Burlap’s Opposite Attraction

Burlap is both earthy and irredescent at the same time. The rough texture and irregularities of the fiber, mix within this see-through luminosity to create a blanket of polar opposites that draws me in. I can’t resist this fabric.

Especially at Christmas.

Christmas too is both earthy and iridescent at the same time. We speak of angels virgin births and gifts of God; we also speak of the earthy mule, a tree, the stable, the hay and the warm breath of the animals that comforted the baby in the dirty stable.

Each year I bypass the department store fancy tree skirts, and pick up a big, cheap roll of burlap at Home Depot.

Angel hair certainly has its place among the Christmas displays, including my heart, but I find no other fabric as appealing as Burlap to envelop the base of a tree,

a Nativity scene,

or around bulbs of Amaryllis.