Tomato Cage to Angel’s Glow

Jewellmartin
by Jewellmartin
2 Materials
$10
3 Hours
Medium
I wanted to have a large lighted angel in the foyer this year. A tomato cage seemed the perfect framework. Let’s cut to the chase: here she is —
Copper wings and glowing lights
She has to be a female with all the sparkles and glowing within and a straw and light halo. Let’s start at her creation.
Modern art?
I put an older white king size flat sheet on the floor. Then I bent and twisted one of my tomato cages until I came up with this configuration, mostly to hold the head in one place.


I love Clips.
I started pulling the sheet up the armature, clipping the folds in place. When I ran out of clips, I used a clothes pin. The clips did not show through the finished angel. She was easy to move around when I wanted to continue in another room. A single sheet might have worked as well, but I liked the draping double folds.
My favorite sparkly sweater.
I decided my angel would have some glam, so I looked in my closet for something sparkly. This sweater is two sizes too small for me, but I’m not ready to give up on myself yet. So She gets to wear it this Christmas season.
An angel wearing hose?
Why not? A friend gave me many pairs of pantyhose that don’t fit me, but I decided the one Bone pair would make a nice covering for my angel’s head. The hose later came in handy to hold the head, the neckline and the halo in place.
Hose and a balloon.
Before the balloon and the pantyhose became a head, a little experimentation was needed. First I blew up and tied a balloon, then tried to put it in the pantyhose. No way, Jose! So then I put a balloon inside the waistband and blew it up, but the smaller balloon just didn’t look proportional. The next try, the balloon seemed too large, but it was the right size for the framework.
A body less head.
I left the waistband untied in case I had to pin or clip the head. I tied the legs in one knot behind the head, wrapped the legs around the neck to add bulk and to cover the tomato cage.
Copper wings
I bought a small roll of chicken wire, also known as craft mesh or floral mesh, from the arts and crafts department at Walmart. For $3.97, I got about ten feet of folded double and rolled up copper wire. I think I could have gotten a couple more feet of the wire in the usual gray color, but I fell in love with the warmth of the copper. I spread out the wire (still double folded) and flattened it from the roll. The ends had wires sticking out, so I bent every wire on both ends back on themselves so they wouldn’t scratch anyone. Then I scrunched the center to form two wings. I threaded the chicken wire on that crazy-bent armature, and used the rest of the pantyhose legs to tie the wire straight. (It slipped a little in the photos, I noticed.)
A messy halo.
I found these great LED battery-powered lights from Wish.com for no more than $3 last year. Little straw balls make the holders for the lights. It took 3 AA batteries in the pack, but there were enough lights to make a halo from an earthly source, plus enough to drape the length of the angel from inside. And if you ever saw her, you would even say She glows.
No, she is not being hanged.
This is a look at the rough back side of the angel. You can see the pantyhose tied around the wings and the back of the lights. None of this showed from the front, once I pushed the angel right up to the Christmas Tree. And btw, hubby has to put the tree up and decorate it now. He liked it so well with just the lights, he left it that way. Suits me.
Gold and black scarf.
One more little touch, partly to hide the neck, is this sparkly gold and black scarf I’ve had for 20 years. Older than that is the Santa made by my mother-in-law about 25 years ago.
She glows in beauty, like the night.
I kind of like this creamy view. In the daylight the halo looks pretty spiky, but at night they glow and blend in the foyer. It actually took me a month to make this, but I made few changes from my original plan. Most people can do this in two hours, once you have the materials together.
The naked truth.
I had no idea she had a bustline. That is formed by the second rung of the tomato cage. And it’s hard to photograph sparkles, too, but they really look good as the light changes. I enjoyed using parts that can be used again. The tomato cage, chicken wire, sheet, scarf, pantyhose, lights and clips can all be used when we undecorate. Even the balloon will be a toy for my elementary-school granddaughters. So I will recycle the recycled. Have fun with your own creations! 😇
Resources for this project:
Copper chicken wire, tomato cage
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