The best way to...

[Bob Wingert]

Front yard tree, 12ft tall or so. I plan on wrapping with red and blue lights. 600 of each color. Do I tie 1 red and 1 blue strand together? Repeating this process for the remainder? I want the colors to blend in nicely when I do my fades


How do you 'experts' recommend I conquer this :cool:

[Cray Augsburg]

Pokrplr:

What kind of tree is it (evergreen vs. deciduous)? 600 lights of each color may or may not look OK on that tree. For the best fades, I like to zip tie the colors together. Then the fades occur in the same areas of the tree.

I have a 12-foot dogwood tree that I "wrap" with clear, red and green. I have zip tied 100-ct strings of the three colors together and run them up into the tree, following the branch structure of the tree, rather than "wrapping" or hanging the lights. Most people who see it like this effect, though it does take longer. In 2009, I used 900 lights of each color. This year, the plan is for 1200 lights of each color, and broken down to 50-ct strings (24 3-string bundles). This will allow the light strings to end at the end of the branches rather than have to be re-run down into the tree. To make it easier to place the lights, roll each bundle into a ball, then unroll them as you wrap them around the branches.

Hope this helps.

Cray

[Bob Wingert]

Thanks Cray! The tree is a Southern Magnolia. It may even be about 15ft. When I say wrap I wasn't in terms of wrapping it like you'd do arches. Maybe that came out wrong. I just plan on lighting it up but I want the fades to look uniform. Guessing I will tie them together so it keeps all of whats happening in the same area.

When you say 600 lights wouldn't look good, what are you meaning? Too many lights, not enough? Thanks

Bob

[Cray Augsburg]

Bob:

If I'm not mistaken, most of the main "branches" on a magnolia are nearly vertical. If this is true of yours, I say simply tie the strings together (whatever colors you choose), then start at the bottom and unroll the ball of lights literally wrapping them around just one vertical branch. Then do another roll on another vertical branch, etc.

Until I saw them on your tree, I can't really tell you how many lights would look good. And in the end all that matters is how YOU perceive them. All I am saying is, be aware that you may get them on there and then decide you need more. Allow for this possibility. While I am in general a "more or bigger is better" kind of guy, in situations like this, I am often a "less is more" kind of guy. When you are done, if the form of the tree is "visible" in the lights you have placed, it will probably be enough for the effect you want. If I had a 15-ft magnolia, I would probably determine how many branches appear ro be "major" branches of the tree structure, then make sure I wrapped/rolled all of those, leaving minor offshoots to be illuminated by the major branches. You don't have to put lights on every branch for the design element to recognizable.

You can get a rough idea of the technique I am describing from my video on vimeo.com:

http://vimeo.com/8472099

Hope this helps!

Cray

[Bob Wingert]

Good insight Cray! Thank you, again. Guess I'll learn all the tricks of you pro's out there, esp those with more exp than I. What I'm soo trying to avoid is the mistakes by 1st timers (like myself) ... I've got 1 shot @ this, then I have to wait another year, ugh! Want the 1st crack to be as good as I possible can get it.

My Mag tree has the larger branches, with these LED's that should def hide the illuminate the smaller one's that don't get wrapped.