Divide and Concur

DECORATION UNDER THE BRANCH

Long and thin is The Numero Uno rule for hanging ornaments beneath the branch. Forget the broad heavy ornament here; Gravity Works! The closer to the tip the lighter the ornament needs to be. See the garland section for how to hang tinsel.

Cherub Cycles UNDER THE BRANCH The Cherub ornaments are long and narrow, a good choice for dangling under the branch. They add height. The metallic paints on the cycle add shimmer. This is one of the few times I've used a ceramic clay ornament and unfired paint. The long thin spindle gave wonderful vertical line to the short 5' tree I was working on.

Normally I use porcelain with fired on china paint. It is translucent, tough, lightweight, and can be as detailed as an oil painting. Most of my tree toppers are porcelain with some lights pushed inside. I also use the Jamar or Duncan hummingbirds under the ornamotion motors. (see the source page) As they turn it looks like they are really flying. Most people stopped and gazed at my cats chasing the hummers on the Peaceable Kingdom tree. These tiny motors clip into the mini light sockets. You have to be careful that the ornament is not catching on a side branch. No more than three or these can be plugged into a light string. The only plastic ornament I've used with ornamotion is a 6'' on point ballet dancer. It only took four to stop people in their tracks. As long as the center of balance is directly under the motor you have an illusion of dancing. If the center isn't 180° it just looks like a shiny blob turning around. Ornaments 7 tiers deep 1920's Ornaments Magnificent

Is this the tree you are dreaming of? Tall, shimmering, vintage ornaments, hand beaded ornaments, a Byron Victorian Village surrounding the tree skirt....Ah, this is Ivy's tree. She has been decorating it for 80 years. The large spindle ornaments were wedding presents in the 1920's. She has been collecting glass ornaments ever since. Not even the Polish/German hand blown glass tree in Modern Display has this kind of shimmer. She used to sell the large beaded ornaments, and the beaded icicles. Her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have added to the collection.

This is not a cone shape tree. Every branch is clearly visible. They have been outlined underneath by shimmering colored glass 7 ornaments deep. How much light reflection is dancing there? Well, the pictures were taken with existing light - no flash. You are seeing natural pm west sunlight filtered through voile curtains of a east window, and the mini lights. Ivy has replaced the tree a couple times. There are over 1000 lights with reflectors. They glow softly next to the countless regular mini lights. A thousand lights on a seven foot tree are enough display in themselves. Ivy prefers leaving the lights off; it is the ultimate test of a Christmas tree. Does it look magnificient without the lights on? These ornaments are dazzeling without the mini lights. It doesn't matter whether they are in natural sun, electric light, or a flashlight. Ivy has great skill in ornament making. (She crocheted a parachute for my candy bomber tree in less than 30 seconds.) Her tree never comes down. The family put a clear plastic tarp over it between holiday displays.

$3000 Shine No mere photograph can capture the shimmer of Ivy's tree. Modern Display has the only tree close to it. They have a well lit showroom. This picture was also taken in existing light. The shutter was closed just before the lights started to form a halo. See the source page for Modern Display's web address. This is the demo tree for the Polanaise and Christopher Radko ornaments. These companies are the best in the business. A single ornament starts at $30. It takes a week to complete just one. Modern Display hangs these ornaments below the branches. They are the only ornaments on this tree. See the 2004 gallery for the Epiphany Tree decorated in Radko and how to transport $10,000 of very fragile glass art.

Do you remember my tragic tale called - Yank, Crash! tinkle? When the Radko tree fell over, it was a crash heard around the world. Their family tree was almost 15' and was decorated with 3 generations of German hand blown ornaments. If this disaster had happened at the Festival of Trees, we would have had to call ambulances. A single dropped bulb causes a heart stopping gasp-freeze reaction across the concourse. January discount time is the best time for picking up hand blown ornaments. I've had great success retrieving a beautiful lone survivor from the holiday rush dropped cases.

OVER THE BRANCH
Cousin Steve is right; the big rocks should go in the jar first. Then you can deal with the gravel. Or at least you should throw them first. This is where the cub scout decorated tree really topples out of balance. They can't reach that high. Their favorites are all clustered on the bottom front of the tree. Bring ladders, or do a table top. Dividing the tree into sections keeps the big ornament teetering in balance. Divide the tree into quarters. I mean north, south, east, west quarters, not top, midsections, bottom.

Each quarter has equal portions of the top, midsections, and bottom. Every 1/4 has a large cluster on top, two clusters on the next row of branches, and three staggered on the bottom. That makes a dozen large clusters on the front, and a dozen on the back. It's easy to see where to tuck the smaller ornaments after these large clusters have been placed. If you're lucky enough to have size 20'' clusters, like the Valley Forge tree further down the page, you can cut the cluster number in half, and omit the small stuff entirely. When in doubt, stand back 15 feet and squint. Large dark green holes appear where a small ornament or two can be placed.

Beaded Morgan Classic Aluminum Quality Breyer horses with hand beaded harness makes a shimmering carousel ornament, as well as a good cluster. It only took four of them to do a tabletop carousel tree. Clusters can be omitted with single ornament trees. This chest piece and saddle blanket was loom beaded in a day. Compare to the shimmer of the aluminum tree. This is a decorate under the branch tree. It will not hold the weight of clusters, so the shimmer has to come from the branches themselves. The Forgotten Treasure Tree was a classic. Literally, the box was stamped ''As advertised in Look Magazine''. Everything on it reflects light. It even had a color changer in the box. This looked like a fan. As it turned the tree would reflect the color. A lot of people stopped in front of this tree and remarked, ''Do you remember?''

A doll, toy, or large display ornament, is never shorter than 12''. A six foot' tree holds about two dozen of these display clusters, or a dozen of the 20''. They are very quick to decorate with, and very expensive. It's better to control your own theme. Make your own clusters like the Breyer horse's harness above. 12'' silk poinsettias make brilliant red clusters. Pink ones have a dreamy look. A very popular tree had clusters made of country music cd's tied to red ribbons. CD Ornament

Hot glue a glass ball tight to its cap. Thread three balls together on a 22 gage florist wire. Green coated wire is invisible on natural green trees. Wire this cluster 2/3 way in on top of the branch. Wire a trio of pinecones, or something with a non reflecting surface behind the glass balls. Wire a bright ornament in front. Tweak a mini light or two up between the balls. Dangle long thin ornaments, icicles, motion ornaments, etc. above the cluster. 4 item Cluster

Cluster Size Cluster is more than 12'' plus size. It is also the light, medium, dark values. In nature an item gets smaller and mistier the further away it is. Placing a dark behind a light makes the light object look closer. This branch is already three dimensional. But an extra optical kick happens because the cluster has a small medium value in back. The large dark cluster is in the middle, and a medium/light is in front. A hanging light ornament above it completes the perspective. All the reflecting surfaces are in front and in the middle. The back is a more satin diffused light.

The back of the cluster is a great place to wire in the tall 20'' taper candles. Wrap a foot of 18 gage wire a couple times around the base. Twist it tight with a pair of pliers. Use the two loose ends to fix the candle to the branch. Poke it into position and twist the wires a couple times under the branch. Now you have a wobbly candle fixed on the tree. Affix the top to the branch above. Use a thin 22 gage wire about two inches down from the wick. Most of the time the second wire will be invisible. If it isn't you can always add a touch of lace over the wire. The taper will look like it is standing up straight on its own. The historical candle was the penny candle on a metal drip tray. It went on the tip of the branch, and was no longer than 4 inches. Even on the tip, the fire hazard was beyond belief. When decorating with the penny candle - be sure of your audience! There's always some holiday idiot who doesn't understand what is meant by Holiday Glow.

Be very careful about an artificial's weight limit. The heaviest items need to be wired closer to the trunk. Otherwise the branch will sag. Large heavy anything belongs away from branch tips.

It isn't necessary to clog a tree's arteries. The Valley Forge tree above is an example of less being more. There are over 800 colored lights on this 6' tree that aren't showing. I didn't want to overexpose the picture. Between the 14'' candle clusters, the Willie and Joe book, and the 10'' holy family, all I needed were a few grapes. Anything else I added seemed to overload the tree. Depth I wanted a Colonial Williamsburg look in blue buff and gold. This tree is actually a gut wrenching look at a front line Christmas. Up Front, a 1st edition, is open to the page where Mauldin drew Willie & Joe pawing through their rations to see if the supply people had left them a can of fruit. The shining metal bits in front of the candles are shrapnel diggers from a Korean War corpsman's medical kit. The folded paper fans are reproductions of the Western Unions my grandmother received between WWII and Viet Namn. I was going to make the tree skirt out of a barricade of K rations. But praise the Lord, these WWII packs have dissappeared. A Viet Namn marine could charge a buck a shot for tabasco when the K rations came out.

WHIPING THE BRANCH OUT ENTIRELY

Some trees are just Chi suckers though. The more you stick on, the emptier they look. Cone trees, where the branches have almost disappeared under the decorations, need to be single ornament trees. Or they turn into chi suckers. A visible branch has depth. But they need clusters. Otherwise they can look undecorated despite 70 pounds of decor. Marcella's Away tree was one. I had small stuffed animals on it, and pine cone picks, and etc. That tree ate up a 3 year supply of picks, lights, and icicles. And it still didn't look like there were enough ornaments on it!

Bright White Tree White Trees White out is a real Chi sucker. It takes a lot of ornaments to achieve white out. In nature, white out occurs on snowy, misty days. You can see the road for 10 feet, and nothing else. White ornaments, with white lights, on a white tree are visible from a great distance. But the ornaments disappear on closer inspection. If I hadn't put chandelier prism icicles on this tree it would have been a disaster. The camera did not pick up the rainbows chasing each other. The crowd loses interest with total white out. They amble on by. White ornaments on a dark green background grab the eye. Or darker ornaments on a white tree make them stand out.