Preserving Moss

Image by Kbiv3000 from Pixabay 

I am still learning to work with moss, including the best way to preserve it. 

With some mosses, especially the “old man’s beard” or “witch’s hair” (usnea lichen) we have simply let them dry naturally. Other mosses can be dried as well, and – according to the literature – are not dead but dormant and can be brought back to life. While I have dried some varieties of moss, I have not attempted to rejuvenate them. 

The first step in drying moss, after collecting it, is to clean it. You can put it in a sink of soapy water and gently wash away the dirt, pull out sticks and encourage bugs to leave. Rinse the moss and gently squeeze out excess water. Lay the moss on newspaper or paper towels to dry for several days. In this dried out, dormant state, it should last for years.

I know of two other ways to preserve moss, one I have tried and the other not (yet). With these methods the moss is soft, pliable and will last a long time, but cannot be brought back to life. Both make use of glycerin, a clear, sweet syrupy liquid made of various vegetable oils (palm, coconut, soybean) that is easy to find and inexpensive. Smaller bottles can be found in the drug store; I ordered a couple gallons off the internet. Glycerin is used in preserving flowers and leaves and I have used it to preserve fall leaves, salal (lemon leaf) leaves and scotch broom. If you add food coloring to your preservative mix you can colorize your leaves or stems as well, although that is also something I intend to do in the future, so have no personal experience.

Image by TanteTati from Pixabay

First, the glycerin/hot water method of preserving: I have used this method to preserve sphagnum moss. I would recommend a ratio of three parts water to one part glycerin, although I have seen recipes for one part glycerin to two parts water as well. Put the mixture in a large pot and heat it on the stove until hot but not boiling. Remove from the heat and add the moss, leaving it in the water for about an hour. You may have to weigh the moss down with a plate or brick to keep it submerged. When the mixture cools, take the moss out, gently squeeze to remove the excess solution and put the moss on paper towels to dry. It will be soft and will remain that way for months if not years.

The glycerin solution can be reused for your next batch of moss.

The second method, which I have not tried, adds methyl hydrate (methanol) – wood alcohol – to the glycerin. This is said to produce more reliable and long-lasting results than the water-glycerin method. 

The glycerin can be found in drug stores, the methyl hydrate in hardware stores. 

Mix two parts glycerin to one part methyl hydrate - no heating, just mix it together.  Add the moss and let it sit for about ten minutes, then remove the moss from the solution and lay it on paper towels for a few days. It will feel crunchy at first as the alcohol replaces the water in the moss, but then will soften and remain so.

Up next…what to make with your dried or preserved moss!

Margaret

P.S. Here's a good explanation of both types of glycerin moss preservation. 

Pine trees

Image by Thanks for your Like • donations welcome from Pixabay

Between every two pine trees is a door leading to a new way of life. 

- John Muir

We have a couple of stands of Ponderosa Pine trees on our property. The vast majority of our timber is Douglas fir, but the pine is a nice touch and creates a more diverse forest, a mixed-species forest, which, by the way, helps mitigate climate change. The wood, while currently not bringing the higher prices of Douglas fir or alder, is valued for furniture, window frames and other specialty uses. 

Our pine are relatively young, and eventually will be harvested for lumber. In the meantime we have begun using the boughs, needles and cones in various ways. We sold pine boughs at Christmastime, although there is not a big market for that. Still, in our own wreaths, we found a touch of pine adds some variety to the look. The cones we use in

pine cone flower wreath

various crafts, making everything from wreaths to Easter bunnies. The needles can be used – and I believe some of ours were – for essential oils. Ponderosa pine essential oil can be found here.

pine cone bunny

Pine essential oil has a number of benefits. With its clear, fresh, “Christmas tree” scent, it is often used in diffusers for aromatherapy or as an air freshener. Used in massage oils, it is known to benefit the skin and is an antibacterial, promoting healing of cuts, bruises and other skin problems. It can sooth inflammation, soreness, aches and pains and will promote circulation. It’s best not to take it internally and be careful around pets. 

My mother, years ago, learned to make pine needle baskets. Although she used the southern long-leaf pine and raffia, we have learned our pine needles are long enough for basketmaking. 

Pine needles are also used for pine straw, a sort of mulch used in yards, flower beds and gardens to hold in water and prevent weeds from growing. In the south the forest floor is flat and the needles can be easily raked. In our forest there is a thick understory and even under the pines the grass and bushes create a difficult terrain to even walk, much less collect pine needles in the amount needed for straw. But we can collect enough for baskets...

Pine is a very versatile as well as beautiful tree. Glad to have them in our woods!

Margaret

Stressed? Try Crafts

workshop

What a challenging time for us all. I am attempting to follow the guidelines to avoid exposure to the Covid-19 virus, while doing other things to stay healthy and boost my immune system as well: home-cooked meals, extra vitamin C, enough rest. 

Stress, research has shown, impacts the immune system and makes your body more prone to illness. While the social distancing, hand washing and staying home are to limit our exposure to the virus – and rightly so - the whole situation is fraught with extra stress, from financial concerns to worries over the safety of loves ones to the anxiety caused by social isolation. Just going to the grocery store has become a challenge with the long lines, the tape on the floor to enforce social distancing, the need to wipe down carts, and the empty shelves. 

While making the effort to avoid the virus, we also need to counter the detrimental mental and physical effects of the stress caused by those efforts.

How do we do that? 

crochet

There are a lot of stress-busting tips, but here we are going to focus on one: crafts. 

There have been studies done showing the mental and physical health benefits of arts and crafts. Working with your hands is not only fun and relaxing, it releases endorphins in your brain and boosts your immune system. Arts and crafts can lift you out of depression, has shown to improve memory for those with dementia and enhance treatment for those fighting cancer. 

adult coloring book

It really does not seem to matter what type of craft. I dealt with my own cancer treatment by turning to crochet. Knitting, painting, woodcarving and woodworking, ceramics, coloring books…anything. All of it is beneficial, including the sense of accomplishment when a project is finished. 

wood art

Start with something simple like an adult coloring book - or just commandeer a child’s. Get some play dough. Start a sewing project. Dig out the knitting needles or the crochet hook and that old stash of yarn.  

Protect your immune system and do your part to fight the virus by painting a picture. Build something.

As for me, macramé looks interesting….

Margaret 

WildingsWhimsy

Nature Crafts for Kids

Image by betinasuarez from Pixabay 

While the Covid-19 virus and the resulting limitations on work, study and travel is unprecedented, most of us can draw on our previous experience with floods, wildfire, snowstorms, power outages and other random acts of nature. Resist fear and panic; we will get through this…

In the meantime, many of you have children at home unexpectedly. Keeping them learning and occupied in a productive manner is important for the sanity and health of everyone. Crafts, while not the whole answer, can be part of the solution. Finding creative things to make with things already on hand is easier than one might think. For example, while not a “nature” craft as such, here’s my old standby, a homemade play dough recipe:

            1 cup white flour

            ½ cup salt

            2 t cream of tartar

Mix together. Add:

            1 cup water

            2 T oil

            Food coloring of choice

Mix together and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and forms a ball. As soon as it is thick, remove from the stove, take the dough out of the pan and knead it on a sheet of waxed paper until the dough is smooth and the color is uniform. 

Play dough if great, but now is a good time to spend outdoors and in the sun, if possible. Creating things from items found in nature is a good learning opportunity and a chance for children to exercise their creative muscles. Collect leaves to press between the pages of a thick book or preserve them by placing them between sheets of waxed paper and using an iron. Detailed instructions can be found here. 

Collect smooth rocks to bring home and paint. Children can paint the scenes of their choice on flat, smooth stones, but an uplifting project might be to create Kindness Rocks. Write inspiring messages on rocks, then put them back outdoors to be found by others who might need a bit of encouragement. More information.

Pine cones, of course, seem to have an endless number of craft uses. In some locations they are quite easy to find, and if you happen to have some in your backyard you will be able to keep your crafters busy for some time.  

Using felt or paper (or both) to turn pine cones into a variety of animals is one of the cuter ways for children to use cones in crafts. Popular pine cone animals include owls, hedgehogs, turkeys, rabbits, chickens, bats and mice.  

One of my grandsons, who just turned four, has a long history (for one so young) of collecting sticks at every opportunity. His mother, for a time, allowed him to keep a limited collection of special sticks on the patio outside their apartment. The craft-making potential of sticks deserves a post of its own, so stay tuned…

Margaret

The Use of Red Alder Wood in Crafts

Image by MonikaP from Pixaba

Here grew willows and alders, their trunks twisted like giants’ sinews. Around them bark lichen bloomed blue-white in the darkness. It felt like a good place, where there was old magic. 

-Duncan Harper, “Witch of the Fall”

We were searching for pinecones in the tall grass and brush beneath our twenty-acre stand of Ponderosa pine when we stepped out of the pines into a glade with a small group of elderly red alder, big and tall, in the center. They were covered in lichen and moss, and branches had fallen in a recent windstorm. We took a photo of a strange looking mushroom growing out of a hole in one of the trees. 

The glade we stepped into did seem a bit magical, like the quote from the fantasy book above, although I’m more inclined to C.S. Lewis’s “deep magic” of the Narnia tales, that points back to Christianity rather than paganism. Nature is God’s handiwork, thank you very much. The alder seems like a mystical tree, though, with wood that turns red after being cut. The ancient Celts venerated it, and it was associated with various pagan deities. 

Red alder is common in the Pacific Northwest and our property has alder near every wet spot. Years ago, I recall learning that alder might be marketable for paint brush handles; now it competes with Douglas fir in market price and we sell a bit when we harvest. It is used for the brush handles, still, but also furniture, cabinets, trim, and paneling. 

And get this! Fender has used alder to make their electric guitar bodies since the 1950’s! 

It has other benefits. Traditionally, in the Pacific Northwest, it was used to smoke salmon. The bark, which contains salicon, can be used as a tea to reduce inflammation, or rubbed on the skin to ease the pain of poison oak or insect bites. 

Walking stick by the author

Alder is a member of the birch family and is unusual in a number of ways. Like birch, it is monoecious – that is, it has male and female flowers (calkins) on the same tree. The leaves do not change color in the fall but are shed still green. It adds nitrogen to the ground, and the rotting leaves are a great soil amendment.

Alderwood candleholder

And it is beautiful, both the tree with the distinctive calkins, and the pale, straight-grained wood. We have found a number of craft uses for alder and plan to experiment with more. The young trees or branches make great walking sticks. They dry straight if stored properly and are very strong and light-weight for hiking sticks. The straight grain lends itself well to decorating either by carving, paint or woodburning, and we have done all of that. The bark, in addition to being medicinal, makes a good dye. The alder dye batch we tried, on pure hand-spun wool, was a nice beige color. 

At one point we attempted to make jewelry from the small female alder cones, using electroplating. 

Adler round coasters

Currently we use alder rounds, or “cookies,” in a variety of ways, including crafting candleholders and making coaster sets. We use decoupage on the coasters to either transfer an image, or to just affix one. These are then coated with both decoupage and Verathane for protection. There are plans afoot to use pyrography (woodburning) on the coasters as well. 

And…so much more. The red alder is amazing and versatile and somewhat overlooked in crafts, but I would predict it will gain in popularity in future days. 

In the meantime, it is a nice tree to have in the woods...
Margaret

How to Collect and Prepare Cones for Crafts

Hemlock cones on tree

We started WildingsWhimsy by offering cones in bulk lots for crafters, so let’s just take a quick look at how we forage and prepare cones for use in crafts.

We collect four species from our property: Douglas fir, Ponderosa pine, hemlock and White pine. The Douglas fir are far and away the most plentiful, with hemlock a distant second. We do not have much Ponderosa pine and had seen few pinecones, so finding some was a new and exciting discovery. Love those pine cones! They are large and fat and well formed, adding a pop to holiday wreaths or other decorations. 

We attempt to locate and collect this year’s cones in late summer and fall. You can tell they are “ripe” when there are new cones on the ground, and the squirrels are busy collecting them. Some of our cone collecting skills were developed many years ago when we collected seed cones to sell for propagating Douglas fir seedlings. The cute, tiny hemlock cones are also collected off the ground, although they are easily gathered from lower branches as well. We don’t climb trees to gather any type of cone (or boughs).

Ponderosa pine cones

Whatever the species, the process is the same after we haul home our big tote bags of usually wet and sometimes muddy cones. We put them in batches in the sink with a tiny amount of dish detergent and a bit of vinegar, letting them soak to get the dirt – and most importantly – the bugs out. Water causes the cones to close up, if they were open before, but this is temporary. You can also use a splash of bleach rather than vinegar if you want. The purpose is to get rid of any “critters” in residence under the cone scales.

We leave them to soak for about 30 minutes while we preheat the oven to 200°. 

Douglas fir and hemlock cones

We then remove the cones from the water, rinse and remove fir needles, grass, leaves and the other bits of debris that inevitably comes along. We cover old baking sheets and broiler pans with tin foil – these can be picked up at Goodwill or yard sales. I tend to prefer to put the cones in a single layer, if possible, but they can be mounded up a bit if necessary.

Dry the cones in the oven for about 30 – 45 minutes. This will dry them a bit, and eradicate any stubborn insects. We have found that cones that have been soaked in water will need longer to dry and open fully, so ours are left in a wide cardboard box or on the sheets for several days to completely “cure.” Be aware that if you layer them very deeply they need to be stirred or turned daily, as they can mold.

When they are fully open we usually remove any seeds that haven’t already fallen out (for another project we are doing) and check further for bugs or debris. A nice set of tweezers is good for this.

After a few days we have lovely, opened cones for crafts and floral arrangements. 

Feel free to comment!

Margaret