PRO5OHHO 5 Posted December 12, 2020 Report Share Posted December 12, 2020 (edited) About 5 years ago I was watching some random Christmas light video and in the background I saw SOMETHING that looked like a glacier/iceberg. Not a realistic white snowy looking iceberg but an icy blue form and from that point on I developed a slight obsession with trying to make one. The video was no help, it was only in frame for about 3 seconds and was very far away. So I've been trying all kinds of weird stuff for the past few years, and they all looked like crap. This year I started looking for inspiration from church service backdrops and I saw something that I thought could work. They were crumpling up aluminum patio mesh and using it as a background, and it looked like rock, so I figured I could make it look like ice. I hand-bent 9-gauge galvanized wire into an outline that looked vaguely like a glacier. Then I crumpled up aluminum (brite) patio mesh and attached it to the outline by sewing it with 10 lb monofilament. Sewing it may have been a bit overkill but this seemed more secure and clean-lined than other methods I tried. I'm extremely happy with the results! They stand up pretty straight in the wind. I left about 6 inches of wire at the bottom of each frame to stick into the ground. That didn't work well enough so I ended up sticking the wire into fuel hose (as a spacer) and then both of them went into PVC pipe. That, along with a monofilament guy line on each keeps them standing straight. I had a lot of fun making these! I'm struggling with the lighting under the polyester batting snow right now. Made the mistake of going with blue and white LED twinkle net lights and it looks like a seizure disco with them turned on. I prefer to leave them off for now, going to try all white (non-"TWINKLE") net LEDs next year. For this year I'm going to try some downlighting on the snow with shepherd hooks and white spotlights. Went with net lights for a few reasons: a) wanted a uniform look to the lights b) this late into the season I was kind of limited to whatever Walmart had on the shelf AND c) I mounted some of the batting on Styrofoam so I could get some different elevations. Didn't want the Styrofoam covering my grass for weeks and killing it, so I wanted the Styrofoam parts to be easily removable. So those sections are independent from the rest and the net lights were the perfect size for that. Just trying to figure this all out as I go. At least I got the glaciers right! Edited December 12, 2020 by PRO5OHHO punctuation 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
penguins1 15 Posted December 12, 2020 Report Share Posted December 12, 2020 Those look really great. Nice job!! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Light in the Dark 17 Posted December 12, 2020 Report Share Posted December 12, 2020 Very cool. Looks great! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dchackert 39 Posted December 13, 2020 Report Share Posted December 13, 2020 They look great! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FatBiker 3 Posted December 14, 2020 Report Share Posted December 14, 2020 That looks pretty cool... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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