Our nature loom!

I am starting with the easiest projects first, so the loom was at the top of the list. Luckily my husband had recently pruned some trees in the way back so I had nice, healthy branches to choose from. I used two maple branches and two from a hawthorn. I didn't realize I grabbed hawthorn branches until I got stabbed. So my project began with snipping the thorns off. 

 Then I screwed the branches together at the corners. I realized that pilot holes were necessary when screwing into green wood.  I also drilled pilot holes for all 40 eye screws that would line two sides of the frame and screwed those in. That was a tedious task, and hard on the fingers.

 Finally, I threaded the twine through the eye screws. Ladybug helped me with that, then she helped weave in some twigs and sprigs we found in the yard- white pine and spruce needles, dry ornamental grasses and sedum flowers, and flowers from the awful hellebore that I am in the process of pulling out. I'm loving the end result! Eventually the loom will attach to the end of a privacy fence that will partially enclose the new patio. I love that it will bring constantly changing art to the yard.