Custom Decorations

I like to suprise guests with something absolutely out of the ordinary. At one non-FPA party I threw, I decided that all the trees in the garden would be full of light and noise - christmas lights, lanterns, windchimes, even a few bird cages with fake motion-sensor birds in that chirp realisticaly. The important thing is to keep your guests on their toes, to remind them that they're not in real life anymore, they're in your vision of fantasy.

The most important material I use is two-inch wire fencing, available from most feed-and-livestock stores, and baling wire, for lashing. For smaller pieces, chicken wire works just as well. It cuts easily with a standard pair of pliers. You simply decide WHAT you're building - a giant thistle, a lighted gear-shaped archway, or what have you - and what you're going to use as your covering material.

When building the giant thistle, I created an X shaped base. I started by making a square box with the wire fencing, about three foot high. Using my knee, I bent in each side, leaving the corners as they were. Then I clipped down the center of each side, so that the fencewire would curve over, creating a lid to the box, fastening the fencing to itself with baling wire. I placed another, narrower box of wire on top of that, as a stem, also about three feet in height. This was my frame.

I then covered the entire expanse in greenery, of which - living in Washington State - I had a plentiful supply. The base was in fir, just threaded through the wire, and the stem was in huckleberry and salal. Sword ferns shoved into a pine-cone-encrusted styrofoam ball made the head of the thistle, and a dead Dracena spray-painted purple made the fluffy top bit. And there you are. ed. note: unfortunately, most of the photographs of the FHHCBIV were lost due to camera sadness, so this is the only remaining image of the glorious thistle.

The only real limitation with working with wire fencing is what you can envision, and what materials you have lying around. Have fun, kids, and get to work!