Portable ice fishing structure

Anyone use portable fishing structure. A company called LaDredge (www.ladredge.com) makes SOS, "Structure on a String". It's about $13.00 a string. It has 40 ft of string wrapped around a cord keeper. It has about 36" of artificial weeds attached to the end of the strig that you drop down your fishing hole to attract fish. It also has an adjustable float so you can keep your string in a vertical position. They say to put 4 or 5 of them in a semi-circle and then drill a hole in the center to fish from. But to but 4 or 5 strings would be over $60. So I made my own. All materials bought at Wal-Mart for less than $15.00

1 - cord keeper - $0.96 (I bought 4)
1 - 9 ft string of christmas garland - $1.88 (I bought 2 strings)
1 - Large Wed & White bobber - 4 for $1.88 (I bought 1 pkg.)
1 - Egg sinker (given to me by someone)
1 - 40 ft length of camo trot line - $2.64/spool

I wrapped the string around the cord keeper (12 inces long) 20 times to get 40 ft. Unrapped and secured one end to the center of the cord keeper. Then I wrapped the string back onto the keeper, leaving 4 or 5 feet off to work on attaching the garland. I tied a loop knot on the end so I could attach a sinker to later because I didn't have one yet. I cut a 36" length of garland and attached it to the bottom of the string. The garland I bought is bendable wire. I just bent the end through the loop to secure it. I wove the string around the garland and made another loop knot near the top of where the garland ends. I bent the top end through the loop to secure it there. Then I twisted some of the wire branches around the string to secure it throughout the garland. You don't have to do all of them. I attached the egg sinker to the bottom and clipped the bobber float on about the garland. I wrapped teh rest of the string and garland on to the cord keeper and bent a branch around the keeper to keep it on. I made four structure strings. I plan on trying them out this weekend if it stays cold.
I saw the LaDredge strings in an article in the NAFC magazine.
If you have used these or know if someone has, let me know how they worked.

This type of portable structure originated in Sweden. I have a buddy from Sweden who tells me about his grandfather taking lids from five gallon buckets and stringing them along sections of rope. Plastic plant vines were attached to the edges of the lids. His grandfather would also cuts profiles of fish from thin plywood, hang them on a umberella, and have "schools" of decoy fish under the ice.