These metal spheres are typically found in gardens, but today I’m showcasing how I turned it into a glowing Christmas orb hung from our pergola.
Chloë and I hit the Lucan craft show a couple of weeks ago – a yearly tradition we have – and, per usual, we were amazed at all the crafts and DIYs from all of those creative minds.
One such brilliant brain was C&D Steel Works – who make beautiful metal objects for your home and garden.
I’ve always admired garden spheres – the ones that sit in your flower beds and add a bit of structure and whimsy – but I wouldn’t have picked one up if he hadn’t given me a peek of what he’d done to the one at his own home.
As soon as I saw his hanging Christmas orb, I had to have one myself.
The metalwork was done by C&D Steel Works, but my DIY came in with the rest of the project:
I built a small tray from scrap wood I had laying in the garage.
Nothing fancy; a few cuts, some wood glue and finishing nails and then a few holes in the bottom for drainage.
If I were to re-do this project, I would drill holes in the sides of the box as well to tuck evergreen stems into – but c’est la vie.
This is going to be the base that holds the greenery and a candle inside the metal sphere.
I attached it to the bottom of the Christmas orb by using some copper strapping and ½” screws. This is a view of the underside so don’t worry, you won’t see any of this when it’s done.
I purchased 6′ feet of chain and a link connector from my local home improvement store and strung it through the top of my Christmas orb.
Next up was adding the greenery to give my sphere that Holiday look. I went with faux branches from Michael’s, but you could easily get cuttings from your garden to insert – keep in mind though, with fluctuating temperatures, you may have to spritz your greens with water so they don’t wilt.
I bent the stems of the branches and tucked the ends through the drainage holes to make sure that they won’t come lose or blow away with a winter storm. This is where a couple of holes through the sides of the tray section would have been nice – to tuck extra branches and give it more of a ‘droopy’ look.
I tried drilling up through the bottom of the wood tray with a 3″ screw into a tall wax candle, but it wouldn’t grip. Instead I ended up using Gorilla contact cement to glue the base of the candle right to the branches.
I wanted my Christmas orb to glow at night so I went online and purchased some solar twinkle lights to wrap around the sphere. I won’t put a link because the ones I bought were terrible. One strand wouldn’t light and the second strand only holds enough charge to stay lit about 2 hours past dusk. UGH!
If you do find a solar light strand that works well, you’ll want to wrap it loosely around the sphere with the solar panel at the top – or exposed to where it will get the most light.
I held the lights and the solar panel in place with a bit of floral wire.
Okay, so it’s not spectacular from this vantage point, but check this out:
and at dusk:
It’s SO GORGEOUS!
Soft and romantic and oh-so-Christmasy!
As if by magic, we woke to snow this morning – not a ton, but just enough to give my Christmas orb a beautiful white blanket.
I really am going to have to re-string those twinkle lights with something better, but for now (and because I don’t want to freeze my fingers off) I’m going to enjoy it as-is.
Actually, I may add a small bit of bird seed someplace – this thing would really be off-the-charts if I could capture a photo of a cardinal in it!
This is not a sponsored post, but click over to C&D Steel Works to see how they decorated the Christmas orbs at their home (in an urn and a hanging version). Tell them I sent ya’!
(Oh and Don, if you see this, I will be harassing you for those welding lessons!)
Have a great one!
That is pretty.