For the first time ever, we ran out of red & gold ribbon prior to the end of wreath week.  We purchase thousands of dollars of ribbon (really!) in many patterns and colors, and have learned that red, red & gold, and plaid are the most popular requests, so we stock up on those varieties heavily.  This year, however, the red & gold just flew out of the church, and by Thursday we were rationing strictly.  The example below shows how a customer can receive a red & gold look with just red ribbon and gold accents:

A softly colored plaid bow, light brown, almost bleached pine cones, wisteria and milkweed pods, and a scattering of rose hips made this wreath one of the prettiest of our natural “country” wreaths this season.

Margaret Pokorny created this beautiful example of an all natural wreath with no bow – note the dried artichokes, birch bark, yarrow and cones, lotus pods, magnolia leaves, cattails, and some items which even the collectors couldn’t identify.  We may consider charging a premium in the future for wreaths with no bows, since they take much more time to make, but this wreath will last outdoors for months without looking “out of season.”

Today’s the day – end of the world according to readers of the Mayan calendar, the winter solstice, or the last day you can mail something with any hope of it arriving on time for Christmas.  The swirly red and gold ribbon reminds us of South American symbolism, somehow:

One of our members owns a beautiful home in Marion, right on the ocean, and hangs a matched pair of fully decorated large wreaths indoors against two picture windows overlooking the Atlantic.  The silvery, blue, foggy tones of winter in Buzzard’s Bay have been captured by decorator Susan Juretschke:

We had a celebratory moment Monday when Kate Pokorny, daughter of our wreath co-chair Margaret, visited with news of her engagement to Ross, who helped with set up just the night before.  Her ring is spectacular, and the wreath below reminds us of the sparkle:

One of our decorators took to naming her wreaths.  She produced a wreath for her sister-in-law who wanted a “Downton Abbey” wreath, and then designed this special order wreath she named “Christmas Explosion.”  She knew her recipient – we wouldn’t presume to put exploding shiny balls on a stranger’s wreath – and we all just loved it!

We often entertain visitors from “upstairs” – people picking up wreaths, or tourists who wander by and wonder what is going on in the First Lutheran Church.  One day during wreath week a well dressed group of businessmen from South Korea came through, and engaged some of the decorators in conversations while admiring the beautiful wreaths.  One Garden Club member had traveled to Seoul and discussed her impressions of the city, another spoke of her travels in Southeast Asia in the 1980’s, and everyone was having a good time showing the gentlemen how we create a decorated wreath.  Then one of the men observed that the group looked very happy, very healthy, and seemed very well educated.  Yes, that was certainly true, answered one of our volunteers, who seemed a bit puzzled by the comment.  Then the light dawned: the men  thought they had wandered into a manufacturing facility, and rather than seeing sullen undernourished women working long hours to bring home a small wage, they found (but did not know it) amply fed happy women working long hours for no wages at all.  From that point forward we laughingly referred to our operation as “the sweatshop.”  Long hours were needed to produce the lovely rose and burgundy indoor wreath shown below, which very sadly was stolen from the door the very evening it was hung:

Sometimes we create a beautiful wreath that looks terrific in the studio (that’s the Church basement, for those of you who might envision a somewhat grander atelier) but becomes a bit of a mess when hung.  The wreath below is a case in point.  The customer asked for a blue bow with silver accents, and we specially purchased a gorgeous and somewhat expensive wide fabric ribbon with a raw silk look.  The designers did a crescent shape three quarter design around the bow, which was placed in the “two o’clock” position.  We always tie our delivery tags to the hook so the recipient can find the hook right away.  The hook is the first piece of hardware added to the base wreath, and is used to hang the wreath on the easel for decorating, and is later used to hang the wreath  for delivery.  So we know with absolute assurance that each wreath has a hook.  What we failed to do is advise our customers to keep the tag on until they are ready to hang the wreath.  So our customer, away on a business trip, had her mother accept delivery, and the well intentioned lady cut off the tag and lost track of where the hanging loop was located.  She then hung the wreath with the bow on the top. The decorations then hung down in strange directions, and the bow, with all the fiddling and rewiring of a new hook, became hopelessly squashed (see picture 2.)  The customer returned and was rightfully appalled.  We sent her a picture of the wreath as it was intended to look, and a decorator came to her home with some extra decorative materials to fix the wreath and fluff the ribbon (see picture 3.) She will also receive a refund.  Next year, our delivery crew will remind recipients of the hook/tag placement, and we will add text to the tags themselves with hanging instructions.  Live and learn!

Silver bow and silver accents – we receive a number of orders like this each year.  The challenge is to keep the look wintry but not cold.  Sparkle helps.  The polka dotted bow echoes the round silver balls and the lotus pods, while elongated spruce cones provide contrast.  And yes, those are sweet gum seeds poking out like miniature satellites.