History

The inspiration behind Festive Frames started in 2013. It was born from an observation of the difference between hugely expensive commercial lights and the rather basic domestic version. In its most basic form, a string of lights is simply that, a string of lights.

To make them come alive they needed to be added to a structure. We see this with our Christmas tree. The lights on our Christmas tree are just a bundle of lights but when added to the tree they are taken to whole different level. It was obvious that it wasn’t the lights that made the difference it was what the lights were attached to.

This was the difference between commercial and domestic festive lighting. Another distinct difference between commercial displays and domestic, apart from the obvious (cost) is that commercial displays are designed around the environment they are within. Domestic displays are for the most part just a conglomeration of what you have in the shed that gets dragged out year after year.

The next problem was storage space. It is all well and good having huge displays if you have a lot of storage space for the 11 months of the year that the displays are not in use. Even then if you have a 13ft Cinderella Carriage which wows your audience one year, you don’t get the same impact if you keep bringing the same thing out year after year. This was a key point. It manifests in our Garden displays. They become the same old display year after year simply because the items we are  displaying are all that we have got, and they cost a good deal to buy so we are determined to get the maximum use out them.

It meant we had three goals to achieve

1:  Create a framework that brings string lights to life
2:  Make it in a way that you can create very large sculptures yet able to store it under your bed.
3:  Have the ability to change the display every year if you wish.
 
So in 2013 we set about the task of finding a solution. Firstly we simply looked at our property and used some creativity to dress it in string lights. The image below from 2015 shows how we used the natural shape of the property to create a stunning design with draped curtains made only from string lights. However this was very intense on the lights and most of them barely lasted one season. Not to mention some hairy moments at the top of a long ladder! As stunning as they were they were simply not durable or sustainable.

However two other trials seen here taught us a lot. We learned that by grouping string lights together you could start to form a one dimensional image as seen with the Mouse character. The grouping of the colours formed sections that would define the overall design. However it needed more definition so the use of lineout lights to define the shape worked well. This is explained here. It is a technique we recommend for festive frames.

The next logical step was to create a 3D sculpture. This can be seen in this early Cinderellas carriage. Made from old tent poles plumbing pipes string and cluster lights. It was a super display but again as we were pushing the limits of the mateials we found that poles eventually broke as they were not made for the job in hand. None the less the seed was sewn and we continued to develop the ideas.

By 2016 we changed to an Arctic theme and this was when our first attempt at a Polar Bear was made.

It took the local area by storm and raised a lot of money for charity. We used Chicken wire, tent poles, plumbing pipe, hydraulic tubing, a million cable ties and so much more. It took a lot of effort and was certainly not something that was easy. Chicken wire is a nightmare to work with however again the seed was sewn.

Over the years that followed there were a lot of trials of different materials. Hours of design work to come up with connectors and poles that offered as much versitity as possible. Then testing, refining and so on.  We kept at it year after year until we finally achieved Festive Frames. We will continue to develop and refine it but this unique system is now at a stage to share it with the world.