Years ago, while visiting Tamarack, the West Virginia artisan gallery, I admired a beautifully full, lush, soft grey-green table wreath. Two days in, here is the beginnings of my first attempt.
http://www.tamarackwv.com
As a base, I used an old grapevine wreath. (As wild grapes are prolific in this area, they are my go-to raw material at this time of year - that interval of brown-ness before the snow arrives. Well, today it is snowing, so I'm a little late.)
The first day the grasses were long and straggly looking. After two nights indoors they are beginning to curl nicely. As they dried, they also became even more straggly. Picture long plumes sticking out at random from a skimpy ring. So, pruners to the rescue!
Turns out that as the individual leaves dry, they pull away from the inner stalk, making it simple to cut off the feathery ends. All of these plant bits have a proper botanical name, which escape me at the moment. If I stop to look these up, I will be in internet info heaven for hours. Not a good thing when it is "visit granddaughter" day and there is still closet wall taping and plastering to finish - no small matter when we have been living with closet contents drooping from a portable clothes rack which collapsed under its new-found weight.
