Saturday, October 20, 2007

Using those grapevines....

I made a grapevine Christmas tree today. I actually started it yesterday, but ran out of vines and had to stop, go hunt down more vines, pull it from the trees, untangle it, cut it, coil it up, and put it into a trough to soak overnight. This tree is about 38 inches tall and took a lot of grapevine. The frame is just a tomato cage. Starting at the bottom, wire the first bit of vine to the lowest circle at each of the splines. Keep wrapping around, using additional wire to hold in place as needed. The center section didn't need as much wiring, but once I got to the top, I needed to wire it some more because the vines kept wanting to slip off. After the first layer, I went ahead and rewrapped it to completely hide the cage and to thicken it up. The second layer did not require any wiring, just tucking the vine. It is quite heavy, but once it dries and cures it will be a bit lighter. It took me around 2 1/2 hours to make this, not including retrieval of the vines. I think it turned out very nice!

6 comments:

Alberta said...

Angie, you did a beautiful job on that vine tree!

Angie said...

Thank you berta! I am very pleased with it!

Country Dweller said...

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting your weblog and found your advice very useful.

Angie said...

country dweller, Thank you for stopping by. I am glad that you were able to find something of use. I always hope that I can pass something along to a fellow gardener.

Sue Swift said...

Super - are you going to decorate it at Christmas? I look forward to seeing the pics.
This is just to tell you that the link you sent in for the Garden Bloggers' Retro carnival was posted today. Thanks for participating!
Sue

Angie said...

Sue, I actually sold that tree shortly after making it. I had to make another, and if it doesn't sell, then yes, I will put lights on it at Christmas. The newest one is a bit smaller though.
I am enjoying watching the Carnival-thank you so very much for hosting it!