Easter Designs

A Crowning Achievement

Gene Holley Jr from Life Tabernacle Church in Wichita Falls, Texas brings us this circular crown of thorns sitting on top of their congregation.

They made their 9′ crown of thorns out of 32 pool noodles! They bought them for $1 each at a dollar store. They inserted wire through the open cavity in the middle of the noodles and they connected the noodles together with 4″ dowels and duct tape.

They used a heat gun to melt the noodles to look uneven like twigs would be. Then they painted it all brown. On top of the brown they used 3 different shades of brown spray paint to make them look like twigs.

They made the thorns out of brown kraft paper that they rolled into different sized spikes and taped with clear tape. Then they attached the thorns to the noodles with T-pins. They sprayed the larger end of each thorn with dark brown paint. Then they hung the crown with large fishing line and bent it some more in midair to look even more uneven.

Then they hung white muslin fabric to the wall and lit the wall panels. We also had red lights under the crown.

Rescued Thread Metal Times Four

25 responses to “A Crowning Achievement”

  1. T. Swinford says:

    Fantastic!

  2. Rebekah Davis says:

    What size muslin material did you use and where was it purchased. This all looks awesome!!

  3. Thanks so much! It’s 48″ muslin and 2 bolts were ordered online from Hancock Fabrics at a discounted price.

  4. Lee Wells says:

    Gene Holly is a creative genius. I am continually inspired by the things they are doing.

  5. Jeremy Cain says:

    The most fun part was taking it down. Days to build and connect to the speakers, and about 15 minutes to set up the Scaffolding and cut it down. The whole project was fun and beautiful.

  6. Jeremy Cain says:

    Also just noticed that this is choir practice. Notice I am the Bass player with the red sleeved baseball shirt on. lol

  7. Tina says:

    Quite incredible!

  8. Juston says:

    Was the crown itself made out of swim noodles? and if so, how were you able to keep it from coming out of shape? I would love to do this, all the help you can give would be awesome!!!

    • gholleyjr says:

      We put wire inside the noodles to hold the shape. It was a loose shape, but with the noodles intertwined, it stayed in place.

      • Dawn Bufford says:

        How did you stablized the crown? We ran wire in the noodles, but it still feels flimsy when you pick it up….can you please provide more info in how it was hung? Thanks – your work is awesome and so inspiring!

  9. Nibelma Fonseca says:

    I’m doing this for my church! I think is AWESOME! Thank You for the idea!

  10. Brandon says:

    Hi there…

    Regarding the noodles, what size did you guys purchase? What was there length & diameter?

  11. gholleyjr says:

    They were just standard pool noodles from Dollar General…. Approximately 4-5′ long and 2-3″ diameter. Sorry, I didn’t measure them at the time.

  12. Lesa Conner says:

    HELP!!!!
    I have the noodles. I am joining them with 4″ pieces of PVC pipe (cheaper than dowel rod). I need to know what kind of wire did you used. This will be hung from the ceiling at 4 points because of the design of the santuary. The center aisle has the long part of the cross then the center of the cross is sky lights with the top ending at the baptistry. Does anyone have suggestions? I need cheap and very light weight.

  13. Lesa Conner says:

    HELP!!!!
    I need to know what kind of wire did you used. This will be hung from the ceiling at 4 points because of the design of the santuary. The center aisle has the long part of the cross then the center of the cross is sky lights with the top ending at the baptistry. Does anyone have suggestions? I need cheap and very light weight.

  14. Gene Holley says:

    We used wire that is used to hang drop ceilings. It is pretty stiff.

  15. Candice says:

    Gearing up to make this for our church (Cornerstone Church) in Anchorage, ALASKA! Thank you for the wonderful idea…and instructions! Blessings

  16. David says:

    This is an incredible idea. We are doing it for our church in San Diego, CA. Whoever came up with this idea…. GENIUS!
    Thanks.

  17. Chris says:

    Loved this idea! Couldn’t believe that pool noodles could turn out looking so good.
    We did this for our church this year. Originally planned to hang up in center of the
    church ceiling, but found the structure to be too flimsy (even with the heavy duty wire
    inside the noodles. We ended up hanging it on the wall around the cross behind the
    main altar. Still the focus of main attention, and just as dramatic! People are still
    commenting on how amazing it is. No one believes us when we tell them what it’s
    made of. Should have taken some photos before the paint was applied! Thank you so
    much for posting this idea, and the instructions.

    • Chris says:

      We have been continually amazed at the reactions of people who have been coming to our church all during Lent just to see the Crown.
      We transformed our crown of thorns into a wreath of Dogwood blossoms for Easter.
      It continues to Bless and amaze everyone who sees it. Thank you again for sharing your idea with the instructions.

      • Jennifer says:

        Hi, would you share how you did the dogwood blossoms? That would be amazing! Thank you. :)

        • Chris (different chris) says:

          I’m not part of his team but I would guess that they took the craft paper thorns off and then just stuck the stems of the blossoms through the swim noodles. That would probably take a lot of blossoms but would look really cool. Maybe they used fake ones with the stiff plastic stems.

  18. Rebekah Myre says:

    This is so amazing!! You’ve put your God given talent to use majorly.

    Where could I buy the paper for the thorns?

    Blessings.

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