2024 carving

[bunn]

I try to make a carved decoration from each year's Christmas tree. This year's tree was a Nordmann Fir, and I really hope that next year we can find a different species, because the wood was both very hard, and very splintery. Not a fun wood to carve, and although the tree held its needles well, it had almost no scent, and I think the scent is one reason for having a wooden tree.

This is what it looked like when I'd just taken the bark off: it was wet, and it was kind of crumbly and yet at the same time I had to sharpen my chisels a lot.  I think possibly I tried working it when it was a bit too green, it did get better as it began to dry, but I've definitely had wood that was much nicer to carve green. 



And here's the final version: a puffin on one side...





And on the other side a sea-sunset, using the grain of the tree to make the sun.  It was very hard to get the edges of the waves free of spiky bits.  

Comments

[bunn]

Ah, it's good to find a use for an unwanted invasive!

Water is not really something we are generally short of, in Wales, and I can't think of any alien invasive plants that would be suitable for decoration really.

Ideally, I would like to be able to buy either holly or Scots Pine: both are native here, and scots pine has a lovely scent (holly also has a scent, but not quite such a christmassy one). But neither are much grown here as christmas trees, it's mostly either norway spruce (which does have a nice scent, but loses its needles quickly when cut) or Nordmann fir.

I might be able to get a Fraser fir or a Noble fir if I look hard. ISTR that Fraser fir is quite nice to carve.

They are farmed like any vegetable, so it's not really very different to buying a cabbage. Less pesticide than cabbage, probably, though a few more years to grow.

[grundyscribbling]

Holly as a Christmas tree? Puzzled Holly City resident requesting further information - is this/did this used to be A Thing? I've only ever seen branches, wreaths, or garlands.

[bunn]

I don't think holly is traditionally used as a complete cut decorated tree indoors with baubles, tinsel, etc. Norway spruce is the traditional tree here, though it's not really a good choice if you are going to have the tree up for more than a couple weeks, or for central heating because it drops needles.

But a few years back now, there was an unusually cold December and we were iced in to the village and couldn't get out to buy a tree, so I chopped down a volunteer holly sapling from one of the garden hedges, and we used that instead. It worked really well, and we went on doing it for several years until all the garden hollies had been well cut back and there weren't any that were the right size and shape any more.

[grundyscribbling]

...I may have to let some of the little hollies in the front yard get big enough to give this a try. (It grows like a weed here.)

[bunn]

And in Cornwall! I had several years of picking one to allow to get big enough to cut before I ran out of suitable volunteers.

If you have several that have got tall enough but still look a bit thin and weedy to please the eye as a Christmas tree, you can weave/tie them together fairly easily to make a single tree-form.

[grundyscribbling]

Yeah, definitely trying this. Maybe the cat wouldn't chew on a holly...

[anerea]

I'm fascinated to learn about all the different characteristics of different types of pines and firs! For me they're just trees that, through no fault of their own, mostly need to be cut down and which smell much nicer in the flesh than any of the so-called pine-scented stuff! I have no idea which species we have here, other than the beautiful stone pines growing on some of the lower slopes of Table Mountain.

I once went for a walk through a pine (or fir, I'm very ignorant in this regard) plantation in South Wales (I can't remember where, other than we made a day trip from my friends place Bridgend), and it was such a surreal experience! It was very pretty, but after a while I totally lost my bearings in all the straight rows and diagonals in every direction! I think the gorgeous lush emerald mosses and little forest flowers saved my sanity.😆