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Grapevine Time!

In 2011 my husband James innocently brought home a Niagara Grape Vine and asked me “where should we plant it?”  I thought our stark chainlink fence separating the front and back yards would be a nice structure to support the vine and, into the ground it went.  On September 8th, 2013 we got our first (and best) harvest of grapes.

Niagara Grapes, West Michigan 2013
Niagara Grape Harvest
Niagara Grape Jelly 2013
Single Niagara Grape vine growing on fence in 2018.

It was a big project but I made some mediocre grape jelly which was tasty but runny.  Most years we allow the birds (often Cardinals) to have the grapes (and raisins); the primary harvest for myself has been the VINE!  Since I started using grapevines for projects in 2014 I have learned a few things about crafting with vines, here is what you need to know:

Supplies:

  • Gloves
  • Pruning shears
  • Measuring tape (so you know how big your wreath will be)

There is a sweet spot for working with grapevines.  Too soon and you might as well be working with asparagus, too late and you are working with toothpicks.  I have made both of these errors.  This photo shows the magic balance between green vines and drier areas that are darker in appearance.  If the canes are too dry they can be soaked in water to make them less brittle and if they are too green you can let them dry out a day, maybe two.  Even if the canes break or splinter you can continue to make loops and wrap them up.  When the globes or wreaths are dry you can adjust the vines to improve the overall appearance.

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Grapevine Wreath

I usually start from the ends of the individual vines and remove leaves with my hands and then with sheers trim the tendrils away from the fencing and other vines to produce a pile of canes.  I sort the largest canes for bigger wreaths and begin arranging them in circles using the longest most flexible vines to wrap around the bulk to secure the wreath.

Vines stripped of their leaves.
Wreaths set out to dry.

This year (2018) I got started a little too early and the vines were easily broken (like asparagus) but I had a lot of them so I pushed ahead anyway.  As you can see one grapevine in a sunny location in West Michigan can give you a lot of material to work with.

Because in past years I have made a lot of wreathes, I was interested in trying some 3-D globes I saw on Pinterest.  Off to the Dollar Tree I went for some beach balls.  They worked well to hold up the vines while I wrapped them.  In addition to these globes I made a smaller one freestyle without an armature; and some larger wreath shapes (since I already have some small and medium wreaths from last year.)  It takes a couple days in the sun for the vines to dry and turn reddish brown.  I fed my failed attempt to fashion a basket to Donald https://piratepieman.home.blog/2018/09/11/feeding-donald-our-hot-compost.  It was so bad it couldn’t even be photographed well.

Grapevine wrapped beachball to create a globe.
Overlapping first few vines to secure the base shape.
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I tried to keep the vine’s tendrils for visual interest.
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2018 grape vine projects.

And once your shapes have dried you are ready to start doing some crafting.  I have not fully sorted out what I am going to do with my new globes so if you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments below.

Examples of how to decorate your grapevine wreaths.

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Autumn wreath embellished with pinecones and artificial flowers.

I gave a wreath to my friend DeLight and she created this glorious monogrammed beauty.

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Winter wreath
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Halloween wreath.

Look for my tutorial on making the Halloween Wreath here:

https://piratepieman.home.blog/2018/09/26/d-i-y-halloween-wreath

Like Childbirth, Eventually You Forget The Pain.

The pain of refinishing twin 80 year old Simmons pressed metal dressers.  I mentioned in a previous post that this summer my mother in law moved into assisted living and the home she built and lived in for 60 years was sold.  There was a lot of sorting and deciding what artifacts we wanted to become a part of our hoard and what was going to have to find its own new path.  My husband and I have never invested much in furniture and my now 14 year old daughter was still using the dresser we got at Target to house her baby clothes; so we brought home two Simmons pressed metal dressers.  These dressers had been living in her basement holding her linens and gift wrap for fifty years.

simmons pressed metal furniture
1930’s catalog insert for Simmons furniture collection.

The dressers had been painted multiple times so I naively set out to strip them and paint at least one for my daughter.  During my research I stumbled across what hipsters are doing with these dressers and found this:

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Similar pressed metal dresser advertised on Urbanremainschicago.com

So with too much time on my hands I got started.

IT WAS HELL.  It took MONTHS to strip all the paint meanwhile I was parking in the driveway (while the dressers lived it up in the garage), I sustained chemical burns (yes I did try CitriStrip and it was too cute to get the job done) and ruined quiet a few outfits and one pair of shoes.  I started in March before it got too hot but that discouraged the CitriStrip from working; and when it got hot my rubber chemical resistant gloves filled with sweat that would pour out every time I lifted my hands.  Hell I say!

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As you can see both dressers were stripped, one is finished and has become part of the family however the other one continues to sit in the garage rusting.  Here is why: I read Michelle Hinckley’s blog (of course only after I was deep into the project) and I was not sure if it was providing me an  inspiration or warning?

Her blog post was hilarious, and I felt so much better after seeing what she went through but I had no idea how to achieve that finish!  It was heavenly and magical and I want it.    My husband did a test area with steel wool and it became a mirror finish. OH-HELL-NO. So what do I do?

Perhaps I should take my childbirth analogy to heart; polish the dresser, accept it’s flaws, and seal it with furniture wax and bring it into the guest bedroom for the winter.  When the pain of labor from this past summer fades I can continue to try to get that smooth even finish Michelle Hinckley wisely paid someone else to deliver.