Holiday | Deborah Silver & Co.

Holiday Tables At Cranbrook

For 39 years, the Cranbrook Auxiliary has raised money for the restoration of both Cranbrook house and the gardens via the Holiday Tables event in late November. This year, 18 designers spent the day yesterday decorating their tables for the holidays. I did a table for them at least 10 years ago. A good friend, client, and long time benefactor of Cranbrook asked if I would return, and decorate a room, this being the last year for this particular event. I am sure this group has an event plan for the future, with an entirely new format. As for this finale event-we were all in. The theme of this year’s tables-Illuminate the Season.

If you are local to our area, you are well aware of the Cranbrook property, house and schools. It houses one of the most respected graduate art programs in the nation. If you are not local, suffice it to say Cranbrook is a vibrant institution with substantial gardens of which we are very proud. Interested in the entire story? http://housegardens.cranbrook.edu/about

The house is of a particular period and time. The wood furnishings and tile are dark. The rugs are old and quietly gorgeous. The lighting is subdued. The period and style of this room drove the design for our table. For starters, Rob hand fashioned three strands of holiday lights – a reproduction of lighting from a much earlier era comprised of taupe colored cloth clad twisted wire, bakelite sockets, and large scale reproduction bulbs. Each bulb got its own vintage tin reflector before it was inserted into its bakelite socket. These light strands are outfitted with a dimmer switch, so the light can be adjusted to fit the mood of the occasion. A small flock of our grapevine deer sculptures with sparkly gold and cream lit collars help populate the space. The quality of the light is key to our design.

The china is my own, collected a few pieces at a time since my twenties. The Compleat Angler, manufactured in the early 1980’s by Portmerion China in England, was inspired by the watercolors of English game fish done by AF Lydon in 1879. I have never used this china-I display it, and enjoy looking at it. The flatware is Ambience Olivewood, made by Alaine St. Joannis. This we have used every day for many years. So why am I talking china and flatware? It is a tradition with this event. The sunset room is a fairly large room. We were going to need more than a table, set for a holiday gathering.

We placed three Christmas trees in the room-two of which are flocked. Detroit Garden Works is featuring flocked frasier fir trees for the holiday season this year. They are available in a variety of sizes and colors, by special order only. These are the first flocked trees I have seen since my childhood, but apparently they are popular from the mid west to Paris. The French blue is my favorite color. As the light string wires looked beautiful with that color, we had a color scheme for the decor. The wires themselves are handsome enough to feature them as holiday garland.

We did bring an artificial Christmas tree. This is my favorite style of artificial tree. It is clearly artificial-not a representation of a real tree. The branches are brown, and lightly dusted with snow. We decorated it with pale French blue glass balls, and long crystal drops.

The 10 foot long shallowly oval table with square ends is meant to be placed against a wall. This was a perfect size to set the table on one side, and decorate the far side. The flocked fir branches hold a variety of other materials. A light strand, the dried curling fronds of garden ferns, glass balls in cream and blue, and fresh magnolia leaves are interspersed throughout.

table detail

The soup tureen and pike oval platter

What I like best about this display is that it seems visually believable in this space. The antique Victorian wicker chairs are ours, but they look appropriate to the room.Every item has a vintage, or a garden feel. The color is subdued, but festive. If you are interested in seeing all 18 of the holiday tables, a formal buffet tea is scheduled for 11 to 3 today, a cocktail party for Friday evening by reservation, and general admission Friday and Saturday from 10-4. We think the Cranbrook House and Garden auxiliary is well worth your support.

Posted on: November 20, 2014 19 Comments

Filed Under: Color, Holiday, Detroit Garden Works Tagged With: setting a holiday table, Cranbrook Holiday Tables, Cranbrook gardens

At A Glance: Detroit Garden Works Holiday

For everyone who lives too far away to visit, to follow is a collection of pictures of the shop decked out for the winter and holidays. The snow this morning-appropriate to the occasion.

Decorating the shop for the winter and holidays? All the work of it is all the fun of it.

Posted on: November 8, 2014 25 Comments

Filed Under: Holiday, Detroit Garden Works, Picture This Tagged With: holiday and winter decor, winter gardening, Detroit Garden Works

Merry Christmas, Luca Della Robbia style

An Italian sculptor named Luca Della Robbia produced many charming works in glazed terra cotta from 1400-1475. Many of his plaques featured frames depicting fruits and vegetables. This style of decoration still persists centuries later, in a style of Christmas decorating known in this country as the Williamsburg style. Someday I would like to go there at the holidays, and see all of the wreaths and architectural elements decorated with the fruits of the harvest and holiday season. Though the Willamsburg decor is traditionally done with real fruits and vegetables, my interpretation of the style makes use of faux fruit. The fruit in the above wreath is produced from a weighted core, and a rubbery, almost waxy outer layer. The color and texture is incredibly realistic. This magnolia della robbia wreath, with proper care thast protects the dry magnolia leaves, will last many years.

Why am I thinking about the della robbia style? Rob made me 2 sets of Christmas lights-one for my tree and one for my mantel. The red, yellow and green lights have a remarkably jewel like glow. They so remind me of the Christmas trees I remember from my childhood. Those big glowing lights on on our Christmas tree were enchanting. Seeing anything through a child’s eyes is a way of seeing like no other. How would I decorate my tree to make the most of these extraordinary lights? It seemed a natural choice to pair this color and texture with a mantel and tree decorated with ornament of a similar feeling.

My holiday tree does not have ornament with an intrinsic history. No objects which provoke memories, in and of themselves. I actually like it that way. I like having the option to decide on a scheme or a theme that is quite different than the previous year. The challenge of creating a display that reflects the immediate sentiments, importance, and aura of the season is an activity I enjoy. When the seasonal work for clients comes to a close, it is time to go home, and create a little holiday spirit of my own.

The della robbia tree had a modest beginning. A Christmas tree, an evergreen garland, plastic ornament balls in lime green, and lots of faux fruit. Having been laid low by the worst cold in a decade, Steve saw to getting the tree and mantel garland up, and the ornaments on the tree. Angie stuck the large fruits with floral picks; it is vastly easier to secure a stick than a heavy round slippery fruit. The rest would be up to me. For the better part of a day, I worried I might not have the strength to decorate our tree. Funny how once a project captures your interest, troubles fall away. Early on it became apparent that the big fruits could not go on the tree. They were much too heavy. The big fruits would have to go on the mantel.

The mantel garland was secured around a thick bamboo pole, and secured to the weighty metal mantel lights with zip ties. I managed to find spots in the evergreen garland that would grip the picks. As for the tree, I had to change gears. A trip to English Gardens yielded 10 boxes of dark red glass ornament balls. Miniature limes and green apples could easily be fastened to the tree-after Buck wired bag after bag of them for me. 40 red berry picks, when taken apart, yielded 480 individual berries. Other bits included 6 boxes of shiny lime green mini berry clusters.

I like a Christmas tree that still looks like a tree, even after it is decorated. This involved wiring on many small bits. Big bits can engulf a Christmas tree. I favor lots and lots of just a few types of little things.

I attached the red berry balls to the tips of as many branches as I could. At the time of this writing, I still have about fifty to go.

The tree and mantel only have 30 lights, but the bulbs are big, and make an impression. How this feels to me is nostalgic and warm-just how I like to celebrate the season.

I owe the look to the inspiration provided by Rob’s lights. May your holiday be just as warm and bright as mine has turned out to be.

Posted on: December 24, 2013 14 Comments

Filed Under: Lighting, Winter, Holiday Tagged With: Christmas tree, holiday decorating, holiday lighting

In The Pink

The dark days are here. The needled foliage of the yews are not spring or summer green. They are black green. The colder the weather, the darker the color. By contrast with the snow, the boxwood foliage is dark too. I don’t mind it, really. Not now. But as the winter drags on and on, that brown, black green, black, gray and white can get to be tiresome. Not that I envy gardeners in California. I wouldn’t trade how one season gives way to the next for a warm and sunny winter. Having grown up in the midwest, a warm and sunny winter would just seem wrong.

But I won’t have to worry about coping with a limited and severe color palette. My winter garden in front of my house will be in the pink-dreary winter month after dreary winter month. Does the pink in this pot seem implausible? Not to my eye. The curly copper willow looks great with the brick. The gold sinamay has enough orange and enough mass to look like a party. The pink eucalyptus has a lavender cast, set against the cinnamon brown willow. Pink is by no means a traditional holiday color, but why not? How a color reads has everything to do with its relationship to neighboring colors. Color also reads so differently in daylight, or night light. Suffice it to say, we will have an abundance of gray days the next few months. I like the idea of unexpected winter color.

The holiday garland features pink bits. Funny how what seemed in the studio to be overwhelmingly pink looks so much more reserved outdoors.

It is hard to make out the individual elements from the street. There is the dark green of the evergreen boughs, punctuated by a color and forms that attract the eye. Pink may be out of season in the garden, but it is in season in my holiday garden. Of course anyone who comes to the door gets a clearer view. That is the point, of course. My landscape has a street presentation-neat, simple and well kept-and not especially given to the personal details. Those details are reserved for people I know and expect. For a guest that arrives at the front door, there is an element of surprise.

I would call this a juicy look. In contrast to the austere look of the overall winter landscape. I favor juicy, no matter the season. As in hellebores in really early spring, tulips in the late spring, and roses in June, and the hibiscus in late summer. I like flowers in the landscape. Clematis in bloom is quite unlike the color of any other green plant. As much as I like boxwood, yews, hosta, lady’s mantle and Princeton Gold maples, I like colors other than green-no matter the season.

White in the winter is a regular feature. Snow is snow. In this picture, the orange and pink looks companionable to the remains of my hydrangeas. The color scheme fits right in. The snow makes its own demands visually. Everything snow touches turns their color close to black. Snow that falls on temperature darkened ever greens is all about the contrast between black and white.

My pot in the side garden has a cut Christmas tree in it, strung with 7 strands of mini lights. At night, the glow is visible from the street, and from the south side of my house. I find that warm light comforting. Appropriate to the season. The lights add another color to the winter landscape-a warm color.

Lest you think there is no pink in the Michigan landscape in the third week of December, I invite you to give a look at my Parrotia. It is the very last tree in my yard to change color. The leaves are a brilliant yellow in late fall. This tree has yet to give up its leaves. They might stay stuck the entire winter. The dry leaves are pink – granted a muddy subtle brownish pink. But pink, nonetheless.

Posted on: December 18, 2013 9 Comments

Filed Under: Holiday, Winter, Color, container planting Tagged With: ever green garland, the winter season, the winter garden, holiday garland, winter containers

Holiday Tables At Cranbrook

At A Glance: Detroit Garden Works Holiday

Merry Christmas, Luca Della Robbia style

In The Pink

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