December is the glitter month. That's where it got to. Every tree in the Fantasy of Trees has some form of glitter on it. And making wreaths, I have created an environment where there is always glitter in the house. It never quite leaves.
Did glitter evolve from sequins? I wonder. There are glitter sequins. But generally sequins are used to decorate clothes and clothing accessories. Glitter is used in arts and crafts, as we know at Christmas. It is also used in cosmetics.
Sequins are plastic, and glitter is a combination of aluminium and polyester. Sequins started as metal coins attached to clothing displaying wealth and status, or to keep the item secured. That's way back. IThere were sequins in King Tut's tomb, sparking a clothing craze of sequins in the 1920s.
I don't see any sequin dresses in the list of most famous dresses of all time. There are lots of Hollywood movies with famous stars in sequinned dresses - all from the thirties and forties. Think Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, and the fast forward to the Supremes, Madonna, Lady Gaga and Beyonce.
Glitter can't possibly achieve what sequins have. There's no "attachment" to fabric so it is relegated to being attached to "stuff".
The European Union gradually eliminates glitter - banned due to microplastic pollution. Christmas in Europe might return to its traditional fruits, nuts, and berries displays. Here in North America, it is a "let's monitor to find out how bad it is" approach to microplastics. A bit of Oops. I guess we love our glitter trees.
Here's my photographic version of glitter - bokeh. I created this background at a botanic garden in Florida. Those chiny Camellia leaves give rise to these reflections.
Below that is the "Let the Blizzard Begin" tree at the Fantasy of Trees. It has real-look snow from Michael's - seems even better than glitter. Which showcases the ornaments and snowflakes, themselves made of plastics. Quite a few recycling oops in this tree.
Do you know about glitter? I read the New York Times article in December 2018 explaining what glitter is and I still am perplexed by it.
It is all over the floor of the Museum, the result of many trees of decorations. There will be more as the trees are taken down tomorrow and Wednesday. I quote the second paragraph of that entertaining NY Times article HERE to give you a sense of its presence in our lives today.
"Aluminum metalized polyethylene terephthalate settles over store windows like dazzling frost. It flashes like hot, molten gold across the nail plates of young women. It sparkles like pure precision-cut starlight on an ornament of a North American brown bear driving a car towing a camper van. Indeed, in Clement Clarke Moore’s seminal Christmas Eve poem, the eyes of Saint Nicholas himself are said to twinkle like aluminum metalized polyethylene terephthalate (I’m paraphrasing). In homes and malls and schools and synagogues and banks and hospitals and fire stations and hardware stores and breweries and car dealerships, and every kind of office — and outside those places, too — it shines. It glitters. It is glitter."
I hope you hop over and read about this strange and amazing substance that is now completely part of Christmas.
I found a joke to brighten up our Monday morning:
I saw on the news that a truck carrying almonds collided with another truck carrying glitter. Apparently the road was covered with with almonds and glitter. And I thought, "That's pretty nuts"
This 'field' of red Gerbera's makes a nice December picture.
