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Sunday, April 04th, 2010
11:31 PM
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My mother is Swedish and did a wonderful job keeping Swedish traditions alive in our home growing up. One of my favorite traditions is the Easter decoration Påskris - "Påsk" meaning "Easter", and "ris" meaning "twigs." As a child I thought of it as a sort of Easter Christmas tree- a "tree" of pussy willow branches or other twigs, decorated with feathers, hollow eggs, and Easter Witches (another Swedish Easter tradition). Now I see it as a beautiful, nostalgic symbol of Spring.
I spent about $20 on supplies- about 90% of which went
towards the pussy willow. As lovely as they are, I may cut back on the
willow and supplement the bunch with some good old twigs next time due
to the cost. I had the silver wire and the milk jug on hand, so the rest of the
project was pretty cheap. I used striped and rust colored feathers
rather than the more common reds, pinks, blues and yellows.
 | Supplies
- Pussy Willow
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Feathers
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Wire
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Ribbon
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Vase (or milk bottle, in my case)
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The assembly is pretty simple: Attach feathers to twigs. Put twigs in container. Hide Påskris from cats.
I attached the feathers by cutting pieces of wire about 3
inches long and coiling the wire around the feathers and sections of
the branches. Since I don't have the pretty eggs or witches my mom
would hang up my Påskris looks pretty simple. I spruced it up a bit with some pretty ribbon around the
jug and coils of silver wire around the branches.
Edit with some authentic, Swedish input from my mom:
Another branch that Swedes
use is birch. The branches are not green so the colorful feathers look
great
with the branches. Later on, if the branches stay in water long enough
tiny,
green leaves will sprout and that's especially nice if there's still
snow
outside.
Sounds beautiful!
The finished Påskris - pussy willow, silver wire, and feathers
The branches can be left to dry, or put in water to flower. Since this is the first time I've done it myself, I decided to keep them in water to see what happens and how long they will last. In the future I'll probably dry them out so that I can use the same branches the following year. Or I guess I could decorate a tree.
 
As always, Qwerty is quick to lend a helping hand |
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