Winter Snowflake

Winter Snowflake Ornament

rowing up in Venezuela, snow was foreign to me. In Venezuela, you can only find snow on the peaks of the Andes Mountain Range, but I have never had the opportunity to climb there. My first encounter with snow was on a trip my sisters and I took to the Scandinavian peninsula. Laura María, Claudia and I, were three of a group of fifty young ladies that had embarked on the trip of a lifetime. We were accompanied by about ten women chaperones. Yes, indeed, it was a girl power kind of trip.

Discovering Snow

It was summertime, but for a Latina girl accustomed to warm weather, the summer in Norway was quite chilly. As we were riding the tour bus through the mountains to reach the place where we were to embark on a cruise through the fjords, we saw snow by the side of the road. A beautiful white blanket covered the hills. All of us in the bus were screaming “Stop, stop!” And so, our tour guide, who was also a gal, was kind enough to add an impromptu stop to our itinerary. We posed by the mountains covered with snow and we tasted the tasteless snowflakes, and we attempted to make snowballs. The snow had frozen, so it was not good for snowball making. To this day, I close my eyes, and I can still feel the awe that I experienced that summer afternoon in Norway.

Years later, when I moved to the United States, living in Royal Oak, Michigan, my next encounter doesn’t bring quite the same memories. Driving for the first time on the snow, I hit the brakes and the rental car slid, slowly, thank goodness, until it stopped by bumping the car in front of me. I remember being warned about the danger of frozen snow covered by fresh fallen snow. But that winter morning on my drive to work, the warning was of no use. Luckily, no one was hurt, and I learned my lesson about frozen snow and icy roads.

As the Midwest became my home, I learned to love the snow — just not driving on it. A beautiful fresh fallen snow is a breathtaking sight. And so, I created the Winter Snowflake ornament to remind me of the many occasions in my life when snow ignited my imagination, and I was transported into a winter Wonderland.

Winter Snowflake Ornament Design Process

Believe it or not, this snowflake ornament is made from cardboard tubes of different diameters. Most of the tubes came from toilet paper rolls. I took the cardboard tubes and flattened them by passing them through a pasta making machine. Once flattened, I cut the tubes in thin strips, all the same width. Then, I glued them together to make the shape of the snowflake.

Once the snowflake was assembled, I dipped it in plain white ceiling paint that I had left over from redecorating my son’s bedroom. After the star had dried, I dipped it in polyacrylic gloss and immediately into a tub of clear glitter and hung it to dry. This is such a simple design, but because of its simplicity, it allows you to create unique patterns based on the different sizes of tubes that you might have around.

Specifications

Year Designed

2019

Size

Actual sizes may vary slightly, approximately 5.0” x 0.50” x 5.0”

Materials

Cardboard, house paint, glitter, and clear polyacrylic gloss.

Note: Given the handmade nature of the ornament, all ornaments are different. The pictures depict just one sample of the ornament.