Silver Bells Parade Float Build : Week 1
Pictured above: “Very Vintage Holidays” parade float design concept art.
We are building a parade float for the very first time! It’s for the annual Silver Bells in the City parade in Lansing, MI on November 22nd. We have 6 weeks total to figure out everything from how to build the decorations to finding a generator that will power over 5,000 lights! I will do my best to document our build process on my blog. Our concept is “Very Vintage Holidays.” Our float will be inspired by vintage holiday decorations, so the color theme will be pink and teal vs red and green. This theme is perfect for both my and Tod’s art. Tod (owner and creator of Lovely Junk) loves turning junk into art. Our project will allow us to repurpose donated items from the local community into a beautiful (hopefully) parade float!
Week 1 of our project consisted of acquiring donated items from people and also cash donations to help fund our build. So far, I feel hashtag blessed for all of the support from the community! We have received donations of cash, tomato cages, paint, chicken wire, foam, exercise balls, newspaper, disco balls, vintage Christmas décor, wood, and other building materials
We also have an awesome sponsor, The Okemos Coffee Shop, who is helping us with funding as well as a giant garage to work in! Okemos Coffee Shop also has a deadline to open soon! Owner, Angela Risk, is repurposing a charming old building into a new coffee shop in Okemos. We are hoping it’s done in time for Silver Bells! Not only is Angela hooking us up, but she also has amazing parents-in-law who are letting us use their trailer to build the float on! (Fun fact, I also painted a mural on their garage door!)
This week we are also starting the beginning stages of blocking out our design to size with cardboard, and also organizing volunteer efforts to help with paper mache and priming things to be painted. We have raised $450 so far (which is honestly more than I even thought we could)! Our goal is $1,000. We didn’t get any LED light donations, so it will probably be our biggest expense. The parade organizers want every float to use at least 5,000 lights!
Lights alone will probably run around $375 (and that’s even skimping on some of the fancy ones we wanted). Then another large expense is renting a quiet, safe generator. Third largest expense will probably be to find some sort of batting or fabric to cover the float with fake snow (It will be around 200 sq ft). We still have some other decorative things to buy like tinsel fringe and colored cellophane, but that’s not as costly. So donating any of these items or $$ would definitely help!
(If you are looking to donate, please send money to @artofadrienne on Venmo or Cash App. You can also send money to ag@artofadrienne.com on PayPal. Write “float donation” so we know what it’s for!).
Check back weekly for updates on our progress!