"Everyone Deserves a Christmas Tree" or "My Trip Down the Minature Rabbit Hole"

After Thanksgiving several years ago, I was eating at one of my favorite local restaurants in Greensboro, NC, I asked the waiter if he had his tree up yet.  He told me that he did not, and that most likely he wouldn’t due to space and the time putting up and then having to take down the tree.  As I drove home, I was bothered and I kept on thinking ‘Everyone deserves a Christmas tree.’

Over the next few days I decided I would make a miniature tree for him, fully lit and decorated so all he had to do was plug the tree in.  I found a 24 inch tree at one of the local craft stores.  The tree have ‘needles’ about 0.50" long and about 50 branches.  I found several packs of battery powered ‘rice’ lights, along with a 35 bulb strand of LED lights, and I started to work.

I took the wrapping from around the bottom and secured the tree base to a 12x12x0.625" piece of plastic cutting board.  Fluffing the tree branches out to give an appearance of a ‘natural’ tree, I started securing the lights to the branches with small pieces of 26 gauge floral wire.  Just like larger trees, it is best to have the lights on when doing this.  The LED lights were a ‘cool white’ with a bluish tint and very bright, so I positioned them along the trunk of the tree.  With the long ‘needles’ and fluffed branches a gentle cool glow would be emitted from the center of the tree.  Next I positioned the battery-powered ‘rice’ lights.  Dividing the tree into quarters, I strung the lights along the branches, wiring them into place, one bulb per branch near the tip.  Each pack of ‘rice’ lights had 20 bulbs so I had a few left over when I reached the longer, lower branches.  The ‘rice’ lights gave off a ‘warm white’ light.

 

















 

After the tree was lit, I started the ornaments.  I had decided when I started I would want the ornaments to be ‘in scale’ with the tree, so for a 2-foot tree the scale would be 1:4 if most trees are around 8-foot.  Most globes on trees are between 65mm to 80mm (2.5" to 3.25"), so the globe ornaments would need to be between 15mm to 20mm and any ‘fancy’ ornaments no larger than 2" in length.  Many of the ornaments were simple beads on head pins with bead caps and 3mm metal beads on beginning and ending the assembly.  A simple loop at the end and the ornament was done. 

 





Many of the ‘fancy’ ornaments were created in similar fashion except many did not have the bead caps.  Teardrop glass beads, graduated faceted beads as well as druks (smooth beads) were used to create miniature ornaments to be utilized in filling out the tree.

When I was at the wholesale show earlier that year, I had bought several dozen pair of earrings.  Since I get much of my inspiration from jewelry, I decided to use the dangle earrings as ornaments.

  

















 




Because of the long needles, I needed the ornaments to be lower than the needles to swing freely.  To remedy this I used small pieces of chain to suspend the ornaments, freeing them from the needles and used ring sized Memory Wire as ornament hooks.

After putting the tree topper on the tree, the total height was 30 inches.  Knowing I didn’t want to have to take the ornaments off the tree to box everything up, I made a box around the tree.  “Gator Foam” are sheets of PVC, and having ‘dumpster dived’ at a friends plastic company I had plenty of scrap, some as large as I needed.  Using Duct tape, I was able to construct a container which could be lifted off over the tree.  I wrapped a piece of the PVC to act as the bottom of the box and using double-sided carpet tape I secured the tree base to the piece of PVC.  I wrapped the rest of the box, made a bow and carefully placed the present in my car for delivery.

With the help of the manager of the restaurant, I was able to turn on the battery powered lights, put the top of the box over the tree and sneak into the restaurant and placed the tree on the waiter’s open table.  When he started lifting the top off, the light started spilling from the gap.  The restaurant was rather dark and the light drew everyone’s attention.  From several tables I heard “oooh”s and “aaaah”s and the waiter was speechless.  When he regained his composer he asked me why I did it, and I simple told him “Everyone deserves a Christmas tree.”  We took the tree over to the bar and plugged in the LED lights and I went back to the table to have a very good meal.  Many of the customers and employees at the restaurant wanted to know where I had bought the tree.  When I told them I had made most of the ornaments, several asked if I could make one for them and how much would I charge them.  Having no idea how much I spent in time and materials, I declined to name a price.

Since then, I have continued to give him a set of new ornaments for the tree each year.  This year I will most likely have to give him a new tree, as all the ornaments are getting very crowded on one tree.  He has told me, he still has the box I made, and keeps the tree inside until November 1st when he pulls out “his” tree and it sat on either the coffee table or dining table.  He will keep the tree out until January 1st when he turns off the lights, puts the box back over the tree and places it back into storage.

Last year, I made two additional miniature trees, one for charity the other for a co-workers wife, and both were well received.  The tree I used (and will continue to use as long as I can) have shorter ‘needles’ with more branches and concrete bases.  To widen the base, I use pint take-out soup containers and fill the base with gluing compound until it covers the base.  Continuing to use a mixture of AC and DC powered lights, I will attach lights with pieces of floral wire.  I have found 50-light strands of AC powered ‘rice’ lights and I will put 4 packs of the 20-light strands of DC-powered lights.  Using the same techniques as before, I make miniature ornaments for the tree.  The trees last year had 130 lights and over 180 miniature ornaments.

Looking at Globes

Going through past images of my ornaments, I have noticed trends.  Starting off in 1976 with gold-foiled kraft paper to make 3-Dimensional Platonic solids and using colored glue, cellophane cling wrap, liquid leading and pages of coloring books to make glass clingers, then ‘graduating’ to beads and the other media, most of my ornaments take unusual twists.  If you ask most people about Christmas ornaments many will answer with the ubiquitous ball or globe shaped ornament.  Easily remembered, but always easily forgotten.  Boxes of the globe ornaments are sold each year in a wide range of colors, finishes and sizes.  They make great ‘filler’ ornaments that people expect to see on the decorated tree.  I, like most, have boxes upon boxes of the ornaments in different sizes, colors, and finishes.

Back when I was studying at Florida State University in the late 1980s, I began constructing embellishments to the globe ornaments.  The first was making custom globes for friends by pouring latex paint into the globe, swirling around, and then letting drain over night.  This can be a great “First Christmas in a new house” gift, making ornaments using the colors of the rooms in the house.  Depending on the finish of the clear glass globes you can make frosted, ‘AB’ or aurora borealis or shiny using the reflectiveness of the plain clear glass ones. 

Doesn’t take long after gathering your supplies.  You will need some type of work place covering - old sheet, newspaper, etc., either some denatured alcohol or vinegar (a bit smelly but a good cleaner which leaves little residue), drainage cups - I usually use the small Dixie cups used in the bathroom, you paint and the glass globes.  Remove the ornament cap by gently pulling the hanger up and sitting them aside.  I always clean the inside of the ornament by pouring a little denatured alcohol into the ornament and swirling the alcohol around and turning the ornament upside to allow for drainage.  Because of the low ‘flash’ point of alcohol much will evaporate just from the heat of your hand.  I would clean the ornaments one evening and the next would coat the insides.  There are several different techniques to inject the paint inside the ornament.  If you are using the small bottles of Tole paint, you can just squirt the paint from the bottle.  You can also use small plastic bottles for cake decorating or carefully pour the paint inside with a paper cone.  You don’t need much for a 65mm glass globe.  I would give a ‘good squirt’ and fill the bottom maybe 0.50 inch.  I would start tilting and rotating the globe slowly moving the top of the ornament to the bottom.

As the paint completely covers the inside of the ornament, turn the ornament upside to drain into the disposable cups.  Allow to drain overnight.  When drained, I keep the cups for the next batch, replace the ornament caps and take a soft lint free cloth moistened with either the alcohol or vinegar and wipe down the outside of the ornaments removing fingerprints.  Depending on the weight of the paint, you may want to glue the cap onto the ornaments, I traditionally use E-6000 or 572 epoxy. 

I have also used spray paint to coat the inside of glass globes.  I would suggest doing this outside, wearing disposable gloves.  Align the nozzle tip and place next to the ornament opening.  Depress nozzle and let the paint spray into the ornament.  Shake the ornament and rotate until the insides are evenly coated.  Again turn upside to drain.

Another embellishment to the common globe would be what I call “Ball Gowns”.  I have collected several books on tatting, crocheting, bead-working and macraméing coverings for globes.  It seems every few months, a new book of designs comes out, or a new design is featured in magazines.  Here is one of mine I did in the late 1980s.

 



















The Summer of 2006, I attended a wholesale gem and jewelry show where I purchase several gross of simple costume jewelry necklaces.  I had no idea what I would do with them be the price was great.  On the 5 hours ride back, I knew I would end up turning them into ball gowns.

After attending the 2009 show, I came back with several pair of earrings which have ended up as focal components of more ball gowns.  Using plain curb chain, jump rings, and the earrings I constructed more ball gowns. 

 

In the beginning of 2012, one of my ornament exchange groups had a theme of “Recycled”.  The ornament I made were from recycled parts from where I work.  I used tube caps to strengthen the neck of the large globes and add more area for epoxy to glue the small globe.  To hide the connection point, I used scrap fibreglass and flannel to make a scarf.

More ornaments

Here are images of some other ornaments I have done over the years.  The pearl twist was done back in the late 1990s.  I made this one for an Ornament Exchange on MiningCompany.com (now moved to the Yahoo group: YearlyOrnamentExchange).  I have thought about making another set of these since they are fairly easy. 

I used an aluminum welding wire as the thread and threaded graduated pearls, starting with the largest 18mm pearls.  Thread both ends of wire through the hole and pull until most of the wire is through. Insert a pair of needle nose pliers into the loop and pull tight to form the loop.  Take one of the wire and bend at a 90 degree angle to form the hanger.  On the other wire, thread the remaining pearls in sets of three until you thread 3 - 4mm.  Bend the wire into an arc, and using wire flush cutters, cut leaving about 3/8 of an inch.  Using loop pliers (or needle nose), create another loop to hold the pearls secure as well as a place to secure a pearl teardrop.  Attach a pearl teardrop at other loop.  To Create Hanger: Straighten curl from wire, then make a bend to off set the ornament.  Create another loop and some chain to suspend from tree.
 

Another ornament which I created for an ornament exchange is the “fuzzy chandelier”.  The theme for this exchange was “Fuzzy” and this is the ornament created back in 2009.  I decided to add some additional embellishments with swags of gold chain and beaded dangles.

The last ornaments are all out beaded.  Back in the late 1990s, I placed an order for some beading materials and the telephone operator asked if I would be interested in hearing about their specials, of course I said “Yes”.  One of the special were perforated disks, I bought a couple packages not knowing what I would do with them but figured I would think of something.  I ended up using them in these tassels.  Each perforated disk has 91 holes.  I used several different lengths of needles to make the fringe in ring the same length.  I would do the bottom disk with fringe and then bead the top disk with loops of beads.  After completing the two disk I would sew them together and then create the beaded hangers for them.  These could be made in a wide variety of color combinations.

The first tassel was made as a Christmas present for my adopted brother.  The beads were pre-WWI Czech with gold-line square holes with an Aurora Borealis (or AB) finish.  When finished the ornament looked like solid champagne.  

The gold and green tassel was the first ornament I ever sold.  The price was $75.  My mother saw the price tag I had on it and she told me no one would pay that much for a Christmas ornament.  I hadn’t even finished setting up my vending table and someone purchased it.  They didn’t bat an eye at the cost.

Ornaments without beads

I do not limit myself to beaded ornaments.  One of the first ornaments we did in art class was constructing an icosahedron, a solid made up of 20 equilateral triangles.  Using 1 inch circles we scored the triangle onto the circle, bent the flaps up and then filled the triangle with Christmas images.  Then we glued the 20 parts together to form the ornament. 
 


A couple years ago I did a cube with rhomboids instead of squares.  The Platonic solids are 3-D shapes made from same size equilateral triangles, squares, and equilateral pentagons.  There are only 5 solids which can be made using these geometric shapes.  When you start looking at using shapes such as rhomboids, isoceles triangles, and diamonds, the solids morph into additional shapes.  When you start mixing shapes you get an even more diverse set of 3 dimensional shapes, known as the Archimedean Solids, one of which is the shape of the soccer ball, made up of hexagons and pentagons.





It is nice to have friends who have industrial lasers.

Other ornaments which I have designed use acrylic plastic that is cut with an industrial laser and then joined together around a central axis to form 3 dimensional ornaments.  Sometimes it is fun to be ADD.  I have over 25 designs in this genre.  I use 2 discs which are cut with recessed areas to allow alignment and gluing.  The discs also have a small circle cut in their middle to allow for a headpin to act as a point of attachment for the chain.  (OK, I admit I use a bead in each side of the disk to help with the balance.)
 

Miniatures can go on the big tree too!

Back in 2009, I was working on a way that miniature ornaments could be displayed on full size trees without getting lost.  I had came up with using them as focal elements in the globes as well as using them as accents in larger ornaments, but was still not finished.  I came up with this ornament extender with 4 spokes.  Again the main bead colors are easily changed to match the miniature ornament’s colors and the miniature could be changed fairly easily if broken.

Then earlier this year I revisited a lot of my ornaments and added 2 additional spokes, so now I have both a 4-spoke and 6-spoke variant.  The findings I use have 12 holes but 6 are about as many as I can fit.  I have done the 3 spoke variant on some designs but the 4 and 6 I feel look the best.  The miniature is from a set I picked up several years ago which can help fill out a tree.  The overall dimensions of the extender is 3 inches tall and 1.75 inches wide, with the add-on and the miniature ornament the overall height goes to 4.5 to 5 inches in height.

Variations using many of the same materials

Using most of the same materials I have also created globes within which I will suspend a focal element, either a miniature ornament or a bead.  Like the previous chandelier ornaments, I can change the color of the beads on the arcs to either match the focal element or to help offset the element, thereby creating ornaments a wide range of colors using the same design.  For the focal elements, I will look at the miniature ornaments available each year and pick-up several packages of them.  I will also use teardrops, most of the time faux pearls because of their size.



I can create several different sizes of globes.  The larger being almost 6 inches across and 8 inches high, pretty large ornaments for most trees but fairly light compared to ornaments of the same size.

Assorted ornaments

As I mentioned in my introduction, I have been making ornaments since 1976, a couple times a week, I will be posting images of the ornaments I have created.  All designs are copyrighted by me and if you re-post, please give credit where credit is due.



This ornament is actually from a group of ornaments by chandeliers.  I have been doing variations of chandeliers for about 10 years.  Many times using the same basic design but turning it upside, adding or subtracting arms, or making some change which turn the ornament into something totally new.

This design has 6 arms and is suspended from the larger arcs.  Another ornament I have made is inverted and has 4 arms.

The red beads used on the arcs are easily changed to almost any color imagined.  I use Delicas for this part of the ornament, so as long as I keep using the pearls and metal beads as accents and focals, I can make the ornament in over 500 colors.

An Introduction

An introduction should be in order.  I started making Christmas ornaments in 1976 as part of art class my sophomore year.  For the following 3 years, the teacher continued to have the class make ornaments between Thanksgiving and Winter Holiday Break.  It stuck.  Christmas ornaments is my primary hobby but has expanded in both techniques and media.  Now I also work in Jewelry as well as expanded to work from miniature to large installations.  I have worked in fibre, wood, stained glass, acrylic plastic, glass, lapidary, and metal work, but seem to return to beadwork as the nexus for my creativity.  Once a week I will be posting images of work I have done, as well as new projects.  Last year I did 2 miniature trees:  Starting with 2-foot table top trees, I went through and added 130+ mini lights to the tree and then proceeded to make garland and ornaments scaled to the tree.  The largest ornament was 2.5 inches tall, the smallest being 6 mm.  When finished each tree had over 180 ornaments.  This year, I will be learning to make feather trees in the German tradition.  While making the feather trees, I will continue to make ornaments.