Use fruit and boxwood sprigs to create a vivid -- yet traditional -- mantel pyramid. This project is ideal for adding Christmas cheer to a narrow mantel.Materials:
Strip of plastic
16-gauge floral wire (green)
Clippers
Wire cutters
Fern or greening pins
Oranges
Conditioned boxwood sprigs
Pyracantha berries (optional)
Place a strip of plastic under the fruit to protect mantel from juice.
Select largest pieces of fruit for bottom row. Push a piece of 16-gauge floral wire through 4 oranges, being careful to have the same side of all the oranges facing out. This will be the base of the pyramid. Push a wire through 3 more oranges and balance them atop the bottom row. Secure to bottom row with 3" piece of bent floral wire or fern pins pushed at angle from the top oranges down into the ones below. The next two rows of oranges are secured the same way.
Fill in and outline the completed pyramid using sprigs of boxwood. Pyracantha berries may be tucked in along the mantel.
Note: This type of arrangement should be placed against a wall and slanted slightly backward to prevent it from falling forward.
From Christmas Decorations from Williamsburg by Susan Hight Rountree. Published by The Colonial Williamburg Foundation, copyright 2003. Images and text reprinted with permission.
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