Christmas is here, and it arrived almost without warning (ha). Since this is a DIY blog (at least in part), it’s time to make at least one decoration suitable for this season. In this case, it’s going to be a centerpiece that will serve as a Christmas decoration. The thing is, I’m still a novice at these blog things, and time slipped away from me while I thought about what to do, got the materials, filmed the parts of the video, and edited it (the worst part is the hours it takes to upload to YouTube).
I have everything recorded, but I want to add Christmas carol music (sorry), so I’m wrestling with YouTube’s video editor, which is the only place I can find royalty-free music. I hope to have it finished and posted here tonight (I think I’m still within the deadline if anyone likes it and wants to make it). For now, you can find it on my YouTube channel without music.
To make this Christmas centerpiece, I used pine cones, oak cobs (I don’t know if that’s the real name), two wooden octopus plates (typical wooden plates in Galicia for eating octopus á feira), a piece of turned wood from an old lamp, and gold, silver, Galicia green, and carriage red paint.
The white paint is a primer. Sand the wood, apply the primer, sand it a bit again, and then you can paint. If you don’t use the primer, the colors won’t look good.
To hold the cobs while I paint them, I use a small pliers covered with a vinyl glove and masking tape so as not to stain it with paint.
I had an idea to do something with pumpkins, but that will be for another occasion.
Did I say Christmas carol music? Who said Christmas carol music? The YouTube editor has music with Christmas themes, but I don’t think there are any carols (thankfully).
The green leaves you see in the finished centerpiece are from an ornamental holly we have in the garden. The candle is in a glass on top of colored sand.
And this is how the pine cones look after a month and a half indoors. Gradually, they are opening, although a couple of them are resisting the change. I’ve heard that if you put them in the oven (better before painting, so the paint smell doesn’t linger in the oven) at a low temperature, they open well. But surely leaving them near a radiator will be enough to get them to open up like this in no time.