sometimes beauty can come from the simplest of materials. lena corwin’s brother-in-law noah sent over this beautiful christmas “tree” that his friend amaya taveras, the deputy art director of glamour magazine, made by hand. i was instantly smitten by the butterflies floating inside the branches and thought it would be a great last-minute idea for anyone (ahem, like me) who waited too long to get a christmas tree this year. amaya made her tree out of branches (you could spray-paint them any color you like), spray paint, butterflies (i’d try your good old neighborhood craft store or michaels for these) and cotton thai christmas balls with lights inside (does anyone know a good source for these?). i wasn’t familiar with thai christmas balls but i’m crazy about the beautiful thread surrounding them.
by day it’s a whimsical, wintery-blue wonderland and at night it glows from the corner (mounted in a paint can!) not unlike a traditional christmas tree. i think the idea is wonderful and hope it might be fun for anyone looking for some holiday craft fun. thanks again to noah for sharing amaya’s fantastic project! [stay tuned for a new guide at 11 and a new sneak peek at 1!]
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Yarn ball party lights? http://www.partylights.com/Upscale/Yarn-Balls or http://www.oogalights.com/Autumn-Yarn-Ball-Party-String-Lights.aspx – haven’t found her exact blues…
:) love it :)
In Dominican Republic we call the christmas branch tree a “charamico”… kind of a tradition here, buuuuuuuuuut they are not as cute as this one ;)~
(anda tutti amayibiris!!!! que artistaseeeee)
Amaya sent me some info on where she got her supplies:
“Hi Grace,
I bought the acetate butterflies at The Container store, they sell them in sheets like stickers in the paper wrapping paper section. I’m not sure where to get the lights, but maybe Chinatown, I always see them as decorations in all the booths at the Union Square Christmas market, so most likely you can find them there.”
Grace
Hello Grace, I think I found two resources for you:
This links to a Ebay page: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.chiangmai-shop.com/products/Pink_Ball_String_Lights/Pink_Ball_String_Lights_Thumbnail.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.chiangmai-shop.com/&h=150&w=200&sz=60&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=3v4QTj7-G8vqhM:&tbnh=78&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcotton%2Bball%2Bwith%2Blights%252BThailand%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3D0yc%26sa%3DG
and this one too: http://www.123thaigifts.com/product.detail.php?lang=en&id=967214
Hope that helps! I never knew about those, thanks for sharing!
Thanks Lauren, love those links!
You could DIY the yarn balls on top of some IKEA globe lights:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50126460
There is a booth at the Union Square Holiday market that has been there for years now that sells those yarn ball light things. Been thinking about trying to make them myself for some time now!
the link the the 123thai store is great…even better because it plays an electric keyboard version of alison krause’s “when you say nothing at all” :)
You can get those exact lights at Pearl River Mart in NYC.
Pretty tree! I also made a tree branch centerpiece for my holiday cookie decorating party this year. It is decorated with paper snowmen that we fashioned out of holiday catalogs we got in the mail (nothing like recycling and decorating all at the same time :) The snowmen and snowballs hung from the ceiling of our apt as well. You can see pics here (just ignore the boxes, we are moving) :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elanadweck/sets/72157603486134313/
BTW, you might be able to get those lantern lights at Pearl River in Soho. I think I have seen something similar there.
Happy Decorating!
I love the yarn balls. I’m going to use them instead of lights and balls on my regular tree.
Thanks !
Absolutely love the blues! I think it’d be a festive addition year round, especially going into spring.
Is there a web page about how to make this latterns, or forum, manual? Pleaseeee!
nice string lights
hi, it’s Really very nice .. i love string lights..
very pretty… i like them.
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