Every garden needs a little bling … even in winter. Some of the garden danglers have been collecting snow from the recent snowfall and look so pretty.
I made these danglers a few years ago out of copper wire and marbles. Over the years the patina on the copper has changed.
The recent snowfall has given the marbles little white top hats.
These long danglers look great hanging on trees, shrubs or even hanging from the eaves trough. I bought about 2 meters of copper wiring from the hardware store, stripped off the outer layer and had 7 lengths of copper wire inside. After unwinding the wiring I had 7 pieces of copper wire about 2.5 meters each in length.
You need to start at the bottom and coil the wire around the first marble, which will keep it in place. I then coiled the wire around a small piece of pipe to get the coils between the first and second marble. When I had attached the five marbles I made a hook at the top to fasten over a tree branch. This makes a great decoration to hang on a tree, from the edge of a pergola, or on the edge of an umbrella.
When I checked back in the photo archives I discovered I had made these in 2003 and the quality of photos taken back then was not as good as it is now. But it does show the brightness of the copper wire.
Others danglers I made from fishing line, flat gems, spacer beads, interesting buttons, or pieces from old jewelry and small mirrors. Decide how long you want the dangler to be and cut a piece of fishing line that length. Be sure to include extra for the top loop. If you have an interesting item for the end, fasten that on first. In one of mine I use a piece of quartz rock wrapped in wire. The 2 flat gems are glued back to back over the fishing line. First add the glue to one side of the gem, place the fishing line through the glue and place the other gem on top and press still stuck together.
Do you leave any garden decorations outside for winter interest?
