MAKE YOUR OWN JEWEL TREE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 107, 27 July 1927, Page 5

MAKE YOUR OWN JEWEL TREE

: A USE FOR STRINGS OF CORAL j Hidden away at the bottom of a jewel-case you probably have a string of •'tooth coraj," the rough, reddishpink sort that looks quite unattractive when worn, but which works up delightfully into one of those queer “jewel trees” that everyone is raving about just now. You must unfasten the little pieces, and wire them up into lengths of different sizes, some three inches long, others no more than one. Then buy as small a glass flower-holder as you can find, and in the centre of this” fix for your tree trunk a round piece of hollow aluminium (a bit of a curtain rod will do). Cover this with guttapercha in brown to simulate the bark, fix the wires of the coral strands firmly round the trunk with the smallest at the top, and the largest at the base, rather after the manner of a Christmas tree, and then cover the branches also with the gutta-percha. If there are any superfluous holes in the stand, fill them with silver sand, and spread enough over the base of the bowl to suggest a glistening bed for the plant. Charming plants are to be made from leaf-shaped bits cut from the inside of a large oyster shell, wired into groups of three or four, and attached to separate gutta-percha branches. Berries can be suggested from small amber or cornelian beads, or even from beads of wood or glass. A holly tree makes an excellent ornament, and for this the bits of oyster shell would need to be stained a darker tint. Little groups of cherries devised from scarlet beads, and magnolia blossom.-? from white oyster shell, are not difficult to contrive. Each petal and each berry must be bored for wiring. A little mint added to a lettuce salad greatly improves the flavour.