflect your own interests and lifestyle.

I hope this three-part series has whetted your imagination and your desire to do something personal and maybe a bit different this year.

You will find that once you get started thinking like this and maybe even create a theme tree, just like those chips, you probably won’t be able to stop with just one.
December 10, 2008