Branching Out Part II

So, what’s branching out on the art side of things? Well, I literally wanted to try something with branches. This would be my first time trying this, so come along for the ride, and see what happened.

I saw a macramed version of this project at a fiber arts meeting. It was a lovely web knotted in the crook of a Y-shaped branch adorned with feathers, beads, and jazzamatazz. I loved it, and thought it could easily be done with doilies.

So, out in the yard I went to gather up the perfect Y-shaped branch. With all of the trees on our lot, there is always an abundance of sticks on the ground. Great! Free materials! Natural too. Love natural.

The "perfect" stick.

Armed with my perfect branch, I headed up to the studio in search of the perfect doily.

Hmmm. This wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Whereas macrame is made to fit the branch, the doily is already made. Finding a piece that would fit the branch just right, proved to be akin to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Piles of doilies later, I settled on one that was the “best that I could do,”

The best that I could do.

To paint, or not to paint? That was the next question. I liked the natural look of the doily, but really, where’s the art in it if I don’t jazz it up a bit? I opted for earth tones to go with the natural theme.

I painted greens, brown, and golds on the doily.

Once dry, it was time to attach the doily to the stick. Since I wanted streamers hanging from the branch, similar to a dreamcatcher, I used ribbon to tie the doily onto the branch. This was a frustrating task. It was like when you try to stuff all your fat into a girdle, only to find that it popped out somewhere else! Every time I tied an edge, it pulled another edge out of place. Where one edge met the stick just right, another edge was too long and wrapped over the branch, or too short, and pulled everything out of proportion. The struggle was real, but eventually, I settled on this.

Tying the doily to the stick with ribbon.

This is as far as I got!

By now, I’d had it with this project. It looked dumb. It needed more. Beads, streamers, feathers perhaps, but I was done for, finished, this project was terminated! I tossed it in my “ land of misfit toys,” and got busy making something else. I’ll get back to it … someday. Honest, I will.

I didn’t enjoy doing this project. No kidding! In retrospect, I should have seen that the macrame was made to fit the space. Trying to make a doily fit the stick just didn’t cut it. Maybe there’s a better way, maybe I should do more research. Maybe you would enjoy it more. The truth is, though, I think the branches look cool, but really? How many branches with doilies tied onto them does one want in their house?

Time to find a different way to branch out.