| Last year
before Halloween, I found this little black tree, and figured i could use
it for something. Sure enough, i started putting butterflies in it,
and it became my butterfly tree. I found all kinds of butterflies -
the kind you wear in your hair, the kind i got in the silk flower shop,
even a little butterfly wand. I put the tree in a little base that I
made from a piece of 4" pvc pipe, put a wooden bottom on it, and
covered the whole thing with contact paper that has a black marble pattern
on it. Then i filled it with rocks, and found a square marble base
to put it on. Now, every time i come across a butterfly that seems
to fit, i place it on the tree
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| At about
the same time i made the small butterfly tree, we had a pretty big
hurricane here in new jersey. there's an ash tree in front of my
ex's house, and a huge branch came off during the storm. I looked at
it, and thought it would make a nice tree for my apartment. I made
the base out of a wood frame, and fiberglass, and screwed the tree in from
the bottom, along with wooden supports on top. Every season, i
decorate it accordingly. In this pic, it's just in its
"regular" mode - no holiday decorations. But it has lots
of butterflies on it that were too big to put on the smaller tree, four
sets of wind chimes, an incense burner, a few moons, stars, and suns, and
assorted other knick knacks that i come across every now and again.
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| Here's
the tree decorated for Samhain. I also do up my front window.
Lots of bats, ghosts, witches, pumpkins, and other paraphernalia. I
like the secular celebration of Halloween too. The bats and witch i originally made from ¼" plywood, cut the shape, sanded it down, and painted them black. I found a piece of abs plastic, which eliminates the whole painting process cause it's already black, so i made a few more bats and another witch. the ghosts were really easy. just a 12" square piece of fabric, wrapped it around a bunched up piece of scrap fabric, and tied it off . |
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Here's the tree decorated for Yule. Actually, this was taken just before Yule of '99, so there are less decorations on it than what was there this past year. But Yule came and went so fast, that I didn't get the chance to take a more recent pic. I think you get the idea though...
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And here's the tree decorated for Ostara. Mostly, I just added as many of those colored plastic eggs I could afford. I just drilled a small hole in the top of the egg, and bent a paper clip so that I could hang them. All of the butterflies I have in the tree on a permanent basis add to the spring-like theme. Frankly, I'm happy that winter is finally over, and the weather is getting warmer. The cold goes right through me, and I'm much more comfortable in warmer climates.
As an added note, I took the large tree down in the spring of 2004. While I liked it, the large mass there at the entrance to my apartment began to interfere with the energy flow through the place. The tree was tired as well, and wanted to be laid to rest. How could I argue with that? |
