With Thanksgiving behind us and more snow on the horizon, residents are planning the Christmas season ahead. For some of the craftier ones, this may mean learning a festive skill.
The Bradford Landmark Society announced it will soon be holding its annual Christmas wreath-making class, with three separate classes scheduled.
For $25, participants will get mixed green boughs, a wire frame, wire, a red velvet bow and instructions from expert gardener Linda Brocius. “She uses assorted greens, including pine, spruce and cedar,” said Sally Costik, curator of the Bradford Landmark Society.
Classes will be held at 2 p.m. this Sunday, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and 2 p.m. Dec. 4 at the bank building at Crook Farm on Seward Avenue.
Reservations are required and can be made by contacting the Bradford Landmark Society at 362-3906 or info@bradfordlandmark.org. About 15 people can sign up for each class.
The project may take as little as an hour or over two hours, depending on how much experience the participant has — and how big a wreath each makes.
If people can’t make the classes, we’re willing to arrange a private session,” Costik noted.
Proceeds from the classes benefit the Bradford Landmark Society.
The class started in 2011 and is in its fifth year, she said. The first three years it took place at Graham’s Greenhouse on East Main Street, where Brocius was worked. When she retired, the classes were moved to the bank building.
“They usually come with a friend,” she said of wreath-makers from past classes, noting that it’s often a mother and daughter or best friends who attend together. In fact, Costik participated a few years ago with her daughter. While many of the participants have been female, anyone is welcome to take part.
A wreath is a way to brighten the mood in winter, too, and they can be hung indoors and outdoors.
At Christmas time, people “get tired of the snow and the white,” said Costik. “They want something green.”
Costik noted that while the class doesn’t use ground pine as one of the greens in the class, ground pine is easily found outside locally, and she recalls using ground pine in her own wreaths growing up.
No doubt class participants will be able to use their newfound skills to learn to make wreaths with other locally found items. Costik even remembers as youngsters “we used hula hoops and made giant ones.”
Costik agreed that wreath making is craft with a long history like many the Bradford Landmark Society promotes, saying it’s the kind of “time-honored,” “hands-on” skill the organization encourages.
She has read that wreaths have been used since ancient times, and Christmas wreaths were first used in Christianity as Advent wreaths. The Advent wreaths could be found the in the 16th century in Germany.
The wreath-making class is one of several events in which the organization invites people to learn about handcrafted items.
Each year, Crook Farm opens to fourth and fifth graders, who learn about traditional crafts such as candlemaking, weaving and blacksmithing. These crafts, along with music workshops and vendors showcasing a mix of old and modern arts, can be seen at the annual Crook Farm Country Fair and Music Festival each summer. Also, for three years Bradford Landmark Society has hosted a Creative Women’s Workshop at the farm, where women are invited to take part in a variety of classes.
