A Joy-Full Wreath (Part 1)

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me if I would make them a wreath using their ornaments I would be feeling pretty flush about now.  It must be a passing fancy for most people because rarely does anyone follow through.

But last fall, I received a very nice enquiry from a lady named Joy.  She had lots of nice things to say about my work and wanted to know if I would consider making her a wreath using some of her own vintage collection.  She particularly liked a custom wreath that I had made for a gentleman in Texas.  It was this one, “Old Fashioned Christmas.”

She liked the jewel tones and colors of this one.  And she put together a group of her ornaments and sent me pictures to show me what she was thinking.  She was thinking about my making her a nativity-themed wreath.  I loved the idea.

Since it was my crazy time of year, we decided to put the project off until 2013.  So, a couple of weeks ago, Joy packed up her goodies and sent them to me.

Wow!  It was so exciting to open her packages and see what treasures she sent.  And treasures they are!  It was Christmas in July!  See for yourself.

As you can see, the pressure was on for me to make something fabulous.  Custom work is enjoyable but it can be tricky because I am always worrying that the person will not like the end result.  I often spend a lot of time second-guessing what someone wants.  And since I usually only know the person through email conversation it is doubly hard.

In this instance, I not only had to think about that but Joy had taken a huge leap of faith by entrusting me with her most special ornaments which she had collected over a long period of time.  I felt very honored….and more than a little nervous.  But, God bless her, she was very vocal in her confidence that I would come up with something she would like.

And so, I got started.

These are the colors I used for the background and they set the tone for the whole wreath.  I started by wrapping the form in silver tinsel.

Joy sent me many more pieces than I could actually use in one wreath so I had lots of choices to make along the way.

Stay tuned to see the outcome!