Easter Designs

Winding Thorns

Mrs. Lynn Colvin from Christian Fellowship Church in Harlingen, Texas brings us this super clean look for Easter. (originally posted July 2015)

This Easter stage design was inspired by an earlier post, Surrounded By Thorns. For their Easter set decor they wanted to celebrate “life from death” by evolving the thorns into flowers.

They began by building a box on which to mount the cross and then cutting holes in the box the same diameter as the noodles. They used those holes to anchor the noodles and then began winding them up the cross.

All the pool noodles were spray painted dark brown before they were wound into the design to simplify the painting process later.

They used the technique described in the earlier post for shaping the pool noodles into the vines. Thorns were shaped from the pool noodles using a serrated knife and heat gun. Once they had the main vines going up the cross they filled out the bottom with smaller diameter pool noodles. Foam insulation wrap (available at building supply stores) was used for the smallest vines.

Several long screws were used to anchor the vines up the cross and to anchor vines to the box at the base. The bottom edges of the thorns were cut on a curve so that they fit flush against the vines. They were applied with a regular glue gun.

The flowers were made from white craft foam sheets (available at Michaels). They used the larger rolls of the craft foam (also at Michaels) for the three largest flowers. They were shaped with a heat gun and then painted.

The expenses on this project were fairly low for the impact. They already had the cross itself in storage so most of the money was spent on pool noodles (maybe 20-30), spray paint, minimal lumber for the box and hardware. The major expenditure was time.

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25 responses to “Winding Thorns”

  1. Dee says:

    What kind of fabric did you use??

    • Lynn Colvin says:

      The wider fabric is a spandex jersey knit found online and the transparent thinner ones are two different colors of tuille. A white and a gold.

  2. Lisa says:

    This is really beautiful

  3. jacki ausman says:

    This is a excellent job, very beautiful.

  4. teresa says:

    I would like to make this for our church, could you email so I could ask you questions as I go? Thank you, Teresa

    • Lynn Colvin says:

      Please feel free to email me directly if you still want any tips regarding the Winding Thorns stage decor

      • Faith Reid says:

        l love your design. Please let me know how you made thorn.

        • Lynn Colvin says:

          The thorns were made by cutting desired lengths of pool noodles (in the corresponding diameter to where you want to attached them) then shaping them by cutting into a round point then using the heat gun to smooth edges. The base of the thorn is cut on a curve to fit snug against the vine noodle. I used hot glue gun to attach them

      • Dwyla Edwards says:

        Good day,
        This is beautiful !

        I would love to do this project for our church this Easter and was wondering if you can email me step by step instructions.

    • Lynn Colvin says:

      I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner! I don’t check this site often enough ;)
      Please feel free to email me directly at lynncolvin2003@yahoo.com with any questions!

  5. Pete says:

    Hi please do drop me an email as how you built the thorns
    I want to do this for my church for the easter weekend.
    My email address is: dicamedia@hotmail.com

  6. Kristina says:

    Please email me some tips! This is simply stunning!!

    Thank you!

  7. Cathy Farris says:

    My husband Steve and I made a replica of this design for our Easter 2016. This design is so powerful and was a wonderful message in and out of itself. Thank you for sharing and allowing us to glorify God too!

  8. Susan says:

    I would love to make one for a tabletop centerpiece . What recommendations do you have for a smaller version. I think pool noodles would be too large.

  9. Lori says:

    please see my email to you with several questions. Thanks!

  10. Anna Shchegoleva says:

    I would like to make this for our church, could you tell me what material you use for Flower decor? And do you have pictures step by step how to build..Thank you

  11. Michele says:

    What did you cover the pool noodles with to get them to look so real this is just Beautiful want to create this for our church for easter thank you for shareing

  12. Gislaine says:

    será que vces poderiam me enviar a imagem deste palco por inteiro e como organizaram passo a passo este projeto tão lindo!!

  13. Karen says:

    How did you construct the cross and base to support

  14. Cindy Tompkins says:

    I adapted this idea to fit the baptistry at ur church by using a water hose.

  15. Miriam says:

    Oi gostaria de saber como foi feito qual tipo de material usado.

  16. Amie Rose says:

    How tall was your cross?

  17. Luciana Taylor says:

    Lindo.. parabéns.. vou preparar para minha igreja nesta Páscoa.. se puder me manda a lista de materiais..
    luciana_taylor@hotmail.com

    Grata

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