The Southwest has such strength of character that it leaves its stamp on everything within its embrace. Witness its cooking, writing, painting, and architecture--all instantly recognizable as desert born and bred. Holiday decorations used to be the exception. Come December, people turned to colder climates for inspiration: They decked their halls with holly and Scotch pine, just as if they lived in Portland or Seattle.
But that's changing, thanks to local artists whose work is pictured here. The forms these Tucsonans employ are traditional--wreaths and centerpieces--but the materials come from local foothills, farmlands, and backyards. They've linked the holiday to their landscape; they've stamped it unquestionably Southwest. Following are three projects you can copy.
Southwestern simplicity
Glenda Pierce of Glenda's Custom Desert Designs uses prickly pear cactus pads and dried chili pods to create wreaths (shown above) that are as dramatic and quintessentially Southwest as a saguaro backlit by a sunset. (If you're intimidated by all those spines and would rather buy than make a wreath, contact Pierce at 520/322-9350; prices are $38 to $200.)
TIME: 2 1/2 hours
COST: $25–$30 (plus prickly pear pads)
MATERIALS
• Wreath hanger or hook
• Straw wreath base, available at craft stores
• Wood florist's picks, 4 inches long
• 8 to 10 prickly pear pads of similar size, sold in produce sections of many markets (if you use ones from your garden, cut the pads from the plant with a saw or hand pruners, holding on to the stems with tongs; don't bother with gloves, as these spines can pierce the thickest leather)
• Dried desert spoon petals or cornhusks to make a "rose," or raffia for a bow
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• 4-inch-long wood stem or 1/4-inch-diameter dowel
• 22-gauge wire
• Several dozen dried red chili pods
• Clear polyurethane spray paint
DIRECTIONS
1. Attach hanger or hook to the back of wreath base according to product instructions.
2. Using florist's picks, attach prickly pear pads securely to the wreath, round side up. Place the picks through the base of each pad, then overlap the pad bases slightly as you go. Use three or four florist's picks for each pad, and push them completely through pad, well into the straw base. Do not use glue, as it will blister the pads, causing them to rot. Leave a 6-inch opening at the top center of the wreath for the rose/chilies detail.
3. Make a rose out of desert spoon petals. Trim the edges to round them, then glue them around the wood stem or dowel. Attach the rose to the opening in the wreath's top center by applying glue to the stem end, then poking it into the straw base. You can substitute a fat bow of raffia pieces for the rose; to attach it, twist a length of wire around the bow's center, then poke the ends into the straw base.
4. Clean the chilies with a damp cloth and cut off stems. Cut a 6-inch piece of wire for each chili. Dip the wire into the glue, then insert the wire partway though the stem end. Dip the other end of the wire into the glue, then poke it into the straw base, on one side of the rose. Continue adding chilies, creating a generous cascade on each side of the rose.
5. Spray the entire wreath (except the raffia bow, if you use one) with clear polyurethane to intensify the color of the cactus pads and strengthen the chilies. (Do not use polyurethane on Santa Rita prickly pears, however, as it changes their wonderful deep lavender coloring to dull green.)
Della Robbia
In the desert, shapes are strong and colors are subtle. For this wreath, Ruth Hamilton uses yucca pods to carry the show, adding other seed pods as color accents. The mauve pinks, violets, and gray-blues are reminiscent of hues reflected off desert hills in the late afternoon.
Hamilton teaches classes in wreath making at botanical gardens in Tucson (materials are provided at the classes). For details, call (520) 297-0954.
TIME: Six hours
COST: $15–$20
MATERIALS
• A beveled polystyrene wreath base
• Dark brown water-base spray paint
• Wreath hanger or hook
• Corrugated cardboard
• Construction-grade adhesive (such as Liquid Nails)
• Bleached yucca pods, about 125 pods to cover a 12-inch-diameter wreath (300 pods for a 24-inch wreath), with 1/2-inch stems. (To bleach pods, soak them in a solution of 1/2 gallon bleach to 3 gallons water for 10 minutes, then put in the sun to dry.) You could substitute bottle tree or milkweed pods, which don't need bleaching
• Other dried material for accents: desert spoon petals, deodar cedar "roses," dried pomegranates, coyote melons, mesquite, cotton and poppy pods, and devil's claws
• Wood florist's picks with attached wire
DIRECTIONS
1. Spray the front side of the wreath base with dark brown paint so the base will disappear into shadow.
2. Attach hanger or hook to the back of wreath.
3. To strengthen the wreath, cut out a doughnut-shaped piece of corrugated cardboard the same size as the wreath base, spread adhesive over it as if you were icing a cake, and press it onto back of the wreath base.
4. Cull your largest pods for the outer ring of the wreath. Dip their stems into the adhesive and poke them into the foam. Continue adding pods until the outer row is complete. Repeat, using slightly smaller pods for the next row.
5. Add pods to cover the inside of the wreath frame.
6. Fill in the face of the wreath with remaining pods and add accents, attaching each piece separately with a florist's pick. Dip pick into glue first for extra security, if desired.
Note: It is illegal to harvest many native plants from the wild. Some dry seed pods are excluded from this rule, depending on the plant. The safest course is to gather material only from private land with permission. Other options: Many botanical gardens sell dried plant materials during the holidays. Native-plant nurseries may too. Also check with craft stores; Ben Franklin Crafts in Tucson, for instance, usually carries dried native-plant material during the holidays.
Red-hot chili bouquet
Guests at the Arizona Inn in Tucson expect traditions to be honored, and the hotel's director of design, Bill Dillon, meets their expectations. But he finds clever ways to work in references to the surrounding desert. The bouquet shown here, for example, fills a burnished gourd. First arrange fir and pine prunings in the gourd or another container. Then add berried branches of pyracantha and photinia prunings. Embellish the arrangement with dried chili pods, white winterberries, and green eucalyptus pods.
