On Mother’s Night or Modranicht we honor our maternal ancestral spirits, the women in our family trees, and really anyone who has nutured or been a mother figure to us in life. These little portrait ornaments are a very easy and inexpensive activity for kids of all ages to help make those connections. Make ornaments to hang from your Yule tree, or a chain garland to hang over an altar. This is a great opportunity to share stories with the family about these important mothers and invite their spirits to share in your Yule festivities, and in your home and life. It’s also a story telling tool for Modranicht, for Yule, and for the Norns. Since you’re re-purposing something you might otherwise throw away, you can also fit other themes into the activity if you wish, such as ingenuity and creativity with found objects, stewardship of resources, transformation, geometry, fabrication, and more. These are assembled with hot glue and twine, but for a more advanced project could also be assembled with low-temperature solder and wire for hangers.
Materials needed:
Jar lids – any size will work; you’ll need two of approximately the same size for each ornament or garland segment. Pickle/olive, jam, and other small sauce lids work well, and small spice jar lids are great. Even beverage caps will work if not bent. If the lids have writing on them, you can spray paint them, cover it with ribbon or just leave it.
Photos – I suggest making a photocopy of the pictures you want to use, but you can use the actual photos if you like. You can also use other images, such as backing the portraits with runes.
Glue gun & glue sticks
Mod Podge (optional) to secure the photos in the “frame”. You can skip this step if you want to be able to remove them.
Twine or ribbon
Embellisments – ribbons, beads, glitter, epsom salts (for “snow”), dried natural elements such as small seed pods or dried berries
Instructions:
Using the jar lid you plan to use, trace a circle around the area of the photo or image you plan to use. Cut just inside this line and fit the photo inside the lid. Secure with Mod Podge if desired. Repeat with your second lid and image.
Ornament – Make a small mark on the lid where the top of the photo is and turn the lid over. Make a loop from twine or ribbon about the size you want for hanging plus the diameter of the lid, secure top and botton with hot glue.
Chain garland – Glue the ribbon/twine/string across the back horizontally.
Run a bead of hot glue around the lid near the edge, then take the second lid and image and attach the two backs together so they make one double-sided “frame”. Repeat these steps along the string if making a garland.
If using a lid with a lot of writing on the edge, you can glue a wide ribbon around the edge to cover it. If the edge is clean, you can glue beads in the valley between the two lids, or wrap with twine, yarn, lace, or ribbon.
You can embellish the photo with glitter, beads, epsom salt “snow”, dried seeds, pods or berries as you like. Hang and display.
all photos are public domain
