Several years ago my late step-father purchased a semi rural property on the outskirts of Brisbane, in Australia. It had the most gorgeous Pine Trees surrounding it and my mother would ooh and ahh over the pinecones that would drop from it. They were the biggest she had ever seen and she knew then that they simply had to be saved for something special. Over 7 years she would collect bags and bags of them whenever we would visit the property. When I say bags, I mean full to the brim, large garden bags, stacks and stacks of them.
When my mother decided it was time to sell her home, we thought one last Christmas together there would be really special. As we were unpacking our Christmas decorations I asked mum what she intended to do with the cones (lest they all rot away and be wasted) that was when she said she had always promised my step-father she would make a tree or something spectacular with them.
So we came up with a plan.....well several. We would start with a wood 't' frame, then curve chicken wire in a cone shape around it, then attach the cones.....all seemed simply and easy. Boy were we wrong! Several wire scratches, wood splinters, hands ripped to shreds from the cones themselves and blood, sweat and tears we had a tree on our hands.
Of the 750+ cones we used, each had to be graded, sized and grouped for each layer of the tree and one by one carefully twisted and 'locked' into each other to make them stable, then fishing line was woven in and out of each one to keep them from 'popping' out under the pressure of the joining layers.
In the end we are so glad we honored my late step-father by finally building his pine cone tree. It was and is spectacular and it was worth every moment....although we still can't figure out how to get it out of the house in one piece! oops!
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