Nuts and seeds

Around this time every year, my mind starts to drift toward making Christmas ornaments.  After my mother’s beautiful antique ornaments were stolen, I didn’t have the heart (or the money) to try to replace them — and anyway they weren’t replaceable. All those memories.
And since I enjoy handcrafts I started making my own ornaments.  In the past few years they’ve been mostly paper ornaments, and of course, they’ll still go on display when I set up my Christmas corner.

But I’ve also used seeds and pods from nature as well — nothing fancy, just spraying them gold or silver. (See this post about a hasty “tree”) Since moving to this house, with my beautiful silver princess gum tree (E. Caesia) in the front, I’ve  been using the lovely natural silver gum-nuts.

I had to get the tree pruned recently as some of the branches were interfering with the power lines, but the arborist did a lovely job and the tree still looks beautiful. 

Still, quite a few branches were removed, and I collected the slender whippy ones to make wreaths from, and of course, the silvery gum-nuts as well. My friend, Carol had asked me to save some for her, so I picked out the best ones for her and put the rest out on the nature-strip (the bit of lawn between the footpath and the road.) By the end of the day they’d all gone. Clearly I’m not the only person who thinks they’re beautiful.

Then I saw on the web that people were selling plaster and ceramic gum nuts for Christmas decorations — and not that cheap, either. Crazy. Long before I had my silver princess tree, I used to collect gum-nuts and other seeds and pods from the ground underneath the trees in parks — never from natural forests, only from parks — and spray paint them for Christmas.

There are so many different seeds and pods to choose from. The photo on the right has been on the internet for years — just a simple bunch of gum-nuts painted bright red. Pretty and effective, and something the kids could easily do, as well.

A friend of mine used to teach in a primary school and one year they collected the seed pods of the “spider eucalypt” (E. conferruminata, also known as Bushy Yate) and painted them with bright poster paints — just one color per pod.

Every Christmas she’d put hers along her window sill, bright and festive and unique and attractive. The photo on the left is the pod of a spider eucalypt — you can imagine how half a dozen would look painted, each one in a bright primary color and spaced along a white windowsill, can’t you? I’ve been keeping my eye out for a bushy yate ever since.

There are ideas all around you if you look — pine cones are classic, and so are acorns. But  also banksias, casuarinas and many different kinds of gum nuts and native seed pods. The dead fronds of my tree-fern are particularly beautiful, curling into long, elegant, ornate coils. I wish I’d brought more from my old home, but of course I was expecting to be able to move the whole tree fern here. sigh.

All kinds of seed and dried flower heads can look stunning. Think of dried oriental poppy heads, or the plant called “honesty”, with its delicate papery windows enclosing the seeds. (Pic on the right) So pretty, and of course I wouldn’t spray paint them.

I really only spray paint things to show off their gorgeous textures, like the two little banksia pods below — one natural and untouched and the other with some silver paint just rubbed over the outside.

I’ve also seen some simple but lovely ornaments and a pretty mobile made with a few beads and dried gingko leaves.

Some are au naturel, and some have been painted gold or silver. Ginkgo leaves look like large maidenhair fern leaves and are most attractive. Autumn leaves can also be preserved with  glycerine. Google the process. I’ve never done it but it looks simple enough.

And yesterday at a lunch I attended a simple, attractive,  centrepiece had been made with a few leaves and flowers of a bottlebrush plant in a small bowl.

So, what about you? Do you collect things from nature to decorate your house at this time of year. Do you make your own ornaments or do you have a special family ritual with ornaments. (And sorry, I know it’s ridiculously early to be talking about Christmas, but my tree had to be pruned and there were the silver gum-nuts and so . . . )