Last year I did Christmas photos with a simple faux pine green garland with some red flowers and Christmas baubles glued on it. I also used tinsel and other Christmas props too.
These were nice horsey photos, but I wanted to do something a bit different.
So many photographers are creating these beautiful Christmas baubles wreaths for horse photoshoots.
I didn’t have much time, but I thought I would do it too. I did my research and couldn’t find a step by step guide on how to do it, so I’ve decided to document the way I did it.
1. Preparation, and things I used and you might need 🎄
94 large, 36 medium, 28 small baubles
Stripe that you can strung the baubles on
Duct tape - to make it easier to strung the baubles
Scissors ✂️
Super glue - hot glue gun (I used the gun)
LOTS OF TIME!
2. Measuring the length 📏
Depends on what type of horses you are going to photograph. If you already know you mostly photography ponies create a smaller one. 🐴
How to find out what length I need?
Measure the rug cut from a horse (regular size) and use the length.
The size I’ve created was 1.80m and to and with the stripe - that was quite long, good for large horses but could tie it up tight for smaller horses too (not ponies though)
3. Strung the baubles
Use a duct tape to make the end of the stipe a bit more smooth so it’s easy to strung the baubles
Cut the little gold hangers off from the baubles
One by one stung the large baubles
4. Fix it up
You want to lay it down in a way that it will be on a horse
Use the hot glue gun near the string and fix the baubles so they are not moving and fall off.
Recommendation (or what I would do differently):
I would glue the baubles not to the string but to the little gold plastic thing that has the hole as they tend to pop out.
I would use glue more on the inside side rather than at visible points.
🎉 TA-DA you are ready, it wasn’t that hard was it? It just takes a lot of time. (For me approximately 4-5 hours with everything)
After I used the wreath, I knew there are things I would have done differently.
Think about the bauble sizes, you can build up nicely the wreath starting with smaller and have the large ones in the middle. - I made a mistake not doing that.
I Had too much glue on the actual baubles that was visible on the photos - Try and glue where it is less visible
These are few of my photos, and how they turned out
Other ways of doing it?
I reached out to other equine photographers, and read a lot in facebook groups (equine photographers not just in Sydney but all over the world) and read a lot of different ways.
Baubles threaded on a wire ( I didn’t want to use wire for safety however if you are skilled enough it might be nicer and easier make the wreath prettier)
Glue the baubles on a hose - I love this idea as you can use a nicer lead or rope inside the hose. - I'll try this way next year :)
Oh and I recorded the process too, so if you prefer watching a video instead of reading, go ahead and check my YouTube video :)
Let me know if you tried it, how did it go? What are your lessons learned, what would you do differently? Or do you have any other ideas? Let me know I would love to know so I can make it better next year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 🎄
Mosman based Equine and Pet photographer taking photos in Hawkesbury area, The Hills districts and other Greater Sydney locations.
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