2025-01-11 — Recycling Your Christmas Tree: Hooks and Things (Online)
Schedule:
Instructor:
Location:
STOP . . . Don’t throw your Christmas tree out, recycle it!
In this workshop you will be stripping the needles and bark from your 2024 Christmas tree. Using your creativity, or borrowing from others in the class, you can make coat/clothes hooks, key holders, jewelry, and ring holders, or use part or all of the tree to make a Valentines or Easter tree. The stripped tree with mini-lights is a natural and beautiful piece of art in and of itself. And don’t forget the needles. We will have a use for them as well. Bring your ideas to share!
Any evergreen or pine tree will work for this workshop. Nature makes them all a piece of art, but you will use your creativity to decide what to do with the newly stripped tree.
The three most popular types of Christmas trees are fir, spruce, and pine. All of these are coniferous evergreens that feature close-set needles. However, each evergreen and pine tree has its own characteristics that set it apart from the others. I prefer a tree that can hold more decorations than a fir. It takes much less time to strip than a bushy and full silhouette tree.
Note: Once you take your tree down, store it outside in a shaded place. If you live in a warm climate, keep the trunk in water. If you have snowbanks, stick the trunk in the snowbank preferably in a shaded area. We want to keep as much moisture in the bark as possible. If it dries out too much the tree is not as easy to strip.
Level of Instruction:
This class is open to anybody, it is suggested that students have the hand strength to grip a small handsaw or hand pruners.
Supplies:
· Any size real Christmas tree and its stand.
· Work gloves as needles can be sharp to work with.
· Pocketknife, heavy duty paring knife, or a non-serrated steak knife. We will be using the point and a couple inches up from the point of the knife. (Knives will get dirty and sappy and possibly a little dull but they will clean up.)
· Pliers
· Small hand saw to saw branches from tree. The narrower the better.
· Garden hand pruners are very helpful on smaller branches.
· Sandpaper (assortment of grits) Some prefer a finally finished surface.
· Drill or tool to drill holes into the hooks for hanging.
· One of the following to remove sap from hands and knife blade – paint thinner, mineral spirits, rubbing alcohol, nail polish remover, some hand sanitizers, Dawn liquid dishwasher soap.
Additional Supplies:
Students will need to provide a computer, laptop, or tablet with a camera and mic as well as a fast, reliable internet connection.
Special Instructions:
When registering for the class, please make sure to use the mailing and email addresses you'd like the Zoom meeting invitations sent to. You will receive links to the Zoom sessions by email sometime during the week prior to the class. If this class is a gift, please sign up with the recipient's mailing and email addresses or be prepared to forward all communications.
Enrollment Deadline:
December 21, 2024
Click here to learn more about instructor Darlene Fossum-Martin