In my sister's house, as I have often remarked, there are many lovely things. Even the soap in her bathroom seems always to be pristine and pretty, and as for the duck which floats in the bath,
I think it's probably won a design award.
When she told me she was going to make a decorative tree out of old hosepipe, I was a little nonplussed and somewhat inclined to laugh, but I knew really that in fact anything she turns her hand to making is inevitably successful. This tree was inaugurated for Christmas, when I believe it was hung with LED fairy lights, but it has been given a permanent place now.
It bears just one ornament at the moment, and at least I can take a little credit for that, though not much,
since the blue tit that swings from its branches is one of Chloë's (- from Slightly Triangle, go buy, go buy! She is unconscionably young to be making such clever and beautiful things, when she is older and more famous you won't get them so easily...), which I gave my sister for her last birthday.
A third nice thing often to be found there is her sparkly son-out-law, my nephew-out-law, the facilitator of tours of the Opera House and many other good things. His name is Robin, so he gets quite a lot of Batman jokes, including this one from my niece his other half, who bought it for him during our day at Camden Lock. He's a good sport.
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14 comments:
Dear Lucy and her Lovely Sister,
Instructions for the hosepipe tree are now needed in Australia!!!!!!!
Thankyou muchly.
i, too, want to know how to make one of those trees.
And i want to add that bird to my flock.
And what a terrific t-shirt.
That hosepipe tree would make a fabulous Southern bottle tree...
That's a rather excellent tree, I can't begin to imagine how one would make one from hosepipe, very impressive!
Lovely to see one of my decorations in situ too, and thank you so much for your kind words! :)
I love everything about this post. The tree, the bird, the t-shirt, the ducky and the blue soap. Artistry runs in the veins of your family.
- alison
You won me with the blue tit.
Thanks chaps.
HHB and Zephyr - the gist of it is, as I understand, that she stiffened the hosepipe with coat hanger wire and similar, then split it and spilt it again to form branches and twigs (and roots) then coated it with some kind of tape and plaster, or something that resembles a soakable gauze and plaster product called Modrock which I remember from primary school, and painted it. That last stage however I'm still somewhat hazy about; she's coming over next week so I will get more detailed instructions then and perhaps mail them to you! She saw something similar in a very expensive shop and immediately put her mind to how she could recreate one.
Marly - I didn't really know about bottle trees, so I googled - what a fantastic thing! It would need to be outside of course, so would probably have to be rather more rugged and weatherproof than this one, but I am now very drawn to catching those evil spirits in such an aesthetically satisfying way, and am sure I have suitable bits of cut branches around to set about making one. Blue bottles seem to be particularly suitable, so I fear I must drink plenty of the Muscadet that comes in such a vessel to furnish a number of then. What a bummer...
Chloe - I kind of had the tree in mind when I got her your blue tit; I imagined it might find a home there!
Alison - many of my family are rather designing people! I can only aspire to emulate them...
Cosmo (and Zephyr too) - check out Chloe's Etsy shop (link in the post where it says 'go buy'), and treat yourselves, they cost very little and she packs and sends them so carefully at very little extra cost. I don't suppose there are blue tits in Australia are there? And even US chickadees are perhaps not exactly the same. She will make other birds and other motifs on commission.
Love the tree, love the t-shirt, but I especially love the clock, which I can only partly see. You have a very artistic sister.
Yes, a house of treasures! Good call for Chloe, Lucy, and well deserved. You're right. One day she will be more famous and everything will be more expensive, so go buy now people. Support an artist and get something beautiful in return! A hosepipe tree with a flock of Chloe birds would be a fine thing!
Thankyou Lucy!
Time without a face ... the wall clock is nifty keen! Birds and imaginative trees and so much to gaze at with wonder. And totally unrelated, but Murray is in the final!! Hurrah!!
Recycling discarded objects particularly packaging isone of my preccoupations but requires considerable skill. Your sister does it brilliantly. I used when young to make mobiles with orange pips, bits of cardboard and strands of flower-wire. Altogether a an inspiring ppost.
what a wonderful tree, your sister is good at the creative recycling I see!
Hi.. Very nice post.. Can we exchange link?
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