Blasted Birds

I liked my little craft stall. It was nicely laid out, easy to assemble and it had a few different levels to display everything at it's best. I was happy with it, it needed nothing more.

A shame then really that I made things that need to hang up. Therein lies the problem, things that are made to hang look their best when hanging oddly enough.

I needed a stand of some description.

Or three in an ideal world.

Well in truth, in this ideal world I speak of, I would really need a bigger table to accommodate the three new stands without me having to faff around with the rest of the display.

I don't ask for much in life really!

The obvious place to look seemed to be my usual haunts, the charity shops, but I came up empty handed, new shops turned up even less options.

I needed something big up top but with a small heavy base to prevent it toppling, but the only things I could find seemed to be the opposite with some spindly little effort up top and a base the size of a hub cap.

With no other option I was forced to make my own. You may remember I've mentioned in the past that wire just isn't my things, but this is what I came up with.


I had some 1mm galvanised steel at home which would easily have supported it's own weight (the taller of the two stands is a little over 2 feet tall) but wouldn't have managed with the birds and charms in place. A trip to the garden centre turned up 3mm and 5mm wire.

If you're ever thinking of making something like this for yourself, I beg you, I implore you, go for the 3mm. I used the 5mm. My hands have yet to forgive me. I have nine extremely fine little cuts on my hands and another six on my left wrist, I didn't find most of them until I was washing a few dishes later and they hurt like you wouldn't believe!!!

On another note when I made the first stand, I cut the wire to the right length, held them all together and bent the bottom ends out to create a little base for the weight in the jar at the bottom to hold onto, I then wrapped the six lengths of heavy wire with the 1mm I already had. Don't do this, leave 'em straight, leave 'em straight, leave 'em straight until you've finished wrapping them because that tiny little base at the bottom turns into the spinning wheel of angry death while you're wrapping it, hence the six cuts on my wrist.

I live and learn:)