My second wreath on the door; I decided to use this egg design.
For the wreath itself I used the same stapling and wrapping technique that I’m going to post about tomorrow, but instead of lace I used the same garden wire to make a loop. This has to have been the easiest securing technique I’ve used on my wreaths, particularly as when I wanted to add additional leaves in the end I could slip them into the existing wire.
For the egg I’d found a plastic hollow egg and sprayed one side on the inside with gold paint. Once it had dried I glued leaves inside to make a nest shape, weighing it with something heavy to make sure it stuck. Originally I was going to decorate it with three, painted, little blue eggs. However they were made of polystyrene and when they came into contact with the glue they semi-dissolved, they ended up as shrivelled, odd looking things. So instead of them I used these larger, plastic blue eggs. Once they were glued in and the egg sealed I glued them with waterproof glue to the wreath.
If you don’t want to put it on the door it looks lovely on a mantlepiece too.
As I said yesterday I decorated the front of our house with the Easter wreaths yesterday. Well here is the how to for one of them, perhaps you’d like to do one yourself?
You need;
1 (or 2) straw wreath/s
1 (or 2) Bouquet of silk peonies (for the symbolism in the wreath and their Christian meanings take a look at this research post)
2 (or 4) silk, leafy branches
Small toy lamb (and optional rabbit)
Wooden letters J (and optional M)
Gold spray paint (if you have it you may want spray paint primer too and some spray glitter varnish)
Waterproof, superglue (about 1-2 tubes per wreath, depending on the glue size)
White lace (about 1 or 2M)
Strong scissors
Staple gun with large staples
A small box
In a small box put a letter and then spray with gold paint. I often use various size boxes when I’m spray painting as they automatically shield everywhere else from the paint. I’ve suggested spray paint primer if you have it as these letters are not treated, so they’ll soak up your paint and can sometimes make the gold effect uneven (this is my second coat above, and you can see that there). I couldn’t find mine at the time of painting, so resigned myself to this and repainted it several times leaving a long gap between successive coats to ensure it cured properly. I had to do the last as I was spraying quite thickly. I went back and forth between the box and the project, leaving it over night as I had other work to do after the initial planning stage (points 2-5). Then when the letter was gold enough I also added a glitter varnish which has a gold tinge to it to finish it off.
Select ‘off-shoots’ from the leafy branch to form your base – these should be about 3, 4 or 5 leaves, but determine their length based on the branch make up and what they’ll be used for. If you need to use your scissors for this, but I often just twisting and bending works.
Separate all the flowers and divide them into groupings. As you can see I had 3, darker blush peonies as well as 3 light, blush peonies, 2 buds, 2 flower sprays and 3 leafy sprigs. By separating the flowers it’s easier to see how best to arrange them on the wreath.
I often start by laying out the arrangement so I have an idea where everything is going to go, although I adapt when I actually make the wreath. The first step to this is to arrange the leafy branches around the outer circle of the wreath and then the inner. To add a little interest I also arranged the flower prays and leafy sprigs to the external wreath, as this will break up the uniform outline.
I then lay out where the flowers will be, taking into account the gold letter will be going on the wreath as well. I’d already decided I was going to add the lamb or rabbit to the relevant letter (Jesus or Mary, again see this post for the symbolism), so I didn’t need to factor in space for that. As there where 3 of each darker and lighter blush, as well as the two buds it lent itself naturally to this arrangement. Take a photo at this stage to remind you where everything goes – you never know, you might have to suddenly clear up.
Now you need to undo it all. Back with a bare wreath add a tag for hanging. I did mine with the lace by cutting a 10 – 15 cm strip of the lace and gluing one end to the back of the straw wreath. Then I took another 10 -15 cm strip and tied it in a double knot at the back. The tied strip is placed on the wreath and the length attached to the wreath already circles it and is the placed over the top of the tied, with the knot against the wreath itself, to attach it to the wreath. I then staple and glue it to ensure it’s secure. This means that the loop for the wreath is flat against the surface its going to hung against, rather than having to twist to hang.
The good thing about using artificial flowers and leaves is that they have a wire base, so you can bend them to form the wreath’s shape before applying. Start with a sprig of leaves, bend to a semi circle in line with the wreath, and secure it to the outer rim of the wreath with two or three staples. The picture top left shows the back of the wreath, not the front, as this is the outer rim I’m working with.
Continue for about three sprigs of leaf and flower sprays in a similar pattern to how you’ve planned. At this point stop and, with your waterproof glue, add dots of glue over staples and in parts where you think it would be good to ensure they remaining touching (you can see the glue above where the staple and stem are shiny in the images above point 7). It’s also a good idea to push the staples into the straw as far as they can go prior to glueing, as they may have already been slightly dislodged as you place and glue other sprigs. Continue in the same way, stapling and gluing, all the way round the outer rim of the wreath and then, when you reach the bottom of the wreath opposite to the hanging lace, start to lay the sprigs in the opposite direction.
Then start with a rose bud, or whatever flower you have chosen, to start of the internal, flowered pattern. Use the same method as the external – stapling and gluing. Once you have reached on their of the way round stop. At this point I had a full rose, a rose bud and about 3 leaf sprigs left.
Liberally put glue on the back of your letter and place it firmly on the wreath. As at this point I was working with the “Jesus” wreath I then glued and applied the lamb onto the letter. On both the letter and the lamb I added globs of glue whenever the item being glued touched what it was being glued to, to ensure that it was extra secure (again you can see this in the picture, the shiny sections). You may want to leave the wreath for a while at this point as you don’t want to disjoint the work you’ve done because you’re too eager to carry on.
When the glued parts are sufficiently dry add the final rose and rose bud so the two final flowers almost touch each other, but have a space between of about 5 cms (or whatever is appropriate for your width of ribbon.
Then make your bow. I started mine by tying a relatively loose not about half way down the length and then continued tying a bow that I felt was the right size. It needs to be relatively loose so that you can staple secure it to the wreath. When I did that I stapled on the outer rim of the wreath, so that the bow wouldn’t overwhelm the flowers. As it was too low down I just grabbed more of the loose material and re-stapled until I was satisfied. Obviously you may want to use a form of ribbon with wired edges to secure a shape, but I had this lace already and somehow it’s delicate nature said ‘spring’ to me. When the bow was in place I diagonally cut the ends, one shorter than the other, to finish it.
Move the bow lengths out of the way and, once the wreath is completely dry, add the left over sprigs of leaves to the inner rim in the same manner as above. You then may want to take a good look round the whole of the wreath, stapling and gluing, to make sure everything is secure.
Let us bring hope to others – Hallelujah, He is risen!
I’d love to know what you think, or if you have any queries let me know.
I love this town, which is about a fifteen minute drive from where we live here in Normandy, France.
The town itself is wonderfully ancient, with touches of the medieval about it. Considering so many small towns took a hammering under the liberation by the allies at the end of the war this is something I am truly grateful for.
This is largely thanks to the wartime mayor who, in 1944, approached the US commander in charge of the operation in the area. They were on the verge of bombing runs to ensure no Germa soldiers remained when the mayor approached the leader and persuaded him that there were no German soldiers left. He put his life on the line to save the town by offering to ride in the front of a military jeep with him through it to show him that this was true. when the Germans withdrew from Villedieu, they left a sniper who shot some of the first US soldiers to enter Villedieu, before being neutralised. Villedieu was thus saved from major destruction.
Nevertheless the commander had been right to be so concerned; on their retreat the German command had left behind a lone sniper who had managed to kill numerous soldiers of the liberating forces until he himself was eliminated.
Historically the town was a centre of metal-work, especially the brass and copper pans and basins from which the poêles in its name derives. It is also famous for its specialised manufacture of large church bells, which was started by immigrants from Lorraine around 1780. For this reason the villagers were traditionally called Sourdins, from the french word deaf sourd. The hammering of copper pans and bells inevitably took their toll.
Villedieu, town of God, owes its name to the religious order Knights Hospitaller which we now know as the Knights of Malta. Henry I, who was at that time King of England and Duke of Normandy, granted Villedieu to this order in the 12th century.
They were alternatively know as Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem during the time of their establishment and were originally an early modern Catholic military order who were headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem until 1291, on the island of Rhodes from 1310 until 1522, in Malta from 1530 until 1798 and at Saint Petersburg from 1799 until 1801.
The Hospitallers arose in the time of Henry, early 11th century, during the great monastic reformation. Considering their journey through different countries it is considered that the advanced coppersmithing technology was presumably imported from the Middle East by the Knights.
By the early 14th century, the Corporation of the Coppersmiths of Villedieu was officially recognized by the Kings of France.
In contrast to the people of the surrounding area the people of Villedieu were strong supporters of the French Revolution. This is thought to be primarily because the Revolution abolished customs duties between French regions; before the Revolution, copper pans exported from Villedieu to Brittany, 50 km (31 mi) away, faced higher import duties than copper pans from Portugal.
Their support wasn’t just in principle either – they physically fought for the republican movement.
The Chouannerie was a royalist in 12 of the western départements of France, particularly in the provinces of Brittany and Maine, against the First Republic during the French Revolution. The inhabitants of Villedieu fought with the Chouan troops, and were overcome. However they escaped thanks to their women who threw stones, flowerpots and chamber pots from second-story windows at the pursuing Chouans. The general heading the Chouan troops was getting ready to bombard Villedieu and set it on fire. However, like the war time mayor, a delegation of the town’s women negotiated with him successfully. As a result the inhabitants were given a short time to hide their valuables prior to the Chouan soldiers then plundering the town for food and clothing.
The moral here; don’t mess with the women Villedieu des Poêles .
I often find my way into the village as they have plenty fo amenities like large supermarkets, industries, a large outside market as well as a hospital, opticians and other essential services. These shots below are from one of my favourite parts in the town, the beautiful river that winds through it. There are ducks on it and, as you can see on the photos below, they managed to get out and wander all of the road. Traffic slowed for them and people shoot them out of the way. So lovely.
The town has small, courtyard like roads veering from the main walks. I’m not sure if you are allowed to go in them, but there are certainly little restaurants and shops down some of them. Each has their name on an arch way and a brass plaque in its entrance.
I think you’ll agree from the photos I’ve added it’s a study town, even on a rainy day like the one I took these photos on.
I’m hoping I haven’t gone into full Liberace territory with this, so any feedback is welcome. Our hallway when we arrived was lovely and spacious, but I of course I was itching to decorate. With the most minimal means possible. As this post showed I’d removed the existing radiator shelf and had salvaged the buffet top to add a little period style, and some art nouveau style prints complimented these.
Then for Christmas my hubby’s aunt and uncle gave us a welcome gift of an Amazon voucher. He didn’t get a look in. If you remember he’d gone away to America for six months and having found beautiful ceiling medallions on Pinterest (you can follow me at the top of the page) I’d ordered one and had it sent to us.
By that time I hadn’t put up any light fittings by myself, something which I’m becoming more accustomed to, and so I’d put it aside waiting for someone to help me. In the meantime I’d concentrated on adding details to the dining room and utility, as well as putting up the odd picture here and there.
I’d managed to fix some polystyrene coving in the dining room (I’d chosen this in the end over pricier options because of, you know, price – and ease of putting it up). I’ll go into this in detail later, but I really learnt a lot from the experience.
One thing I did take away from it was painting the surface before hand. When it just comes to applying the coving and painting it white if there is a contrasting wall colour then it’s probably best to not do so, or at least be prepared to touch up areas afterwards. However when I tried to paint the ceiling medallion it was really difficult in situ, so I’d decided to paint the other one before hand this time. This is the Orac medallion before hand…
these are the steps I took to paint it…..
and this is the finished medallion.
I was eager whilst I was doing this to put it up straight away. However now I have a dilemma; if I do so before painting I’m bound to get some on the medallion and need to touch it up. However, if I paint first experience has taught me that the thick white glue I’ll use will go on the painted surface, so I’ll still have to touch up this, which will mean the possibility of touching up the medallion. Mmmm.
Let’s face it……only one of these options has me putting up the medallion straight away so all things being equal…..
This post has been recycled from a former blog when we where living in our rented property.
I was in a local Brocante, amongst the dust and the mess, next to some shelves holding a higgildy piggildy mess of pictures chatting to my Pops when I spotted it out of the corner of my eye – an oil painting. I new straight away what it was, I could see the way the light caught the brushwork and like a fox on the scent I was straight over their to pick it up.
“How did you spot that from over there?” Pops said. I’d love to say it was some Brocante buyers instinct, but it wasn’t. Just luck I guess, but confirming it was an oil wasn’t, that took three simple steps.
Look At The Back
The foolproof way of telling if it’s an oil is to look at the back; if you can see the paint coming through the canvas then it’s an oil.
Look At The Back Too
Whilst you’re round there look at the frame itself. Some oils have a canvass wadding place over the painting, but the obvious age of the frame will be a tell if it’s a clever reproduction or not. This picture wasn’t a good example of that, but my oil in the header is.
Look At The Texture
A lot of reproductions now have a textured surface to make them appear as if they’re an oil, so to be sure you’ve managed to bag a bargain, have a look and see if there are clear brush marks that correspond with the paint marks themselves. A reprint will have a consistent pattern of marks, an oil won’t.
In this selection here I have three oils, and a definite watercolour. The most expensive was 43€, then 9€, then an unbelievable 1€. Which one do you think is which?
you can see the paint coming through the canvas then it’s an oil.
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