Emma say: “This is a pajaki (pronounced pie-yunky) – a Polish paper chandelier. Traditionally they are hung in Polish houses during winter to represent colourful spider webs which are often seen as good luck. I’m not sure I’m up for a house full of spiders but as far as decorations go, these are perfect for Christmas, and much prettier than tinsel – I think I’ll keep it up all year. It’s actually very simple to make once you’ve cut out all the pieces. It doesn’t need to be perfect, so it’s easy to make an impact without being precise. The kids loved getting involved, threading the straws and scrunching the tissue paper into pom-poms.”
(Adult supervision required at all times)
Drinking straws – I used pink and green straws
Tissue paper – I used green, red and pink
Card or thick paper – I used yellow
A wooden hoop – I used the inner circle of an embroidery hoop, 20cm wide
Some string
An embroidery needle large enough to thread the string through
Bulldog clips or pegs to stop it unraveling
Scissors
1. Work out your pattern of alternating straws and paper circles. I wanted eight strings to come from the top of the hoop, plus and eight loops around the bottom. Where each strings meet the hoop, I added eight paper flowers to cover up any messy knots.
2. Cut all the straws and tissue paper circles that you will need. I laid mine out on the table to get an idea of how it would look. Each tissue paper circle is made up of five layers of tissue paper. I cut all five layers at once and the broke it up with a few circles of yellow card as well. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, just see what looks good with the colours you have. I also cut yellow stars out of card for the top to make it look extra-Christmassy.
3. Take eight pieces of string (around 45cm long) and tie them together in a knot. Pierce a hole in the yellow star with your scissors, then thread through the eight strings.
4. Thread the straws and paper circles onto each string using the needle to pierce through the paper. Make sure they are all exactly the same in length and add a bulldog clip at the bottom to keep it all together.
5. Now tie each string to the hoop and slide them around so that they are evenly placed around the whole hoop.
6. Now do the same with the eight loops that hang down from the hoop. Thread them up, tie them on and spread them around so they are evenly spaced.
7. To make the paper flowers, cut a large circle (of five tissue paper layers) and a smaller circle (of five layers) in contrasting colours. Then cut an even smaller circle out of card.
8. Layer the three circles and sew them together with the needle and string. I sewed mine in a simple cross shape like on a button. Keep the strings on the back quite long so you can use these to tie them onto the hoop.
9. Make cuts all around the tissue paper layers to create flower petals. Don’t cut the top card layer. You can fold it between your fingers to make it more 3D, this will help the flower puff up.
10. Rough up the paper petal by gently ruffling the tissue paper layers until they look like 3D flowers.
11. Tie each flower onto the hoop covering the knots from the other strings. Then trim all the strings.
12. You can repeat step nine with some of the tissue paper circles on the strings. Cut the edges into petals, and then ruffle them to make paper pom-poms.
That’s it! Find a nice place to hang it, ideally away from cats. My cat is fascinated by it so I’m pretty sure she’s plotting its downfall.
Alpine Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes with Ladyland
