Design #072CT – Burgundy Jewel

I have a “thing” for Christmas tree ornaments. I simply love them and can’t get enough. I have ornaments from the family trees of my childhood. I have homemade ornaments from those first few, somewhat impoverished newlywed years. I have ornaments collected by, and given to, various members of our family. Each year I buy a selective few more, and my kids have even taken to bringing me ornaments as mementos from their vacation trips so my grandchildren and I can hang them on my tree. Believe me when I say, there is quite a variety of interesting and beautiful ornaments on my tree each year.

None, however, is anything like the stunning ornament depicted in design #072CT, Burgundy Jewel Card, which I’ve decided to use for my custom Christmas cards. The most difficult thing to describe about this card is the intriguing balance it strikes between elegantly traditional and richly exotic. Its unusual shape makes me think of clever Japanese origami. The scrolled vines with leaves and berries, the lines, and curlicues of reflective silver foil look like the finely wrought inlays you might find in the surface of an artistically crafted treasure box. This “box” is of the deepest, satiny burgundy. The pyramidal shape carries a portent of good luck.

The ornament hangs from a golden foil ribbon, its ends festooned with crystal prisms. This ribbon with crystal ends is a repeated theme, hanging from the bottom tip of the ornament. The large bow at the ornament’s top is striped with solid and reflective gold foils, but tied with simplicity. A sweet sprig of evergreen and berry branches, tucked into the bow, is delicately detailed in mirrored silver foil.

Set within a finely drawn frame of light-refracting foil, with an understated “season’s greetings” at its base, this ornament projects both sophistication and warmth.