This one's an oldie, but a goodie tedious and painful project: sequin balls. Every Christmas tree needs a little bling, right?
Imagine newly-graduated, twenty-something me sitting in my first apartment at Christmas-time with my sad little fake tree. "What this tree needs is some SEQUINS!" I thought. "Lots and lots of SEQUINS!"
I had seen a photo in a magazine of sequin ball ornaments, so I went to the craft store, bought a metric ton of sequins and set about blinging out my Christmas tree. "I will make hundreds of these sequin balls!" I thought. "I will cover my tree with ALL THE SEQUINS!"
Hours later and with blisters on all my fingertips, I had finished about half of one sequin ball. This project is time consuming. And painful. (Might I recommend a thimble?)
I only finished one sequin ball that year. A few years later (yes, that is how long it took my fingers to recover and for me to forget the pain of making the first one), I finally made a second one. They look great, but I've officially retired from the sequin-ball-making phase of my life.
Materials | styrofoam balls, sequins, sequin pins, twine or cord for hanging, glue
Equipment | scissors, finger protection, beer, masochistic tendencies
Optional | seed beads if you're really a glutton for punishment
Tips:
+ Are you actually still going to do this project? Did you read my introduction???
+ The styrofoam balls I used had a hole in them, and I used this to attach the hanging cord - which I glued in place and secured with a pin.
+ Work in rows as you pin, keeping in mind that the sequins will overlap like fish scales.
+ Keep going. Only 2,763 sequins to go!
+ Do your fingers hurt? I warned you!
+ Drink enough beer to dull the pain, but not enough so that you end up stabbing yourself with a pin.
+ If you're really crazy you can embellish each sequin with a seed bead. This will make an already time-consuming project take even longer since you have to thread a tiny bead AND a sequin onto each pin. I used seed beads for the first ball I made, and left these off to simplify the process for the second ball.
Happy pinning, you crazy mo-fos.
7 comments:
So this isn't actually related to this post, but I've been dying to ask so I'm posting here anyway :)
I've spotted a rhino block print in a number of photos from art markets. Any chance that will be available to order online? I adore it.
@sjlkehl - Thanks so much! I actually sold out of the rhinos at my last market, but I will probably print more after Christmas!
This hits a magical spot for me. Seriously. Totally modern and wonderful, but still so very vintage and traditional. Love it.
I made one of these a few years back... never again! lol!
@Michael - Agreed, they are the perfect combination of modern/traditional/sparkly and work for almost any Christmas tree. I just wish they didn't take so long to make!
@Kristi - I know, right? I've seen lots of pretty color combinations for the sequin balls lately...but never again!
So can you use biger sequins and beads??
So can you use biger sequins and beads??
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