A Forged Holiday

It’s a good thing the kids emptied their closets before heading off to college, because their rooms have become the perfect holding pens for drying my foraged treasures – hydrangeas, specifically, snipped from a friend’s next-door neighbor. I even invented my own drying method: I tie the stems with twine, loop the bundle over a hanger, then clip additional hangers to the bottom, one on each side, so the weight stays balanced. After shutting the closet door and leaving everything undisturbed for a couple of weeks, I opened it to find perfectly dried petals, ready to become part of the décor for the Ojai Holiday Home Tour we were invited to join.

I borrowed back my mom’s old dehydrator – the one I loaned to my friend Sam years ago when my mom downsized into a senior living apartment. I never imagined I’d actually use it, but the abundance of end-of-season Valencia oranges inspired me to work them into my design. These late-season oranges are bigger than usual and packed with sweet juice, so drying them takes longer than expected. The twelve to fifteen hours I had planned for stretched closer to twenty. When dehydrating fruit, it’s essential that it be completely dry; even a hint of moisture can attract unwanted bugs to the sugary surface.

My friend Carolyn, who I recruited to help with the project, has a magnificent magnolia tree on her farm. She generously cut branches for us to use in our design plan. Magnolia leaves are perfect for fall décor – their undersides a rich, velvety brown and their tops a glossy deep green. Though magnolias are often associated with the South, California’s climate also suits them beautifully. Carolyn pulled chicken wire from her garage, kept on hand for her lovely flock of hens, for us to use as a hanging base in the arrangements.

Creating a holiday mantel garden is a lot like making a wreath: the materials come together best when you tuck them into the chicken wire from different angles, building layers of texture as you go. I love how the warm brown undersides of the magnolia leaves echo the caramel tones in many of the hydrangea petals, and how the dehydrated orange slices punctuate the whole palette with their glowing, amber notes.

This project will be the beginning of many. The satisfaction that results in finding one’s own materials, transforming them for the project on hand and then assembling the designed venture as imagined, is truly wonderful. Forge on my friends, especially for the holidays!