Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Christmas Fences

Sunday Dec 5th early am, update
Nice buy on ebay tonight for twig fence sections. Easy to add back a few missing twigs.   Marked Germany
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-PUTZ-WOOD-STICK-FENCE-GERMAN-CHRISTMAS-VILLAGE-60-INCHES-TOTAL-FOOT-BRIDGE-/281874447293?hash=item41a106bbbd:g:Yo4AAOSwNphWYGGE


Mending fences is not just a rancher's chore.  The little antique ones to go around Christmas trees can need a bit of help sometimes too.  The ones I have bought in the past have mostly been found in Pennsylvania.  I have owned and sold them in many styles over the years.   I have some long pieces of green fence which stay out year round on top of two glass doll cases.  This uses 8 feet of it, but I have more that matches it.


 Perhaps someone will make a square fence for a table top tree from this large fence someday like this one I use around my feather tree.


Some of the more sought after of the smaller scale fence is twig fence, marked Germany on the bottom.  I have had yards and yards of this and am so glad it was sold before our house fire in which so many wonderful Christmas treasures were lost.  Twig fence is particularly charming in a Putz scene, but is also effective used around tiny feather trees.  Fences were made of metal sometimes, and of Feathered wire like the feather trees, and also of wire or wire and wood combinations.

I watch for Old Christmas things all year long, and here is the square fenced tree base I bought from Barbara this summer.  It came to me with some ill advised spontaneous paint additions in red and green on the outside of the palings only.  I elected to  match the older ivory white paint and try to reverse the red and green added paint.  Note I did not say original ivory paint, as close inspection shows this little fence was originally dark green! However the square base has no trace of green under paint, so when ever the fence and base were joined, they were given a unifying coat of ivory white. I only painted over the red and green, not the entire piece.


The result pleases me, as it still shows wear on its old paint. Beside the fence is a long garland of beads I bought from Trisha in September, another piece of sweet old Christmas trim..
 
 Here is a combination fence and table to make a great tree stand, I have never seen this form before! Thank you Tricia L for sharing this charming antique.
 
The dolls like to have their tree up for a long time, I am late getting to this this year. Even though our family is planning Thanksgiving dinner still,  I am thinking beyond that to two early December parties I hope to have here.
I will make a big peach cobbler pie for Thanksgiving at Beth and Gary's
 house.  Great Granddaughter Bailey will make two pumpkin pies. That recipe came from Judy K how many years ago!  close to 40!  
 
In a side bar of this blog, there is a banner to click that takes you to a list of short slide shows. One of the slide shows is Red Cape Christmas, showing Christmas decorations in our old house.   e