Build Your Own Brass Hanging Basket
The idea of the geometric plant hangers originated in Finland. Traditional decoration used to be made from wheat or rye straw. A “Himmeli” hung up at Christmas symbolized a piece of heaven and should bring good luck for the next grain harvest. Newly interpreted with brass tubes, the geometric shapes become an eye-catcher.
These plants are ideal
The hanging baskets can be adorned with feathers or decorated with plants. So-called air plants, the tillandsias, are best suited for this. This type of succulent does not need soil to survive. The roots only serve as a fastening – the plants absorb water through the leaves. It is therefore sufficient if they are sprayed from time to time.
You need this:
- Brass pipes, diameter 4 – 6 mm (4 mm for us) from alfer
- golden wire: thickness, 0.5 mm, alternative: floral wire
- Cord for hanging
- Ceiling hook
- Folding rule, pencil
- Iron saw and cutting box or pipe cutter
- Diagonal cutters or old scissors
Determine dimensions
If you are unsure about the shape and size, first assemble the mobile from straws or kebab skewers. It’s faster, cheaper and you can adjust the dimensions to your taste. You can then spray them in gold or a different color.
Cut pipes
For our double version (but they also look great individually!) You need tubes in the following lengths:Large: 4 long tubes of 30 cm and 8 short tubes of 15 cmSmall: 4 long tubes of 14 and 8 short tubes of 7 cmDraw the dimensions on the pipes and cut them to size.Tip: You can use a sawn tube as a measure. Then you don’t have to measure again and again.
Connect pipes
Now it gets tricky: thread the tubes onto the wire. Start with a long tube, then a short one and then a long one, creating a triangle. At the beginning, you leave about 2 cm of wire protruding to knot. Once you have threaded the wire through the three tubes, knot the two wire ends. Then you lead the long wire back through the last long tube. Next, thread a short and then a long tube, twist the top and lead back through the last long tube. Then thread a short and long tube again and repeat the step until there are no longer a long tube left. Finally, the last short tube is threaded and the wire twisted.
Thread on the lower part
For the lower part, two short tubes are then threaded on, shaped into a triangle and attached to the next corner. Repeat this step for each side until the shape is complete. Knot the wire again and hide it in a tube. Then you can make the smaller shape.Tip: Before handling a wire that is too long, you can twist several pieces together and hide the connection points in a pipe.
Hang forms
Now you can hang the two shapes together, connect them with a cord and put a loop on them. Finally, insert one or two air succulents or decorate with dried flowers or feathers and hang on the ceiling hook.
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Bga5130759 on Dec 28, 2020
Might try these
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Christine Sandow on Dec 29, 2020
I am thinking of making this to be a pendant light shade. If I can figure out how to attach a washer into the top triangles to make room for the cord, I have a pendant light kit from Ikea and will use a vintage bulb. What do you think? I love that you did this, thanks for the inspiration!
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
What's alfer?