Icicle spirals out of tp rolls!!!

saw this video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCHQmOJuhk8
and was inspired to make some icicle spiral ornaments from toilet paper rolls. However, I didn't like the thickness of the ornament she made and I wanted mine tapered. I was able to make 4 icicles out of 1 toilet paper roll. I didn't add the beads or bows that she did in her tutorial and I used paint. I think they turned out well.

Here are my first attempts:






As you can see, the shapes are irregular and they don't all curl well. Well when you are cutting open the toilet paper roll along the seam, there is an overlap area of about 1/4" to 1/2" that you need to cut off or that piece won't curl well (as you can see in the second from the left in both of the top 2 pictures). I also came up with a way to cut the icicles so they all look somewhat uniform in size. I also used a thin hole punch in the top of the ornament and strung metallic red cord in the holes to hang.

Here is what I came up with:






Hints:
1. Paint several layers. Don't try to coat the cardboard with one layer, it won't coat evenly. Paint a primer, gesso or base coat before painting your final color. Metallic or pearly topcoats look really good on these, but even those may take a few layers to get a good coat.
2. If using glitter, paint the glitter area a coordinating color first.
3. Try to use micro or ultra fine glitter. I don't think chunky glitter will look as good on these.
4. Reshape (curl) the icicles while the paint is not quite set. Basically when its dry to the touch but still really cool/cold, the icicle is more flexible during that time.

I might do a step by step tutorial if there is any interest.