Sunday, January 4, 2015

Cluster Trees

For years, my friend kept telling me about these trees her mother made from ball ornaments and she kept saying she wanted to make one.  Finally, I said to her, just do it!  While out antique shopping, we were lucky enough to come across a vendor that had a huge box of ornaments for only $5.00 so she knew it was the right time to do it.
 
I just could not image what she was talking about and couldn't picture what she was going to do.  A few days after we got back from shopping, she sent me a photo of her ornament tree and I was immediately in love with it! 
 
This year, while at my house, we got out a box of ornaments I had and she made one for me!  I'm totally in love with it.  I made a tiny version from antique mercury glass balls and now need to find more to make her one.
 

 
One day, I came across a web site that had scanned Sears catalogs from way back when.  While going through a Wish Book from the early 60's, I found out these used to come in kits and are called Cluster Trees.
 
I never saw a kit before but recently, there were two on eBay, both by Shiny Brite! 
 
The first one sold for $40.00 plus shipping:

 
The second one is a BIN for $229.00!!!!!
 

 
Will be on the look out for these at the flea markets this year!!
 

Karen

2 comments:

VintageVendor said...

I love that you have the large one and the tiny one like that. I imagine you can make them any size you want.
That is so neat that you came across the box like that. Wish you luck in your travels that you find an original box/kit but at a decent price. That would be spectacular!

Julie said...

Very pretty trees! Wish I had more room to set things for display!!!!!