Weaving a Simple Willow Ball
Willow Balls are really simple to make and are a lovely rustic ornament. They are perfect to use as a base for Christmas decorations but look equally pretty hung in the garden all year round. They are also super simple to make as demonstrated by my kids in this tutorial.
For this project, we used sticks from our weeping willow. They are really flexible and easy to use. Standard willow sticks work equally well, as do other species such a hazel and some vines. So have a play with what grows local to you.
We started by stripping off the majority of leaves from our twigs, which were about 3ft long and quite slim. We then wove our sticks into little wreaths. The circumference that your final ball will be is governed by the size of your wreaths, so bear that in mind. You can use the same method to make a traditional wreath to hang on your door.
Once you have 5 or 6 wreaths all the same size, you are ready to assemble your ball. Slip one wreath over the other to start building your ball shape. As we planned to hang ours, we did tie our circles together at the top point, to make this stage a little easier. Ours is only tied at that one point, but do whatever works for you
Once the rings were all in place, we used further lengths of willow to weave in and out of our ball to give it a nice shape, and the look that we wanted. We tucked the loose ends in behind other pieces of willow, and found that the tension of the sticks held everything together nicely.
We love the look of the willow balls. You can put little battery tea lights in them, using them as a base for a kissing ball at Christmas or line them with moss for a fairy to live in. We used this one as a homemade bird feeder. Willow is also fabulous for making wreaths check out our Simple Willow Wreath tutorial for instructions.
DIY Christmas Decorations
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Thanks Pat. They love making things and hopefully one day they'll pass on their knowledge to their kids :)
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Love this idea! I bet you could add moss, small twigs and other nesting materials inside the ball for the birds to grab.
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