ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS TREE BY MIHAELA DANCS

alternative christmas tree by mihaela dancs is a magical tree!

the alternative christmas tree project hopes to convince everybody that cutting a healthy tree only to throw it after two weeks is neither kind or cool. please make your own trees! have fun recycling, upcycling, improvising. there are no limits to what you can do. if you have kids, even better! they will cherish the memory of making a “tree” with their family, each year different and better. we will show you how easy it is to make a “tree” and i can’t wait to see what you come up with. enjoy your holidays!

i’ve known mihaela since we were going to neighboring highschools. ever since, she became a dentist. but 10 years ago she gave that up to become a contemporary dancer. and a few days ago, the national center of dance in bucharest awarded her the excellency prize for 2014!

last, but certainly not least, she likes to surf or snowboard whenever and wherever possible.

read the recipe for her disco tree:

“tree” from what i have lying around my place: cds, twine.

arrange the cds on the floor, in the shape of a triangle, like fish scales.

at the beginning weave them with one single piece of twine which goes through all the cds. you start with one of the sides and you work through all the way to the opposed corner. then, you weave however you want to, with several pieces of twine, in all the directions possible. you always keep the lines: from left to right, from right to left, from up down, from down up, the twine must always end in one of the three corners. there, you make a knot.

you lift the structure off the floor. the gravity will destabilize its shape. you tie the knotted twine/corners of the triangle to a door handle, a table leg, a plug, an external pipe, etc. you fix the structure, or not, in case the shape was affected. attach the trunk – a line of cds juxtaposed and tied to one another with twine.

recommended to whoever has spare time and doesn’t get bored to execute repetitive movements.

conclusion: after a few hours of work, i feel like organizing a “tree” out of everything i see around me: fruit, hats, cutlery, sneakers, jars of spice, boxes of tea, buttons, clothes tree, plastic bottles, coins, lamps, snowboards, saucepans, books, clothes hung out to dry and so on.