JYC 9th December

Journal Your Christmas - 9th December 2010
Nuts about Decorations

Today's prompt is about tradition and our walnut shell decorations have become a family tradition over the years.

Sylvia's Set

I made my first set of walnut ornaments many years (20'ish) ago and they have always been popular. I started off with a set of about 12 for our tree. About 10 years later I made three sets of six as Christmas presents for a few friends. Then last year my sister asked if I would make her some, as her tree is all white, silver and pink  decided to pain her set in those colours. I wanted to make a gift for all my special scrapbooking friends at our monthly crop at Cardinal Colours so I asked them all what their Christmas tree colour scheme is, and set to work.

To make these decorations I use Walnuts, carefully split in half with hammer and chisel ( a two person job). Air dry clay such as DAS, hair pins, acrylic paints, gloss varnish and ribbon. Empty egg cartons and some blutac type adhesive is also useful.

clay drying

The half walnut shell is filled with a ball of clay and the pin is pressed into the top and bent over to form a hook. then the character is created with more clay, using just water to hold the pieces together. They need to be left to dry for about 24 hours.

painting in progress

varnished pieces stuck to tray with blutac to dry

One traditional colour set lined up all complete.

Baby Jesus

Cracker

Robin

Santa

Snowman

Second traditional set. These were for Anita and Ange.

Blue and gold set for Chris' white tree.

Blue and silver set for Liz.

Second pink and silver set for Sue.

Here you can see ribbons tied to each hair pin for attaching the decorations to the tree.

Purple and lime green set for Linda

Red and gold set for Wendy

Red and white set for Jill.

Third traditional set for Robert and Elaine.

Hope you all enjoy your decorations for many years to come. xxx